Emboldened by the response to Grimm, it seems NBC would like to capitalize on the relative success of the new fantasy series to the fullest extent possible. A couple of weeks after giving the series a full-season order, the network will be airing a brand new episode on Thursday, December 8 (in addition to the regular Friday episode) in what appears to be an attempt to attract an even bigger audience, one that is arguably not available on Friday evenings.
Grimm tells the story of Nick Buckhardt (David Giuntoli), a detective who discovers he is a Grimm, a class of people with the ability to see fairy tale creatures living among us for what they really are and entrusted with hunting "the bad ones" for generations.
It is only natural to suspect that the special airing of Grimm at 10 PM tomorrow is intended to test the waters and ultimately help NBC decide whether or not to move the show to Thursdays. Grimm premiered very decently against the World Series on October 28 with 6.56 million viewers and a 2.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic. After the expected drop following the premiere, the show seems to have stabilized for the last two episodes around 5 million viewers and a 1.6 adult rating, only edged by CSI:NY and not by much. That might explain why, after an initial order of two scripts, the network opted for a full-season order a few days later.
It should be said that the move would make sense given the current NBC primetime line-up on Thursdays. Prime Suspect is all but cancelled and if Grimm performed well in the 10 PM timeslot, the peacock network might become a serious contender for the Thursday primetime ratings.
