On Sunday nights, NBC experimented with airing its new comedy-variety program Chesterfield Sound-off Time (featuring Bob Hope, Fred Allen and Jerry Lester as rotating hosts) in an early evening timeslot, 7:00–7:30.
Previously, network TV variety programs had only been aired during late evening hours; NBC had experimented with a late-night show, Broadway Open House, with Lester as host the previous season, but that show was not considered a success (it was replaced by the more generic Mary Kay's Nightcap this season).
Red Skelton also made his network television debut on NBC's Sunday night schedule this season, but long-term success eluded him until after he moved to CBS in the fall of 1953.
[1] I Love Lucy was given what historians have called a "choice time slot": Monday night immediately following the number one program on television: Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts.
The series "proved the strength and acceptability of TV sitcoms, giving [CBS] a strong weapon against NBC's flashy comedy-variety hours".
[1] DuMont, too, avoided flashy comedy series when in February 1952, in desperation the network added Bishop Fulton Sheen's program, Life Is Worth Living, to its Tuesday night schedule.
[2] The ABC and CBS programs which aired in the same time slot, Charlie Wild, Private Detective, and The Frank Sinatra Show (respectively), attracted relatively few viewers.
Bob and Ray, broadcast earlier in the season as a 15-minute weeknight program, expanded to 30 minutes and ran from July to August at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.