If the middle show is too weak, the audience could change the channel altogether even if they “would have stayed if the two popular programs had formed a block.”[2] Hammocking has been fairly reliable over the years.
It was largely discovered by accident in the late 1950s: Michael Dann is credited with developing the concept after December Bride, thought to be a major hit at the time, under-performed when it lost its lead-in, I Love Lucy.
[4] British network ITV used a hammocking strategy for its game show event series Red or Black?, under which each episode in its first season consisted of a pre-recorded segment and a live final round, with a second program (such as The X Factor) aired in between.
Many of the programs were critically derided for poor writing and acting and "floating by" on the ratings of other shows (The Single Guy and Union Square being the most prominent and higher-rated examples).
[13] The resulting dispute led to Leno being given back The Tonight Show's time slot, and the brand as well after an unhappy O'Brien left NBC in February to start his own series on TBS.
Recently, ABC attempted to hammock programming after Modern Family and a drama after (in this case, either Revenge, Designated Survivor, or A Million Little Things), to middling or little success.
Examples include Bull (a series featuring former NCIS regular Michael Weatherly) and FBI (which launched a Most Wanted spin-off as a hammock end to the Tuesday evening schedule at the start of 2020).