Fact Trek: Was the 3rd season Friday night 10pm really the 'death slot'?

https://www.facttrek.com/blog/finger

What-If?
It’s impossible to know what actually would have happened had Star Trek gotten a Monday slot, but it’s difficult to imagine it gunning down Matt Dillon at 7:30, or surviving in that 8 p.m. “kamikaze” time slot against half of Gunsmoke and Lucy herself.

Had Star Trek performed poorly on Mondays it could have been canceled mid-season, as was U.N.C.L.E. before it, and there’d be only 71 episodes instead of 79. (A series typically got an initial order of 16 episodes, enough to get to the mid-season; U.N.C.L.E. was canned after 16 episodes of its fourth season.)

Perhaps, sans that last minute “Death Slot” schedule shift, Roddenberry would have had more involvement in even an abbreviated third season and we’d have eight fewer but 16 overall better third season episodes than the mixed bag we got.

Or maybe Trek would have surprised everyone and held its own and gone on to a 4th season.

It’s a what-if with no answers to be sure.

Speculation aside, all we can know is what’s apparent only with 20/20 hindsight: Star Trek had a longevity that Laugh-In didn’t. But that’s not to say NBC made the wrong choice…for NBC.

But that’s a story for another article; and you can bet your sweet bippy we’re already at work on it.