'The Big Bang Theory' will move to new night on CBS during Thursday NFL games

News broke recently that CBS would air eight NFL games on Thursday nights beginning next season. Thursday night games are not new for the league, but they typically air on the NFL Network. This maneuver led fans of CBS' Thursday night lineup particularly the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory, to wonder about the fates of the shows.

According to Deadline, CBS CEO Les Moonves told analysts during a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings that "we're not going to wait until November" to launch Season 8 of The Big Bang Theory or the rest of the Thursday lineup. In fact, he feels the NFL deal would "tighten up our existing schedule." According to Deadline, Moonves' comments confirm that The Big Bang Theory would continue to air on Thursday nights but would move to a new night during the weeks that the NFL airs its games.

Moonves also downplayed the idea that the football games, which have an audience dominated by men, would make it difficult for the network to return to its original programming, which tend to be dominated by women, after the eight weeks of games end.

"There are still a lot of women who watch [football]," he said. "The male-female balance is not something we're in the slightest concerned about." 

The Big Bang Theory has been pulling in around 18 million viewers an episode, which is Friends territory, so it makes sense that CBS would not want to interrupt its schedule.

What do you think of all this? To what night do you think The Big Bang Theory will move? Let us know in the comments below.