NYPD ZZZzzzzzz...

I have been a fan of NYPD Blue for something like 13 years now.
For those of you who haven't seen it, it's quite simply the best cop drama ever made, just about eclipsing Channel 5's recent and brilliant addition The Shield thanks to a blend of great characters, the obligatory gritty storylines and genuinely devastating plot twists.
It was a flagship show for Channel Four when it first aired in the UK, but despite remaining popular and award laden in the States, audience figures over here waned resulting in Channel Four failing to broadcasting the show for something like two years then returning it to our screens with 3 year old episodes (we're two seasons behind America) at more and more ridiculous hours.
The latest season began in the stamina sapping 11.55pm timeslot and has been shunted around by rubbish like The Games until I finally snapped last night on noticing that this weeks episode would air at 12.40 am, ending five hours before I had to get up for work in the morning. That's pretty outrageous and no way to try and win back viewers to what has been a consistently excellent show. This series in particular has been the dogs.
When are British schedulers going to learn? The BBC have already ruined their chance to gain audience share with two of the biggest shows of all time, The Simpsons and Seinfeld, by sticking them on at ridiculous times and repeating the same few episodes over and over ad infinitum. I know that a lot of US TV is bought to cheaply fill schedules, but it seems to me as if there is no-one out there in TV land able to discern between the dross (Players anyone?) and the good stuff.
Why, for example, has the dull as ditchwater "Without A Trace" been given a 10pm timeslot on a Monday Night?
You'd think the shelves of awards NYPD Blue has won over the years and the record breaking audience figures Seinfeld got in the US would act as some sort of indicator, even for someone a bit thick. But Hey, what do I know? Lets all get back to watching Celebrity Dog Fuck or whatever other nonsense they're sticking on in primetime.