25 Episodes of Earl?
30 for The Office?
Whatever can it mean?
Weinman says this:
In the case of The Office this might enable NBC to sell the show to syndication a year earlier than usual -- 30 half-hours plus the 50 they've made already will be 80 episodes, which is short of the magic number of 100 but is sometimes enough to get syndicated. So NBC may get a double whammy: fewer reruns, and perhaps some syndication money to cover the cost of producing more episodes.
Hmmm. Imagine a world where they order MORE episodes?
9 comments:
Money has gotten so tight that they have to finally listen to the accountants re. economies of scale and cease operating so much on whimsy/ego. The endgame is dvd sales and rentals so why not get there, and to syndication, quicker, while the unit is up and running and before the actors' agents start blackmailing the show. Every other business operates that way and MBAs are spreading like a plague.
In Canada the CBC has very quick turn around in d, three weeks they say, and have abandoned short orders, "NO MORE SIX PACKS!", because... no wait, actually they said they would but ... oh well ...
They did the same for Heroes. They've ordered 30 episodes for next year. 6 of the eps will be stand alone shows, looking at the origin of new characters. These will be completely separate from the rest of the season arcs, but still in the same "Heroes" world.
Then, at the end of the 6th stand alone ep, viewers will be able vote for their favourite new character, who will become a permanent part of the show.
I haven't decided on the 'interactive' voting aspect, but you have to like having less repeats.
But on the flipside, ABC ordered 3 seasons of 16 from LOST. It's kind of all over the map to me.
Lex, I would be more surprised than I've ever been if they didn't produce that three seasons worth of material in two. two twenty-four ep production seasons that run off in three. New economies. New scale.
Callaghan, it's like back to the past. More eps. LIke the sixties. Crazy.
Frimin -- meds. now.
Crazy like a fox...
i wonder what this will mean for the writers, especially in shows with character/season arcs...
as a viewer, i'm all for it.
Dennis. I think you are probably right about the Lost production thing. they probably will keep the same sked so that by the time the last season rolls around they have little to nothing to do. Heck i wouldn't be shocked if the writers have enough of the last 48 outlined that they film it more 'movie' style, dealing with all of it at once so repeat players that are 'a bit here' and 'a bit here later' can come in one trip. there's got to be some money to trim off there.
and I am going to probably get flogged but I do NOT like this extra 6 idea for Heroes. I like the origins idea but the voting. American Idol rip off much. maybe on the website so something like this. but to spend 6 weeks of tv time. not liking it.
maybe it;s just me but i think heroes lost it's way about half way through the season when the narrative started to go backwards instead of forwards. i accepted that these characters were given these powers and some dude was trying to collect them and that they had a mission -- all pretty engaging and foward moving. when it started to go into FB -- how the dad got the daughter and the dreaded SHADOWY GOVERNMENT AGENCY equipped with BLACK SUV'S it got boring. I don't want to watch footnotes, which is what I think all the stuff from the past is. I want to see the narrative advance, all this how they came to be is IMHO nothing more than spinning wheels.
Blueglow, I totally agree with you on Heroes.
And for the record, you really only need 65 episodes to syndicate. The rotation's heavy, but it is do-able. Larry Sanders, for example, went into syndication with only 65.
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