‘24′ Officially Slated For 2009 Return
Posted on February 17, 2008
In news that shouldn’t surprise anybody, Fox has confirmed that their hit drama, 24, will return in January 2009 to ensure that they can air the entire seventh season of the show uninterrupted. The latest season was set to air last month, but the WGA strike, which started all the way back in November, halted production, and subsequently, they had only eight complete episodes.
“A January 2009 start seemed the best way to comply with viewers’ wishes that a season’s episodes run without interruption to conclusion”, read a statement from Fox. Anticipation was high surrounding Jack Bauer’s latest day of a nightmare, which sees the show relocated to Washington D.C. from Los Angeles, but this delay represents the strike’s biggest casualty thus far.
The CW also announced that they have decided not to order any more Girlfriends episodes, meaning that the comedy will bow out without a fanfare. However, NBC said that 30 Rock, The Office, Scrubs, and ER will all return with fresh episodes on April 10, with My Name Is Earl one week earlier on April 3 with a one-hour special. New material for One Tree Hill, Smallville, Supernatural, Gossip Girl, and Reaper will start airing between April 14 and April 24, while pretty much all of the CBS dramas, including the CSIs, Criminal Minds, and Ghost Whisperer, have been slated for late March/early April returns.
CBS Renews ‘CSI’s, ‘Big Bang’, And Seven More
Posted on February 15, 2008
Following NBC’s announcement just a couple of days ago that the network is renewing Chuck, Life, and Heroes, CBS decided to follow suit and name eleven shows that have earned berths to the 2008-09 season, including ratings-juggernaut CSI, along with its two spin-offs, Miami and NY, and freshman half-hour comedy The Big Bang Theory.
Cold Case, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, NCIS, Numb3rs, Two and a Half Men, and Without a Trace also have reason to celebrate, as they join the previously announced Survivor and The Amazing Race in the renewals list.
However, there was notably no mention for other comedies, How I Met Your Mother, The Rules of Engagement, and The New Adventures of Old Christine, giving the impression that CBS wants to see how strong their ratings are for their end-of-season episodes before picking them up. Also missing were Shark, The Unit, and freshmen series Cane and Moonlight.
WGA Strike Over
Posted on February 13, 2008
After fourteen long and hard weeks, WGA members have voted to end the strike that started all the way back in November 5, with a resounding 92.5% for it (some 3,500 for and 283 against). This vote comes after the WGA announced that they had a tentative deal with the AMPTP over the weekend. The deal is set to be ratified within the next ten to twelve days.
“The strike is over”, said WGA West president Patric Verrone in an LA press conference. “Our membership has voted and writers can go back to work. This was not a strike we wanted but one we had to conduct in order to win jurisdiction and establish appropriate residuals for writing in new media and on the Internet.”
The deal will see specific residual rates in new media for the writers. They are set to receive 0.36% for the first 100,000 television show downloads for Internet sales, and 0.7% afterwards. And for episodes streamed on an ad-supported website, 2% of residuals will go towards the writers after the initial streaming window is closed.
Now that writers are going back to work as early as today, what does that mean for your favourite shows? Well, rejoice if you’re a Lost fan. Producer Carlton Cuse told Variety, “We’ll have to compress some of the storytelling we planned for this season, and that may not be a bad thing. Damon and I feel like we know how we can finish it off and still make it a really, really great story.” An extra five episodes are likely to be filmed, ending the fourth season with thirteen. Not too shabby.
Most of the veteran shows are set to be going back into production too, including the CSIs, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, House, Smallville, and Supernatural with an estimated four to six episodes for each. Heroes, however, will wait until the fall to launch its third volume entitled ”Villains”. Prison Break’s future has not yet been determined, while the seventh season of 24 looks like it’ll be launching on January 2009. Half-hour comedies like 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother have the advantage of being able to shoot potentially up to nine or ten episodes before the season ends.
A lot of the freshman programs, though, will be saved for a relaunch in the fall, Pushing Daisies (whose renewal for the second season was announced last week by ABC), Dirty Sexy Money, and Chuck being the main ones. Gossip Girl and half-hour long The Big Bang Theory are the two confirmed exceptions right now. Bionic Woman, Big Shots, and Journeyman amongst a few others aren’t expected to shoot any new episodes ever. In one word, “axed”.
With the time it takes to write, film, and produce, post-strike episodes will probably air during April and May — in time for the May sweeps.
Photo by Brad Herman