‘Bionic Woman’ Axed?
Posted on February 21, 2008
TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello has claimed that Michelle Ryan drama Bionic Woman has been given the axe.
“Although NBC isn’t talking, I’m told by multiple sources that Bionic staffers were informed last week that the troubled reboot has indeed been canceled,” Ausiello posts. “That means no spring relaunch under new show-runner Jason Cahill.”
The remake of the 1970s show was one of the most hyped new series over the summer; the pilot pulled in 13.91 million viewers. However, over the eight episodes that have aired, its ratings have freefalled. Only 5.99 million viewers tuned into Bionic Woman’s most recent episode, “Do Not Disturb”, on November 28 last year, losing nearly eight million in total since the first week.
Other freshmen series not expected to be renewed for the 2008-09 season are Big Shots, Cane, and Journeyman.
Kreuk, Duncan for ‘Street Fighter’
Posted on February 20, 2008
Variety reports that Michael Clarke Duncan and Chris Klein will join Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk in the new Street Fighter film based on Capcom’s highly successful videogame franchise. It has been confirmed after months of speculation that Kreuk will play martial artist Chun-Li — the protagonist of Hyde Park Entertainment’s latest production – while Duncan and Klein are set to be Balrog and Nash respectively. Also on board are Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo, Day Break and Journeyman star Moon Bloodgood, Rick Yune, Edmund Chen, and Cheng Pei Pei.
Directed by Romeo Must Die director Andrzej Bartkowiak, filming is due to start in March, and hopes are that it will be better-received than Universal’s 1994 original, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile and Raul Julia as M. Bison.
NBC Renews ‘Chuck’, ‘Life’, ‘Heroes’
Posted on February 14, 2008
NBC execs Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff announced this week that freshman series Chuck and Life, as well as their top-rated drama Heroes, have been picked up for the 2008-09 season, following the end to the strike. All three shows will not return this season, but will prepare for a relaunch in the fall.
“We are thrilled to be bringing back the high-energy dramas Chuck and Life for next season,” commented Silverman. “Additionally, we will be saving and re-launching our number one drama and most successful franchise, Heroes, so it will run in all original episodes in the fourth quarter.”
Graboff added, “These pickups are a sign of our confidence in these quality series and will allow the respective producers to get a head start on their creative arcs for next season.”
Chuck and Life have been given a thirteen-episode order — with the possibility of a full season if viewing figures remain respectable — while the third season of Heroes, whose second volume “Generations” averaged 13,07 million viewers (down 9% from its Season One figure of 14.37 million), is expected to be longer than the traditional twenty-two episode run. Chuck and Life averaged 8.68 million and 8.11 million viewers respectively over the course of their first seasons.
This news does not bode well for NBC’s other freshman dramas, Journeyman and Bionic Woman, as they look even more certain to be axed.
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