Studio 60 terminal, but not dead...Yet.
I'm no Hollywood insider or entertainment industry reporter, but you can't keep me out of Google Reader, and five of my two dozen blog subscriptions are either blogs or Google search alerts scanning for news of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. NBC has really kept fans of the show hanging on this one. Is it cancelled? Is it coming back? What about unaired episodes? Some of us have paid for a full season subscription through iTunes. ONE of us (guilty!) paid for that full season just days before "4a.m. Miracle" (the final broadcast episode to date) aired. Ouch.For those who, like me, are hanging in there for our own 4a.m. Miracle, here's what Google Reader delivered to me today:
Have mercy on the faithful, NBC. This feels like a third date that went very well, now you won't return my calls. It was too soon to call it a commitment, but I at least deserve a little closure. Announce something. Deliver the unaired episodes, even if only online. Better yet, if you have lost faith in S60 as a prime-time network contender, hand it off to Bravo or USA. Read the boards...your own boards....bring it back and you've got a lock on a larger audience than Psych can deliver.“Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”: The future of Aaron Sorkin’s high-profile series has been unclear since it was pulled from NBC’s lineup a week early for the premiere of the Paul Haggis crime drama, “The Black Donnellys.” According to a spokesperson for Warner Brothers, which produces “Studio 60,” the 18th episode is currently being filmed and 22 episodes will be shot. NBC hasn’t said if or when the final six original episodes will air. Not a good sign.
The series’ low February ratings, when Sorkin highlighted the romantic comedy elements, appear to have made the chances of it getting a second season unlikely. Before those episodes aired, Sorkin told critics in California that the show was getting the kind of upscale viewers that NBC covets and that it also was among the most TIVOed shows on television. However, it is very expensive to produce and needed better overall ratings to stay on the schedule.
Its recent replacement, “The Black Donnellys,” hasn’t been a ratings success nationally, but ratings in Buffalo for the first two episodes were about 40 percent higher than what “Studio 60” was getting.
Viewers irritated by a different March Madness (Alan Pergament)
Buffalo News: Entertainment. 03/13/2007
Labels: entertainment, studio 60, tv
