Now we’re well into the new year, all those programmes that TV buyers at British TV stations fought over between May and September last year, are finally making their ways onto our screens – on the basis that we like our series to run uninterrupted. US networks, let’s remember, don’t mind interrupting runs repeatedly, taking as much as a month off between new episodes, and filling the time with repeats.
\nAll well and good.
\nExcept quite a few of those new series that British stations were battling over, have sinced ceased production given the hurley burley of trying to gain ratings. Some are bad. Some are unlucky. And some simply ended up scheduled against ratings powerhouses on other channels.
\nBut those contracts have already been signed, and short of just putting the tapes on the shelf and watching the dust settle, networks are now finding slots for some of those series.
\nHere’s a bit of a rundown.
\nKidnapped – Channel 4 – Ran for 5 episodes on NBC before cancellation – 13 episodes produced with unaired episodes running online. C4 seems to be showing the series in double episodes as a sort of mini-series. A continuing storyline series.
\nDaybreak – Bravo – Ran for 6 episodes on ABC before cancellation – 13 episodes produced with unaired episodes running online. Bravo is now showing this series conceived as a filler between part-seasons of Lost. A continuing storyline series.
\n3lbs – BBC1 – Ran for 3 episodes on CBS – 5 episodes produced with 2 unaired in the US. BBC1 is showing this late on Sunday evenings.
\nSmith – ITV4 – Ran for 3 episodes on CBS – 8 episodes produced with 5 unaired in the US. ITV bought this show originally rumoured to be slated for ITV1, it’s been shunted off to ITV4. Starring Ray Liotta and featuring Johnny Lee Miller, this was said to be a very expensive show to produce at over $2m an episode.
\nVanished – Five US\/Five – Ran for 10 episodes on\/off on Fox – 13 episodes produced with final 3\/4 airing online only. Five US (and Five) have rights to this, but so far it’s not been scheduled as far as I know. As a continuing series, a conclusion was speedily written to conclude the final episodes.
\nSix Degrees – ITV1\/ITV2 – Ran for 6 episodes on ABC – 14 epsiodes produced with eight episodes still to be aired. This series hasn’t officially been cancelled yet, but omens are not good. ITV has yet to schedule the programme. Another continuing storyline series cancelled.
\nStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip – More4\/C4 – Ran for 16 episodes on NBC – 22 episodes produced with six more still to air. Again, not yet cancelled, but the omens are really bad this one. Lots of hype as it was the return of Aaron Sorkin, but ratings didn’t follow.
\nThere are other cancelled series that aren’t quite as big name like Justice (Living TV) and FX is still shouting about a series that was cancelled after a short run last year (Blind Justice), but this list gives you an idea about who bought all the duds. One thing’s for certain, no matter how quickly your series gets cancelled in the US, there’s always an outlet for the full production run in the UK!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now we’re well into the new year, all those programmes that TV buyers at British TV stations fought over between May and September last year, are finally making their ways onto our screens – on the basis that we like our series to run uninterrupted. US networks, let’s remember, don’t mind interrupting runs repeatedly, taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}