I guess, according to entertainment reports that Friends will be on for an extra 10 minutes every thursday during february to help bring in ratings competition against S2.
I think that's a good idea. Which means that they'll likely show us the director's cut.
s m a l l
t i t l e
s p o i l e r
The Front Page (!!!) story in USA Today said that last week the new NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker met with the cast and producers of the show to discuss adding another 10 minutes (4-6 minutes of actual air time when commercials are factored in) to each Feb. episode, expanding Friends to 8:40. For the first 2 weeks in Feb, the 8:40 to 9:00 time slot will be filled with live skits from the regular cast of Saturday Night Live. They haven't decided what to do with the last 2 weeks of Feb, but they may possibly fill the time with "Friends highlights picked by the cast." An NBC website lists the episode that was just shot on Friday, Jan. 12, ( with Susan Sarandon as the guest star) as the episode to air Feb. 1, but other than the title, The One Where Rosita Dies, no description was given.
Zucker said," Obviously, it's going to take some (audience) out of Friends, but we couldn't put anything stronger against Survivor."
It's nice to hear that Zucker seems to hold Friends in much higher regard than his predecessor, Garth Ancier.
It was also mentioned that the cast will recieve additional compensation for the extra scenes, and another source said that Warner Brothers will be paid more too, but the deal has yet to be finalized.
I wonder if they will have to re-edit the two episodes that were filmed before the Christmas break, and before the Survivor news came out. NBC will have to work fast to get new promo's out over the next two weeks.
Sammi
Here's the article from Reuters... ::::: back to lurking ::::::::
NBC, 'Friends' Beef Up for Battle
By Josef Adalian Variety Tuesday, January 16, 2001
HOLLYWOOD-Hoping to limit the potential damage from CBS' "Survivor: The Australian Outback," NBC will serve up extra-long episodes of "Friends" and a shortened primetime version of "Saturday Night Live" from 8-9 p.m. on Thursdays next month.
Newly installed NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker is working with the producers of "Friends" to deliver what the network is calling "super-size" episodes of the hit comedy for the February sweeps. The four episodes will likely run about four to six minutes longer than a traditional "Friends" episode; with commercials, the show is expected to end at around 8:40 p.m. rather than 8:30.
For two weeks during the sweeps, NBC will fill the remainder of the 8 p.m. hour with special, shortened editions of "SNL." The segments will be live from New York and feature the show's regular cast. NBC is still working on what will fill the rest of the 8 p.m. hour during the other two weeks of the February sweeps.
There had been speculation that NBC might stick in clip shows or repeats of "Friends" or "Will & Grace" in the 8:30 p.m. slot normally occupied by "The Weber Show" (formerly known as "Cursed"), which will go on hiatus during the sweeps. Zucker, however, felt it was important that the network try something different.
"We're always looking for a fresh, innovative approach to bring viewers to our programming," said Zucker, who took over as entertainment boss last month.
Zucker had last week pledged that NBC would not "roll over and die" in the wake of CBS' decision to schedule "Survivor 2" opposite "Friends" on Thursday. NBC's 8:30 p.m. Thursday series has traditionally lost a sizable chunk of its "Friends" lead-in; the hope now is that by expanding "Friends," viewers will stay tuned to NBC rather than switch over for the second half of CBS' likely ratings juggernaut.
NBC is also upping the guest star quotient on "Friends" next month, booking thesps Susan Sarandon and Jason Alexander.
It's unclear to what extent producer Warner Bros. TV and the "Friends" cast will be compensated for the extra footage. A final deal on the XL episodes is still being hammered out, though insiders expect a pact to be wrapped up by the end of the week.
Reuters/Variety
~* Carina *~ I'm not being rude, you're insignificant.
wrote in message news:941nco$mvk$[email]...
In article , "news.lvcm.com" wrote:
Thanks Carina, that's very interesting.
I've long said that the US syndicators, instead of cutting a few minutes to squeeze in some extra commercials, should add a few minutes to make a director's cut that more people will want to see, and then show two such episodes in a 90 minute slot which provides the extra advertising revenue.
Tennant
You're most welcome Tennant!
You know, I lived in France and they never had ridiculous amounts of time given to commercials as we do in the States. I visited the UK with hubby (he's from there) and fell in love with BBC. We have digital cable here in our home and we watch BBC America all the time. My motto is "F*ck Survivor...give me Castaway any day." Unfortunately, BBC America has commercials sandwiched in the episodes...I have the hardest time watching "The High Life", "Hamish Macbeth" and "Monarch of the Glen". It cuts off at awkward moments for those baaaad infomercials/commercials. ick.
Unfortunately, it's the commercials here in the US that have such a stronghold over the networks. <sigh> I've always wanted them to show commercials in the first ten minutes of a show or the last ten minutes of the show. I'm more annoyed that they've cut down programs (in general in the US) to make more room for more commercials. I remember when commercials were to be only 2 minutes during each cut, but now it's 3 minutes. Grrr....Then again, thank GOD for Tivo. We've had it for four years now and it's a god send!
~* Carina *~ I'm not being rude, you're insignificant.
"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...
In article , "news.lvcm.com" wrote:
Ick indeed. Of course we have BBC without commercial breaks, so a sitcom in a 30 minute slot will have 29 minutes of product, and some top sitcoms are extended to 35 minutes (that's 34 minutes of product), with the extra length being described as the "quality time" which allows the authors to fully express their ideas. We do have to pay a licence fee, though.
That's very bad, and don't forget that your seasons have been diluted with reruns - originally they ran from mid-September to mid-June, and amazingly there were THIRTY SIX episodes in a season. Check out the guide for "Bewitched" if anyone doesn't believe me. If the current length of 22 minutes for 24 weeks is spread out over 36 weeks, that makes the effective length less than 15 minutes per week.
That's become a lot better now that disk drives are so much bigger, but I still prefer directly recording to a VCR for archiving.
Tennant