NBC To Air "Super-Size" Episodes

This is from ew.com, which is "Entertainment Weekly'"s website.

WWF's Smackdown! In an effort to battle CBS' open challenge to NBC's Must See TV lineup, the network has decided to lengthen episodes of ''Friends'' -- and schedule a blatant misnomer on Thursday nights opposite ''Survivor: The Australian Outback.''

A shortened prime time version of ''Saturday Night Live'' will air in the 8 to 9 p.m. slot during February sweeps following extended 40 minute segments of ''Friends.'' ''We're always looking for a fresh, innovative approach to bring viewers to our programming,'' NBC's recently crowned entertainment prez Jeff Zucker told Reuters. Fittingly, the longer shows are being called ''super size'' episodes. Does that mean they include fries and a Coke?<<

This is very, very strange. How the hell are they gonna put these in syndication?!

This is going to be so cool. Longer episodes of Friends!!!! I was just thinking maybe they should just re-air season 6 along with season 7 at the same time.

But a good question as to how they will edit down for syndication. I think the 40 minute thing just may mean an hour long episode. So it's only 40 minutes of Friends and 20 minutes of commercials, if not then that's a lot of editing for syndication.

Matt

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Since 30 minutes of Friends is actually 21 minutes of show, 40 minutes of Friends is probably around 28 minutes, so if they show them as hour episodes, that would be 28 minutes of show and 32 minutes of commercials.

GB

Dear Lord, not that! They'll have to show a half hour of uninterrupted television! The seas will rise and fish will fly in the trees!

Woo Hoo!!! NBC finally grew some balls. And the mess-ers become the mess-ees!!

I think syndication is the last thing on their minds right now.

Sammi

In article , [email] (Appy50rider) wrote:

Lol! That's it *exactly* !!

Tennant

Thanks :-)

Sammi

Sorry, I'm just catching up now this extending story... I've heard of 2 different things : Friends being extended of 10 minutes (which is 4 minutes if you take out the commercial breaks) And Friends being twice longer... Which one exactly is it ?? Can anyone explain me how it's gonna be ?

thanx:o)

The current plan is that for the month of February only (during sweeps), Friends will be 40 minutes long. Live SNL skits will fill the 8:40 to 9:00 time for the first 2 weeks, but it is undecided what will be in that spot the last 2 weeks of Feb. "Highlights of Friends episodes picked by the cast" is one idea floating around at NBC. It will depend on the success of the SNL ploy.

Sammi

Mike the Real American Hero wrote:

They have an article about this on the front page of USA Today. It's pretty much the same story except they mention that the cast will be paid extra for the additional ten minutes. Whew! I was worried for a minute that they would still be making their regular astronomical salary.

Mike the Real American Hero wrote:

Gad, the scripts they're using these days can barely sustain being run in 30 minutes. What kind of dreck are we gonna get to pad the shows out to 40 minutes?

And SNL afterwards?! Head for the hills! Those guys regularly run ideas which should be one-liners out to four minutes; the skits that go on for longer should have been two-liners.

[email] (Mike the Real American Hero) wrote:

There won't be a problem; they're just adding in ten more minutes of ads. :)

Todd at inreach dot com