Thursday, March 12, 2009

The final two hours of Prison Break will NOT air in the U.S?

SpoilerTv has asked Preston Beckman which is the guy that schedules the shows on Fox about the extra two hours that prison break will have concluding the show ending it's fourth and final season. When asked about the two extra hours, Preston says that those two hours will NOT air in the U.S. & that those extra two hours will NOT further the story. check out the full details below.



In response to my questions about Prison Break scheduling including skipped weeks & long hiatuses and its move to Fridays as well as Olmstead's previously mentioned 'Extra 2-hours'.

Keep in mind that the Fox TV network that airs the episodes in the US is not the same entity as Fox TV Studios that creates the show.

Scheduling & programming is handled by the network & only gets profits from shows airing in the US on the fox network. Fox TV Studios who produces the show sells the show elsewhere and sees the profits from those sales.

Therefore, it seems to me, US ratings would matter more to the Fox tv broadcasting network. (Fox Studios would look at the whole profit package). Fox network's programming & scheduling execs decide when & where to air episodes not Fox Studios. Think of the entities as separate wholely owned subsidiaries under a parent company umbrella. Each is responsible for its own area.

Here's Preston's reply as he posted it on Project Fox (don't think he liked my questions from the tone. ):

"ok first of all Prison Break has spent it's entire run up to this point on Monday nights. We have broken the season into two parts in most of those years so that we can run chunks of them continuously to give the viewer the best experience possible. this show has not been scheduled erradically in my opinion.

Next we wanted to end the show after 16 episodes this season and not bring it back for six additional episodes. That was the plan. There was pressure put on us by our studio to make an additional 6 episodes. We at the network said that we could not bring the show back on Monday and that we would have to find a place for them on another night and that would be an insult to the fans. It was not our intent to make the six additional episodes.

Finally when we agreed to the additional 6 we were not aware of another two hour "finale" that the studio decided to make.

We told them we had a plan for the final 6 episodes and did not need another two hours and to be honest we do not plan on airing it. I can tell you that the six hours that we air in April and May will have a conclusion and that the additional two hours will not further the story beyond the conclusion that will air on FOX"

From his tone, I don't get the impression that Fox network is interested in a spin-off of a woman's prison either.

I haven't read the spoilers about the last 6 episodes or the 2 extra hours...although its hard to miss some rumors about the content of the extra 2 hours sometimes when things end up posted in GD GenPop by newbies, but from this I'm assuming that the foreign fans will get a better shot at seeing the extra 2-hours that those in the US. We'll have to wait for the dvd release in my opinion.

It does sound like Fox studios is going ahead and producing the extra 2...but so far Fox scheduling team has no intention of airing it in the US...but that doesn't stop the Studio from selling it else where.

Very interesting indeed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't get it! if they shot it just show it! What's the point of keeping it on the shelves?!