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- <title>JMS on the season 5 renewal drop-dead date</title>
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- <b>See Also:</b>
- <a href="/lurk/find/CompuServe/cs96-12/152.html">JMS's comments on how
- the story will work regardless of renewal</a>
-
- <pre>
- </pre>
-
- <p>
- It appears that Warner Bros. may not make an announcement concerning
- B5's renewal status until July. The cast's contracts obligate Warner Bros.
- to tell the actors whether or not they'll be working for another year by a
- certain date. Originally, the date was June 15. However, JMS recently had
- this to say:
-
- <pre>
- The info was wrong. The new date is July 15th. WB asked for and
- got an extension from the cast.
- </pre>
-
-
- <p>
- <em>A followup asked if this was an unusual thing to do:</em>
-
-
- <pre>
- Well, it's the first time they've done it.
- </pre>
-
- <p>
- <em>Another asked why they did it:</em>
-
- <pre>
- Because Warners is working on several options to keep the show on
- the air in the absence of PTEN, and a crowded syndication market,
- they've asked for, and received, a 30 day extension on the drop dead day
- from the cast. So now they have until July 15th to make it work.
- </pre>
-
-
- <p>
- <em>Is there any hope for renewal?</em>
-
- <pre>
- If there were not hope, WB wouldn't have asked for the
- extension.
- </pre>
-
- <p>
- <em>Stations have already begun filling their fall schedules with the assumption
- of no fifth season. Won't that prevent B5 from showing up on enough stations
- to make it economically viable?</em>
-
- <pre>
- No, it isn't really a problem...the worst that could happen is
- that the show might have to go on in January rather than November, but
- that's only a small gap. The stations haven't locked down their
- January schedules yet, and there's always fallout from what goes out in
- November, so there are still many possibilities.
- </pre>
-
- <p>
- <em>What will they do with the extra month?</em>
-
- <pre>
- It's a means of making time for them to work out the limitations
- of the PTEN contract, and the new syndicated market, which has been
- going through massive changes in the last year or two; basically the
- market has collapsed or been driven out (depending on the market you're
- in) by all the new networks and program glut. Virtually every
- syndicated show has dropped from last year to this year; the only ones
- that have improved over last year are B5 (7%) and Xena (18%). Just
- about everything else has dropped bigtime.
- </pre>
-
-
- <hr>
-
- <p>
- It's worth noting that July 15 is only a deadline and the announcement could
- come at any time before then. Presumably
- Warner Bros. would have asked for more time than they thought
- they were likely to need, just to be on the safe side. Of course, that's
- just speculation and isn't based on any inside knowledge.
-
- <p>
- When there are more details, you'll see them on the Lurker's Guide home page.
-
- <pre>
-
- </pre>
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- <h5>
- Last update:
- June 10, 1997
-
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