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| FOX's "Prison Break" isn't ending anytime soon as the network has ordered a full season of 22 episodes of the freshman drama, a network source confirmed today. The news comes as the series heads for a brief two-week hiatus following its October 3 airing. It's not clear how FOX plans to roll out the back-nine order as it previously indicated "House" and season five of "24" would take over Monday nights beginning in January. In any case, the current batch of 13 episodes is set to wrap at the end of the November sweeps period. It remains to be seen if the nine remaining installments will continue to run on Monday nights or turn up at some point next year as a fill-in for any potential schedule holes. FOX is expected to provide additional details when it formally announces the news tomorrow. |
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| “THE 4400” WILL RETURN! The Emmy-nominated and Critically-Acclaimed Series Returns to USA with 13 Original Episodes in Summer 2006 Los Angeles, CA – Sept. 29, 2005 – USA Network has ordered 13 one-hour episodes of the Emmy-nominated and critically-acclaimed hit series THE 4400, it was announced today by Jeff Wachtel, USA's executive vice president, original programming. The series, which received Emmy® nominations for Outstanding Miniseries, Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries and Outstanding Cinematography, will return to USA Network in summer 2006 with production scheduled to begin in Vancouver in early 2006. THE 4400 is produced by Paramount Network Television in association with Sky Television, Renegade 83 and American Zoetrope. THE 4400 premiered as a limited series on July 11, 2004 on USA Network as the highest-rated and most-watched new series premiere ever on a basic cable network. More recently, THE 4400 became summer 2005's top original scripted series on cable in P18-49. "Even in this increasingly competitive climate, renewing 'The 4400' was an easy call," said Wachtel. "Its compelling characters fit perfectly within the USA brand. And the creative team's ability to balance story, character and 'big themes' really makes this show unique." THE 4400 explores the travails of the 4400 people who all at once returned in a ball of light to Earth; though the returnees had not aged physically, many of them reappeared with dramatic abilities ranging from enhanced reflexes to precognition. NTAC (National Threat Assessment Command) is the government agency responsible for keeping track of the returnees and investigating all things related to the 4400. |
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| Three comedies got some good news yesterday as the Seth MacFarlane-produced "Family Guy" and "American Dad" as well as NBC's "The Office" all received orders for additional episodes. The latter series, from NBC Universal Television and Reveille, saw its second season officially extended to 13 episodes. "The Office" apparently began its sophomore season with a modest six-episode order with the option to shoot seven additional backup scripts. The Tuesday comedy saw its retention rate of lead-in "My Name Is Earl" improve to 68.57% in households and 73.47% in adults 18-49 in its second week (compared with 62.37% in households and 67.19% in adults 18-49 on 9/20/05) according to preliminary Nielsen data. Greg Daniels, Ben Silverman, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Howard Klein are the executive producers of "The Office." As for FOX's "American Dad" and "Family Guy," the network has greenlighted nine additional installments of the former, bringing its series total to 41 episodes. "Dad," like most freshman series, began with a 13-episode order. FOX went on to order six additional episodes prior to its debut (read the story) with 13 more getting picked up this past June (read the story). Overall, "Dad" will have enough installments to last through the 2006-07 season, although it's not clear how many will actually comprise each season. As for "Family Guy," the show's producer 20th Century Fox Television has quietly begun production on 22 additional episodes of the series. Said order would bring the show's "revival" to at least 57 episodes. The network itself however has yet to officially pick up the additional installments. Nevertheless, industry insiders say it's a formality at this point considering the show's ratings success. The news means that "Family Guy" will most likely be around through at least the early part of the 2007-08 season. Seth MacFarlane is behind both "Guy" and "Dad" with David A. Goodman and Chris Sheridan also serving as executive producers on the former and Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman also serving as executive producers on the latter. |