For my Canadian peeps, "Persona" is listed for 8pm on Wednesday (except in Victoria, I guess.)

I think I'm going to pay someone to keep me tied up on Wednesday nights so I don't look on that Canadian thread. I don't, however, expect this to stop me from looking.

They're wrapping on the 28th or 29th no matter what. When I was in Vancouver, Tom implied that he was told that if the strike ends sometime in February, they could get back into production within two weeks of the strike ending... giving us 3 or 4 more episodes. But last I heard strike stuff wasn't going too well.

Preliminary nationals for Persona:
TIME NET HH A18-49 Viewers A18-34
8:00 CW 2.3/4 1.5/4 3,624,000 1.5/5
8:30 CW 2.5/4 1.7/4 4,020,000 1.7/5

Ouch. We had a great trailer and decent promotion, too (even though the actual episode was bleh). Should we just attribute this to the long break like we always do? :)

Yes and many people don't know what shows are still airing episodes due to the strike.

I think TV network viewing in general is down about 25 percent right now.

I read an article that said that the CW's demo's have been down a whopping 50% or around that amount.

eta
Variety.com

Piss poor promotions and the usual hit from being the first episode back after a long break would be the killer, IMO. Of course, knowing AlMiles, they will blame all the Brainaic / JM based ads and say the show needs more Lana.

It didn't help that Lost premiered at the same time.

No, it didn't. They were running a clip show to catch everyone up at 8pm. Lost ran at 9pm.

Yeah, but all the TV ads I saw were for the "premiere event" that started at 8:00, with no mention of the catch-up. Casual viewers probably tuned in at 8:00.

TV Guide is reporting that the writer's strike is just about over. Apparently, all of the major roadblocks have been eliminated and a tentative agreement is expected as early as next week. Here's the link...

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TV...trike/800032355

Now the question is, how will this impact the scheduling of the remaining episodes and how many more additional episodes will we get this season if this deal does become a reality?

I would think that if it settles next week, then it would take them about 3 to 4 weeks to get a shootable episode ready. So we are looking at the beginning of March. Then it takes 10 days to shoot an episode. So I would think that they could probably shoot 3, maybe 4 episodes before they break for the year.

What's interesting is that KK will be off shooting her movie in March, so, it's unclear how that will effect their decision.

I think Craig said this would be the case if they got back to work by the end of Feb, so here's hoping!


I think that depends on what kind of stipulations were put into KK's contract for the movie. SV may write Lana out, they may somehow be able to shoot her scenes around the movie, or they may be able to stop KK from being in the movie period to fulfill her SV commitment.

Yeah, I believe that Craig said recently that her first commitment would be to Smallville, not her movie. But don't quote him on that because I could be mistaken.

Goughlar let KK take some time off to finish her other movie. They'll probably let her take time off for the Chun Li movie as well

Well, according to Goughlar, they have a very strong ending arc in mind (if you believe them... which sadly, I kinda do) and they probably need Lana for that.

Their ending arc wouldn't be until Season 8, though. So KK COULD be gone for a movie. I'm more concerned about James Marsters, who has started filming Dragonball as "Piccolo," and THAT is his first responsbility

Just read on Deadline Hollywood Daily that Peter Chernin from FOX is going around telling people the strike is over. Hopefully we'll have good news very soon. I've put in an e-mail to Al to let me know how it affects SV as soon as he can.

I was changing the channels during commercial breaks during Siren and saw that Lost was on. I thought it came on during Supernatural's time slot? Was it a repeat before the new episode?

Yeah, that was a repeat of Lost. I'm sure ABC will continue to do that in the 8pm slot since they have nothing else to show.

Craig Does this say anything about what's going on at the CW? miamiherald.com article that WWE & CW part ways? I thought it was one of it's highest rated shows?

I don't know anything better than anyone else would, but I thought I remembered reading that they had considered jettisoning SmackDown! when the WB and UPN first got together... so, this isn't really surprising.

Good news for us, though... that's two available timeslots that hopefully will ensure Smallville and Supernatural will be back.

From the article:A few thoughts:
1) I think this may just be a negoitating ploy. Smackdown may still end up on the CW - the WWE is just free to negoitate with other partners as well.
2) Considering Smackdown's ratings (it is one the the CW's better performers), especially on Friday night, I am surprised the CW would let it get away. I guess DO has another pet project she wants to launch to a 1.0 share.
3) I agree with Craig that losing two highly rated hours of programing a week does help Smallville and Supernatural's chances of being renewed. Nothing except ANTM and Smackdown are touching SVratings, and SPN is a consistent performer in a tough time slot.

an original installment of the CW’s Smallville (Viewers: 3.97 million; A18-49: 1.8/ 5)

link

. . assuming that the CW is still a viable business enterprise. Can it continue to stay afloat if one of his more watched shows jumps ship?

Yes. But, it will depend on what they replace it with. Hey, if this allows REAPER to get a second year than I'm all for it.

According to the Aussiello Report here, with an "end to the three-month-old WGA strike imminent," Smallville is "[e]xpected to shoot 3 to 5 additional episodes to air in April/May."

I remember that basic information being mentioned before, but I didn't know if it was "official" before or not.

Thanks, Tennison. That'll make for a very tight writing/shooting schedule, won't it?

wow! So we are getting more than 15 episodes this season?

Well, we have to see that the strike is over first, which isn't totally official yet.

That is consistent with what I was hearing up north, though - that they could be shooting within two weeks of the strike's end.

This will mostly be a very good thing for the show's flow; however, if they do get more episodes, I wouldn't be surprised if that will mean that Hero, Traveler, and Veritas will air even later so they can show more back to back.

Ugh. Don't we already have a month's scheduled hiatus between Fracture and Hero as it is? You'd think they'd learn from the dismal numbers Persona got coming back after a lengthy break.

That's exactly why I think they'll hold off until they can show 5-7 episodes in a row rather than 3 on, then repeats again, and then more new.

I just hope this strike is over already soon. I have a feeling that if they DON'T take the proposed deals this weekend, the strike will probably persist until June when the SAG strikes... and then what? It seems like a "now or never" proposition to me.

If it means we could get close to or all of the season's episodes, I'm all for another hiatus. If it buys them time to shoot more I say go for it. I want a full season more than anything, mostly because CW is so unpreditable that I don't feel its a 100% lock that SV will get their 8th and final season.

I think especially in light of losing Smackdown, and considering the ratings for the rest of the network, Season 8 is a likelihood. But I really think The CW (and AlMiles if they want to keep in the TV business) needs to think about their plan of action afterward, because Season 8 will be it.

Season 8, should it happen, could go one of two ways: It could be really good because they'll think it's the last (a la Season 5), or it could be really bad if certain key uncontracted cast members don't come back. Fortunately, if they get back to work for more Season 7 episodes, those people WILL still be on contract and able to finish their character arcs. The "really bad" could result in fallen ratings, but it'll be the last year anyway, so it'd be nothing to panic about.

Moving to the Season eight speculation thread.

I believe both the remainder of S7 and S8 plot lines could be really affected by this....I'm moving the discussion to the S8 thread because I think that's what I'm suppose to do.

I think Season 8 will be pure crap anyway, because ratings wouldn't matter anymore.

I hope Michael says no. He needs to just face the fact that it's time to go on.

So then I start wondering if the 3 to 5 episodes that might still be written for season 7 could be enough to finish up the whole show. With the strike and only having 15 episodes, I was feeling pretty confident that season 8 (even if only a partial season) would be a lock, but could the show be over this year? I mean from a purely storytelling perspective.

It probably could, but Al has always been pretty adamant that they want S8 and without S8, they'd be ending things not the way they really want to. So from that angle, I can't see them turning down an S8 because they're satisfied with the way things will be ending in S7.

I really think that season 8 is going to be shortened. Maybe 10 or 12 episodes tops. They could make it a midseason show that will wrap up by May.

I just posted on K-Site that I've heard from someone who would definitely know that The CW wants five more episodes when the strike is over.

Meaning, we'll end up with 20 this year!

Thanks Craig. That's good news for us SV fans, potentially bad news for us "TW for Supes in JLA" fans.

Still, with 5 episodes, alot can be wrapped up (per our discussion over in the s8 thread). I will still contend that with S8 being the last, they really are going to have to decide their endgame with KK, MR, & AM now rather than leave an either/or cliffhanger for the end of S7.

ETA: And let me just add..... I think TPTB for SV did a much better job than the bulk of the TV producers for this whole strike thing. They planned a season-ender as best they could and now will finish up with only two lost episodes. Most TV shows have alot more damage. Well done Gouglar --- and no, I'm not joking.

I don't think it would really affect "Tom for Supes in JLA," because that film has had so many bumps, who knows if it's really happening anyway.

I also still doubt they'd have Tom do a movie while still filming SV... unless they had the other characters pick up the slack, which I thought was likely at one point, but with the shortened schedule, they probably need all the Tom they can get.

Looks like Al and Miles will be returning to work Monday, with the writers returning Wednesday.

We won't get 22 episodes but we'll get 20. All things considered thats a hell of a lot more than I thought we'd get. I wonder if they'll charge the same price for a 20 episode dvd.

Chiriru pointed out to me that that's only one less than Season One, so the same price is likely.

I wonder if Allison will still get to direct...

Craig, I remember you saying that with the writers striking the CW couldn't force soap opera-ish rewrites on episodes like Traveler and Veritas. With those episodes having been shot already and with the writers trying to hammer out 5 more episodes with little time, do you think the CW will still force any rewrites onto the remaining episodes?

I guess I am looking forward to the mythology focused episodes like those two but am wondering if the writers getting back to work may have such consequences.

Also, and this question isn't to you only but I think its a fair question: Does the cliffhanger for Veritas get changed now since its no longer the season ender. If someone gets killed or goes missing, I would think they would save such a scene for episode 20 now.

I don't think they'll force any rewrites, mostly because they are trying to cram 5 episodes into the coming weeks anyway. Also, since James Marsters might not be available for reshoots that would possibly be problematic.

As for the cliffhanger... I'm sure it'll stay. It's a big moment for SV, but I can't see how they could build to it and then leave it right there.

It's just now, we'll see what happens next in the very next episode!

Thanks for answering. In all of this excitement for getting 5 more episodes this season I forgot about what this could mean for Brainiac's arc. It'll be a shame if they got more time to flesh things out but Masters wasn't available. I liked where they were going with his character and now it may get postponed or scraped altogether. Oh well, maybe opportunity will present itself.

If the CW wants 5 more, and if Craig says so, I'm sure they do, I think a big question becomes what happens to KK's lead in the Street Fighter movie. That film was scheduled to start in March. And now, SV will likely be working hard through the entire month of March. Will Almiles let her go? Have her do both (I believe the film was supposed to shoot outside North America)? Or does she lose the part? Which if she does, how much of an unhappy KK do Almiles have on their hands?

I guess we'll soon find out.