Comments on: Southland Near Deal To Return On TNT

By: Spooly-T

Spooly-T — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:00:24 +0000

Oh TNT, please save Southland. One of the best new drama/well thought out show I’ve seen in years!
NBC would’ve been fine if they just got rid of Jay Leno and free up 10pm slot.
Hey how about picking up Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles too?

By: Pat and Anne

Pat and Anne — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:59:51 +0000

So glad to hear this news. “Southland” was our favorite show last year, even in summer repeats. Thanks TNT. Boo-hiss NBC.

By: jason

jason — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:20:45 +0000

this is a great show!! i can’t believe nbc is so dumb! i am glad someone else has the good sense to see a quality product. nbc has so few good shows & losing this show is just a bad move on their part!

By: Shaleena

Shaleena — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:09:53 +0000

Can’t wait!!! I love this show. Was so bummed to hear it wasnt going to air again I watched it religiously and plan on doing it when it makes its comeback!!!

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:44:20 +0000

hmm thats interesting! Didnt that happen to Scrubs or something? Im wondering if Ugly Betty could still be saved!! It is such a creative and fun show.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:35:42 +0000

Anna, it’s quite rare, but not unheard of.

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:31:27 +0000

Im new to this kind of stuff so i didnt know other networks could buy a cancelled show?!
Can this happen for any show? For example, if Ugly Betty were to be cancelled or have its last season this year, could another network scoop it up?

By: R

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:52:06 +0000

So NBC dumps another show and another network takes it…. I hope Southland does well on TNT just to stick it to NBC.

By: Kell

Kell — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:33:26 +0000

The re-runs did have pretty good ratings ……………. (for no promotion.) 3-4 million if I remember correctly. People might tune into the first season just to stick it to “the man”. Stranger things have happened.

They could also go back and re edit for content. “Come see the show NBC would not let us air” ……………… Might create some hype.

Make no mistake, I love the show. I just hope they do this right.
-K

By: caroline

caroline — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:40:11 +0000

I hear that Southland is great. I am glad that TNT is picking it up and I Hope that they will put it with a 2nd season of Dark Blue..which I Love. Will the 2 shows be a good match? Maybe that’s why the news of another season of Dark Blue is so delayed.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:35:43 +0000

If it did come back, and I was a fan of the show, I wouldn’t want it to come back till at least Decemeber. That way TNT can maybe air some repeats of the old episodes and air lots of ads to promote the show.

By: tom

tom — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:28:23 +0000

Fantastic News! I was looking forward to Southland returning only to here that it was Cancelled! Thank you TNT! It was NBC’s Loss!

By: Junior G.

Junior G. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:05:22 +0000

This just made my weekend!

By: sprinkbot

sprinkbot — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:24:08 +0000

Great show. F**k NBC.

By: huddy80

huddy80 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:10:24 +0000

Thank God! This is the best news of the day! Shame on NBC for getting rid of Southland. I honestly don’t see TNT airing the show until the summer, since they have such a huge summer following. If Southland could follow the new season of The Closer this summer, it could give it a huge boost.

But I would rather TNT air the 7 eps they have made now, and air the back half of the second season in the summer, which they do with most of their shows now anyways. If new show, Men of a Certain Age wasn’t starting on December 7 at 10pm after the return of The Closer’s fifth season, I would say air Southland there, but I have a feeling it won’t be on until June 2010 at the earliest.

By: Gleebo

Gleebo — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:59:36 +0000

Im not getting too excited about this pickup until I hear what kind of ratings it pulls in. And who really expects it to do that great on TNT? Aren’t they planning on starting the series from the beginning? How many people are gonna watch it seeing as how they are starting off with episodes that are basically reruns?

By the time the new episodes air the ratings will probably not be all that spectacular and people who watched the show when it originally ran on NBC probably won’t be aware that they are to the point where they are running the episodes intended for S2.

I would be completely excited if they started from scratch and committed to finishing off a full season 2 run of episodes.

Run the 7 episodes now.
Start the second season in the summer of 2010 when cable doesn’t have as much competition from network television. (6 eps in the can plus 7 more to give it a S2 of 13 eps).

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:45:11 +0000

YAY!
I’m so glad CBS and TNT are saving NBC’s biggest mistakes.

By: Mike G.

Mike G. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:32:33 +0000

I don’t think that TNT picking up Southland will automatically mean death to Dark Blue. Since the seasons are relatively short, I would suspect that there’s room for both shows in the schedule. Besides, TNT is still showing reruns of Dark Blue, so I don’t think that they have entirely given up on the series yet.

By: Dingo

Dingo — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:09:31 +0000

So TNT will run 13 episodes that were already produced and see if they can draw better ratings than Dark Blue or Raising the Bar. Executives will decide if they prefer anything that was in production when Southland was still at NBC. Then they may elect to order new episodes. The good news is TNT can hype something new between seasons of Saving Grace and Leverage.

By: mark-allen

mark-allen — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:53:46 +0000

good news, though i can’t see keeping the cast together that long to produce new episodes if it does well…

about dark blue and raising the bar…i am not really surprised about dark blue not being renewed yet, but am surprised that raising the bar hasn’t gotten a pick up…dude cut his hair…what more does the net want…

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:10:03 +0000

Bill, If the 7 from last year were done in a standard deal, those rights already had reverted back to WB, so they’d only need to worry about the new six.

The Wrap had a post up late Friday night saying that what happened on Friday was a clearing of the ways that would allow Southland to land elsewhere, with WB and NBC figuring out a divorce including resolving issues of “shutdown fees”.

http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/warner-bros-nbc-conclude-southland-divorce-9115

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:56:52 +0000

Don J, I’d guess NBC would like all its money back to release the rights to the 13 existing episodes. My guess is that TNT is likely interested in paying less than that. A fairly typical business negotiation.

Of course Nikki Finke has to (perhaps by law) portray NBC as both evil *and* stupid, so any impasse is of course 100% their fault.

By: Don J

Don J — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:50:34 +0000

Nikki Finke posted an update on her blog saying that NBC is holding things up right now.

If they cancelled it and dumped it like Friday’s trash, why would they give a crap if someone is willing to take it?

However, I would assume that NBC is looking for financial compensation for the 6 episodes they bought and paid for and won’t air.

By: Don J

Don J — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:20:50 +0000

Well, if they do restart production in November, I would assume that TNT would only order 2 more episodes would re-launch Southland as a new 15 episode season 1. 15 episodes seems to be the maximum that TNT would order (The Closer, Raising the Bar and Leverage all have 15 episodes)

I don’t know how much Warner Bros would want from TNT for the 7 from season 1 and the 6 shot from season 2, but it seems to be that TNT’s investment in this would be pretty small.

By: Jenna

Jenna — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:16:30 +0000

Awesome!

By: DefConDre

DefConDre — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:32:30 +0000

I bet anything beyond the episodes already filmed will be all that is seen. Too expensive to make more, but you never know. All I care about is that they keep making the terrific show that is “Leverage.” I just wish they made more than 12 episodes a year. It’s one of the best shows on all of TV & that is a fact. It’s clever, well written, & the cast is just about as well cast as you can get too. I know others feel the same way.

By: daniel patrick

daniel patrick — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:31:41 +0000

yeah where were they for Earl?!
but this is still good, if not great, i like this show and i missed the last 3 episodes of season 1 so this will be very nice and stuff

By: Wy

Wy — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:19:36 +0000

Wouldn’t it be funny if Southland aired in one of the 10 pm slots, as it likely would, and it ended up beating Jay Leno in viewer, household, demo and/or share numbers?

By: R.G

R.G — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:07:42 +0000

Great a Turner network finally saved an NBC show.

I guess they were trying to make up for not saving My Name Is Earl. They tried that with TBS and that didn’t do good.

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:36:36 +0000

Tory, well put! I’m really hoping TNT renews Dark Blue for a second season because I found it to be one of the only new shows of the summer that I actually enjoyed and looked forward to watching. The acting and production quality in Dark Blue are top notch and, in my opinion, superior to TNT’s other offerings.

By: Tory

Tory — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:07:11 +0000

I would like Dark Blue to be picked up for another season, definitely the more entertaining show of the two that you want to watch every week. I don’t see Southland having some great success in cable. It was good, but really so depressing. Since it is a good show, there does have to be a reason that Southland lost so many viewers in the short time that aired and it wasn’t from the pilot to the 2nd episode. As someone who watched the first 3 but not the rest, I’ll tell you for myself, I wasn’t in the mood for anything quite that dark every week. Even though TNT has the more law and order type shows, they aren’t really all that gritty, and Southland is very gritty. I still think FX was the better fit.

And I don’t have anything against gritty. The Wire is one of the best shows ever created. But whereas Southland is good. The Wire was excellent, superb, phenomenal. There’s a real payoff for watching all that grittiness, I don’t see that in Southland personally.

Nov. 2 definitely seems a bit soon, I guess we’ll see. But I never trust Nikki’s info. I always wait for it to be reported somewhere else before I’m inclined to believe it.

By: j

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:52:58 +0000

Ok, from TWOP forum reactions, people think this episode is on par with Epitaph One and I know they’ve been annoyed with the decline from EO too. Now I’m getting excited…

By: j

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:50:34 +0000

Oh I forgot Dollhouse was on tonight. I missed the last episode and don’t plan to see it. This week is Sierra’s backstory though which I suppose could be good…though if it’s too good I’d be annoyed by the over-a-month wait for the next one. Only to be disappointed, a la the drop from Epitaph One to this season so far.

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:34:50 +0000

I hope Southland isn’t a replacement for Dark Blue! What do you think the chances are that TNT pairs Southland with Dark Blue?

By: JG

JG — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:34:13 +0000

Well, I’m happy for Southland fans, and I hope it does well so that cable might become a more viable option for good network shows that are canceled.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:47:12 +0000

Andrew, I wasn’t suggesting that Nikki manufactured that nugget, only that perhaps the person passing it along to her has a more vested interest in being optimistic than TNT does.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:45:22 +0000

It wouldn’t be that difficult to get production started by Nov. 2, since they presumably have scripts ready to go, and I’m inclined to think that Finke didn’t just pull that little factoid out of her ass. As for why TNT would think new episodes were worthwhile, maybe they feel that six new episodes and seven repeats aren’t enough to measure the show’s audience in a satisfactory manner.

By: Roland

Roland — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:38:52 +0000

Wow a couple of you are very huge hypocrites.

You’d spend time to watch a show so long as its not on a network that you don’t support, but if that network is known to go left you’d disavow it? (and yes NBC is known to be leaning right-just as fox is leaning left)

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:31:15 +0000

Julia, you never know, Dollhouse might be like Xanax for you…

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:30:09 +0000

Actually, I think what I really need is Xanax. It’ll help with the sleep and the reason it’s lacking!

By: Joss's Biggest Fan

Joss's Biggest Fan — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:28:47 +0000

You don’t need sleep, Julia: you need Dollhouse! Unless you’re one of those lucky ducks who lives in an Eastern timezone, who’ve already seen the episode!

Watch Dollhouse tonight, fellow West Coasters! It comes on less than 2 hours from now!

Dollhouse! Dollhouse! Dollhouse! Dollhouse rules! Southland drools! Dollhouse!

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:22:02 +0000

I read your comment as you don’t see it going on air November 2nd, but I missed something in there. It’s Friday. I need sleep.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:20:30 +0000

Julia, I am only giving my view which may well be wrong. It is certainly understandable why you or anyone else would read it that way. What isn’t so understandable to me is the motivation TNT would have to be in a hurry to restart production.

By: Michal

Michal — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:17:48 +0000

That’s fair enough. But as a fan of the show, I hope you’re wrong.

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:11:43 +0000

Robert, I took that to mean November 2nd is the day they (potentially) restart production. Am I reading that wrong?

Edit: Ok, I see that I’m reading that right, and you just don’t see that happening.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:09:53 +0000

Michal, regardless of what happens, I will be very surprised if there’s a November 2nd start date for new production unless the six episodes already filmed for S2 require additional work to get on the air (which may be the case). But that strikes me as a small staff.

Unless TBS really wants to ride the “NBC bashing wave” (and even just picking up the already made eps allows them to do that) I would be very surprised if they made a decision on additional episodes without seeing how existing episodes do on TNT first. I suppose it’s possible they think it is can’t miss and want to lock up everyone involved, but that seems doubtful to me.

By: 5506/Orange5506

5506/Orange5506 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:07:37 +0000

Oh Man, Thanks Robert

By: preair

preair — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:06:24 +0000

GOOD NEWS!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:04:32 +0000

I’d put the chances of the already produced episodes of Southland airing on TNT at 85%. I don’t have a good feel for producing new episodes but just for grins I will say 12%.

By: Michal

Michal — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:02:28 +0000

According to Nikki Finke: “People working on the show are being told to prepare for a projected November 2nd re-start date”

If she’s right that might mean more than just 6 new episodes.