Would You Pay $800,000 for a Censored Rerun of True Blood?
When HBO sold Sex and the City into syndication, pundits scoffed that there wouldn't be much left in the episodes after timid basic-cable edits, but with some prudent trimming of Kim Cattrall's most salacious scenes, the reruns did big business on TBS without too much of an outcry. Still, can HBO stablemate True Blood possibly survive a syndicated version bowdlerized of its sex and violence -- and is the network asking too much for it?
The LAT notes that HBO is looking to sell syndication rights to True Blood for $800,000 an episode, but that history may not be on the network's side:
The most recent example of this is Spike, which shelled out $600,000 per episode for reruns of "Entourage," only to see it struggle on its network. "Entourage" premiered on Spike in January and since then the network has tried it on four different nights with less than stellar results.
Another HBO show that cost a lot but didn't deliver for the buyer was "Six Feet Under," which Bravo paid $250,000 an episode to acquire. It didn't last too long there, and now Bravo parent NBC Universal is burning off the purchase on its little-seen cable network Universal HD.
The money spent on those two shows is chump change when compared with the roughly $2.6 million per episode A&E coughed up for "The Sopranos." While the mob drama had a strong debut, drawing 4.4 million viewers, more than half were gone just two months later.
I put it to you: while Sex and the City could get away with cutting a Samantha Jones subplot or two for syndication, how will True Blood cut some of its most pivotal, R-rated scenes and make any sense at all? Are they going to take a cue from VH1's treatment of Showgirls and superimpose bikinis onto everyone, or will they reedit Bill's recent head-twisting hate-f**king of Lorena so that it's just Russell with his ear to the door, giggling like a schoolgirl?
HBO hopes 'True Blood' reruns will bleed green [LAT]
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Comments
I wouldn't pay for it. But that's because I steal cable.
And I can't stand the show.
So after all the edits what you will be left with is a 2.5 minute trailer padded out with tons of commercials, promotional considerations, and "closed-captioning sposored by..." endorsements. In other words, the "Baywatch" formula.
Wait, isn't the censored version ostensibly Twilight?
Take out the sex and violence? You're left with inconsistent scripting, cackhanded plotting, risible performances and not much else. "True Blood" has had its Melrose Place moment by now - surely it's best left alone?
"I wouldn't pay for it. But that's because I steal cable."
With each comment you post Winchester, I feel more and more that we are kindred.
Yes, PLEASE do the Showgirls treatment. Somewhere, there's a roto artist fresh out of school who needs the gig, and anyone who's drunk at 1am will get a kick out of it. Not sure if that justifies $800,000 per episode, but come on.
That price tag is on the nutty side, no way is the show worth that amount given HBO's syndication track record. But the reason TB might work where 6 Feet and The Sopranos failed in syndication is that it is fun oddball show that does not demand a deep understanding of byzantine plot lines (Nate's on and off again "N'arm" issues, who's due to get whacked in No. NJ etc.) to understand/enjoy it if someone happened to flip past it on the dial.
Really though, does any show that's not a procedural really succeed in syndication? - 3 CSIs, NCIS, 3 Law & Orders, etc.