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[Rabid Wolverine]

http://www.buffy.nu/article.php3?id_article=5522

WB Wants Angel Movie - Confirmed by Garth Ancier, chairman of The WB network
From Scifi.com - 2004-07-15th




Garth Ancier, chairman of The WB network, confirmed to SCI FI Wire that the network has approached Angel creator Joss Whedon about doing a telefilm version of the canceled television series, about a vampire with a soul. "[We] have an offer on the table to Joss to do movies," Ancier said during the network’s fall press preview in Los Angeles. "When Joss and David Boreanaz are both interested in doing it at the same time, I’m sure we will be doing Angel movies. Certainly Joss would like to. David will take a bit more coaxing, but I think he will do it."

Ancier later attributed the cancellation of the series, which ended a five-year run on The WB last May, to pressure from producer 20th Century Fox Television for a quick answer as to the show’s renewal. "They had pushed for an early decision on whether the show should come back or not," Ancier said. "Had they not pushed for the early renewal, or, conversely, if we had said, ’You know what? Let’s wait till we get to the scheduling room in May and decide then,’ ... the show may or may not have been back. But I think we would have had that opportunity to discuss it. I think the mistake that was made is that between us and 20th, we didn’t wait until May. We just made the decision early based upon their request."


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From Tvguide.com :

Death of an Angel

Twentieth Television’s request for WB to commit early to another season of Angel might have led to its cancellation.

This is going to hurt Angel fans.

Twentieth Television’s request for WB to commit early to another season of Angel might have led to its cancellation.

Ancier said had the studio been willing to wait until May - when WB executives set the fall schedule - there was a decent chance Angel might have been back for another season. Angel was a perennial "bubble" show. In the three seasons it was renewed, the decision was made in May after new pilots had been viewed and a fall schedule was set. That might have been the same case this year.

"The mistake that was made between us and Twentieth was that we didn’t wait until May, we just made the decision early based upon their request," he said.

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No shit they made a mistake.... Letting one of the best TV series Fade Away.

Still hopefully David Boreanaz comes round to do it... But no Wesley >?

 

[fart]

rolleyes rolleyes

he's just trying to smooth things over with joss since you know, he cancelled joss's show.

i really don't expect this to happen

 

[SolidSnakex]

So here's a list of the WB's excuses so far:

1.) The show just wasn't popular.

2.) The ratings just didn't increase enough.

3.) The show has an installed fanbase and just isn't growing anymore.

4.) The repeats don't do well enough.

5.) 20th Century made us do it!

Right now though Joss isn't too fond of Fox (same goes for alot of Buffyverse writers), and I doubt Joss cares too much for the WB at the moment. I'd still like to see the movies made though.

 

[Scrow]

The guy who plays Spike was on an entertainment show here in Australia called Rove Live, and he mentioned the possibility of three tele-movies. He said that Joss actually approached him about it, so I guess Joss is willing if he's discussing it with the actors. *shrugs*

 

[SFA_AOK]

Wasn't sure which thread to post it in... Absence of Buffy and Angel hurts Sky One, satellite/cable channel in the UK

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1269586,00.html

Sky One ratings slain by Buffy

Jason Deans, broadcasting editor
Tuesday July 27, 2004

The failure to find a popular successor to cult series Buffy the Vampire Slayer has sent Sky One's audience share among young viewers plummeting, down by almost a quarter in the first half of 2004.

New figures show the share of multichannel viewing taken by BSkyB's flagship entertainment channel in the year to July 18 fell 23% among 16- to 34-year-olds.

Across all age groups the decline is almost as severe, down by 21% to 2.46%.

And Sky One is bracing itself for further audience losses in the coming months as competition increases from ITV and Channel 4 multichannel services.

On Thursday nights, when Buffy was broadcast last year in a double bill with spin-off show Angel, the channel's share is down a massive 43% to 3.34% among 16- to 34-year-olds.

Both shows have now come to an end and even the acquisition of hit thriller 24 and sci-fi series Jake 2.0 - broadcast in the same Thursday night slot between 8pm and 10pm - has not been enough to halt the ratings slide.

While Buffy and Angel attracted average ratings of 860,000 and 749,000 respectively, Jake 2.0 averages 468,000 and 24 is watched by 550,000.

Sky One is now showing repeats of Angel on Tuesday nights, which have taken over as the channel's strongest in viewing terms.

It is followed by either Las Vegas or Nip/Tuck, the popular black comedy about two plastic surgeons that proved Sky One's most popular import this year by averaging 768,000 in the ratings.

Sky One also put in a strong performance for its exclusive interview with David Beckham's former PA Rebecca Loos on her alleged affair with the England captain.

The interview was watched by 1.7 million people, taking a 14.46% share of the viewing.

Even when the figures are counted by BSkyB's preferred measurement - excluding 4 million Freeview homes where Sky One is not available and including timeshift channel Sky One Mix - the channel's share is still down overall year on year, from 4.86% to 4.16%.

ITV2's multichannel share to July 18 was 1.59%, up from 1.46% year on year.

And ITV and Channel 4 will be pouring up to £65m in extra programme funding into their multichannel outlets in the next year, with ITV2's budget doubled and two new launches planned - ITV3 and More4.

To combat all this activity, a relaunch is planned for Sky One this autumn, with new on-screen graphics and an emphasis on more upmarket programming such as gritty western drama Deadwood, which was bought from HBO. Full details of the relaunch are expected to be unveiled next week.

The relaunch will also be intended to try to halt the decline in Sky One's audience share, which has continued in the first half of 2004.

As well as losing ground among all viewers, Sky One's share among its target audience is also slipping.

Sky One's multichannel share of 16- to 34-year-olds is 3.43% - compared with 4.44% a year ago. Even when Sky One Mix's share is added 0.65%, the overall trend is still downward.

The budget for ITV2 is being doubled to £48m, with the extra money to be spent on more sport, films, new entertainment formats and extensions to ITV1 drama brands such as Coronation Street.

ITV is also planning to launch ITV3 before the end of the year, with a £12m annual budget and a drama-heavy schedule aimed at an audience aged 35 and over, to complement ITV2's younger target demographic.

The broadcaster is still locked in negotiations with BSkyB that will decide whether ITV3 will be a pay or free-to-air digital service.

ITV3 will face direct competition from Channel 4, which is also launching a new service aimed at over-35s, More4, early next year.

Plans for More4 are still being finalised, but an annual budget of between £10m and £30m is being talked about.

The channel is expected to feature drama and Channel 4 factual output ranging from property formats Grand Design and Location, Location, Location to history series fronted by David Starkey and Niall Ferguson.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Yah it was reported not too long ago that Sky was willing to pay half of the costs of Angel Season 6 if another network was willing to pick up the other half of the costs. They definetly wanted the show back. Too bad the WB was too busy making excuses for why they cancelled it to not take Sky up on their offer. An offer that'd made Angel the lowest budget show on their roster (with the exception of reality shows) and yet also one of the shows with the biggest ratings.

 

[Mama Smurf]

The whole situation is absolutely ridiculous.

Still, this is good news for any future Buffy projects. If a Faith spin off for example is having trouble getting off the ground, Sky might just jump in there and help out. They must know it's a whole Buffy universe thing and not just those two shows that would pull in the ratings.

 

[Anyanka]

ANYA SPIN OFF!!!!

 

[Mama Smurf]

I always wanted a spin off with Giles, Andrew and Dawn.

Obviously I'm going off the whole Watcher/Ripper idea, so Giles would be the main character, and I was really thinking of it before season 5 of Angel. I think it'd be great to bring Dawn and Andrew out from the shadows of more established characters. Dawn could really come into her own without Buffy around to help her, she'd have to, and Andrew would be allowed to grow without Xander around to knock him back whenever he tries to.

Plus Giles is never funnier than when dealing with complete morons. It'd be like early Buffy again. And every so often he could snap and yell at them and ask them why they don't realise that it's serious and that girls will die or something.

 

[Ripclawe]

Ancier later attributed the cancellation of the series, which ended a five-year run on The WB last May, to pressure from producer 20th Century Fox Television for a quick answer as to the show’s renewal.

translation:" I just looked over our fall lineup.. we are so fucked..COME BACK JOSS!"

 

[Anyanka]

Plus there was the early aborted signs of a Andrew/Dawn ship in mid season 7.


But really, Tom Lenk in anything is a good idea.