ABC Delays End of Daisies

[Brian Damage]

Dying to know where the Piemaker and his beloved Charlotte Charles will end up when Pushing Daisies comes to a close?

Join the club! But apparently ABC is in no hurry to give the fans closure.

Sources close to the Alphabet network tell me exclusively that the remaining episodes for Daisies will not air until—wait for it, ‘cause you're gonna have to—this summer.

And that's not all. It's the same case for those two other much-loved but recently canceled ABC series: Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money.

Yes, word is Daisies' final three episodes and Eli and DSM's final four won't air until June at the earliest.

According to insiders, the original plan was for the final three episodes of Daisies to begin airing last Wednesday, but ABC decided to air reruns of Scrubs instead.

And what you really won't want to hear is...

There's actually a pretty solid reason—from a business standpoint, at least—for ABC to delay the airing of these final episodes.

Though we all know Daisies, Eli and DSM are three of the best-produced series currently on television, the sad truth is that the programming ABC has plugged into those three timeslots (Wednesdays at 8, Tuesdays at 10 and Wednesdays at 10, respectively) have fared as well or better in the ratings. Even lame specials and reruns.

While Eli's last-aired epside on Dec. 30 pulled in about 3.8 million viewers, a candid-camera special called "What Would You Do?" got an audience of about 7 million in the same time slot on Jan. 6 and Scrubs got 6.7 million on Tuesday...up against American Idol.

On Dec. 17, Daisies' and DSM's final airings pulled in 4.6 million and 5.1 million respectively. Last Wednesday, a Barbara Walters special scored an audience of more than 12 million. And last night, reruns of Lost got similar numbers with an average of 4.5 million.

So while it's outrageous and (heartbreaking!) to have to wait six months to see the conclusion to these fan favorites, the question remains: Who is at fault? ABC or the American viewing public for not giving these shows a real shot in the first place?

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watc...eli_dirty.html

[robyrob]

this is really annoying - I hope this doesn't push back the season 2 dvd releases...

i bet that if they had aired each of these shows in a REGULAR slot on saturdays at 8PM (PD), 9PM (ES) and 10PM (DSM) they would have done far better in the ratings. I am still pissed at the way they kept pre-empting Pushing Daisies and showed only partial episodes on some nights - I didn't get to see some of the episodes completely until I bought the first season DVD.

[TJL]

That sucks.

Just show the damn episodes and get it over with.

Like any of their current programming is going to do any better against American Idol?

[Pavan]

Partial episodes? What do you mean, robyrob? I have seen them all oin TV...and there was nothing "partial" about them. It's probably your local affiliate that is messing up.

Anyway, news on the remaining episodes from McPherson:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/20...c-tv-land.html

[robyrob]

Originally Posted by pavanbadal

Partial episodes? What do you mean, robyrob? I have seen them all oin TV...and there was nothing "partial" about them. It's probably your local affiliate that is messing up.

Anyway, news on the remaining episodes from McPherson:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/20...c-tv-land.html

several episodes were started 10 to 15 minutes in, or started after the hour and the local affiliate cut to the news on the hour instead of showing the last few minutes of the show when it ran past the hour

i HATE the way ABC does this - starting or ending shows before or after the hour