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True, the ratings stink for Media Rights Capital’s Sunday night line-up on The CW network. And the company is busy denying rumors that both Valentine and Easy Money (which the critics like) 
will be cancelled any minute or that the company couldn’t secure a bridge loan at a decent rate to cover expenses until the next installment of funding arrives. (What is confirmed is that MRC’s block of shows are taking a “planned production hiatus” until the first week of December. And the company claims it’s already funded from its most recent credit facility.) But there’s also positive news for the independent Hollywood production company. ABC has now ordered 10 scripts for Mike Judge’s adult toon The Goode Family airing in January. Lifetime wants 3 more scripts for its new comedy series Rita Rocks debuting on October 20th. And NBC just outbid Fox to make a development pilot deal with MRC for a “green screen” TV series drama, Jason And The Argonauts, supposedly to air in the spring. So Ben Silverman thinks he’ll save the network’s primetime with a toga show. Is this a joke?
Another Indie Finds Big Bucks Financing
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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No bigger a joke than thinking he’ll save it with Merlin or Crusoe. Seriously, why is NBC airing shows that look like they should have aired in syndication during the late ’90s? Is it the American Gladiators effect?
Actually Sanctuary on Sci-Fi is the first green screen tv show
…and what’s wrong with a primetime toga show? Hercules and Xena both successfully turned mythology into profit, and it wouldn’t be that tough to market Smallville meets ’300′.
Mike: Because the late ’90s was the last time NBC was on top, so in Ben Silverman’s drug-addled mind, that’s what they got to get back to.
Except he seems to have veered into Saturday afternoons, instead of Primetime. I suggest he give Jerry Seinfeld a half-hour each week to flog whatever products he’s attached himself to lately.
MRC forgot one critical thing… P&A. Can anyone even tell me they knew these shows existed. We live in LA and there isn’t outdoor anywhere, let alone radio. Did they really believe CW on-air promos would be enough? They manage to create a paradigm shift in the way independent money can play in TV and they forget about marketing. What a collossol blunder. As to Ben, I don’t think he’s going anywhere. There’s no way Zucker fires him because it would an admission his own ego could never survive. I like Ben. He takes chances and he’s not afraid to hold the big sword and go for it.
MRC tv has put 8 shows on the air since Oct of last year, with four of them receiving additional episode or script orders. Maybe Keith Samples should take Ben’s job….
Yes, but the real joke is how MRC is clearly disconnected w/ what an audience wants. They have no idea what they’re doing and it shows. Despite all their hype and all their hoopla, they have none of the results. Their television division lacks any leadership or talent and it shows.
I fail to see how The CW or MRC can make any money with either ‘Valentine’ or ‘Easy Money’!
While neither show is anywhere near as bad as some as the crap that NBC has inflicted on an unsuspecting public,
they are loading them up with at least 23 minutes of ads per show!
Who the hell is going to sit through that?
The few people that want to watch this fluff will record them & then skip the ads, meaning any money spent to advertise on these shows goes right down the toilet!
I wouldn’t want to be the ad buyer at an agency trying to defend wasting thousands to place ads that no one sees. At some point, which I’m sure is this week, the buyers are going to put the word out that they won’t risk their jobs, especially in this rotten economy, to advertise on a couple of mediocre shows.
No ads=no shows, no matter what the ratings!
And “planned production hiatus”, nobody said a word until now, just two shows into the season.
I hope no one working on the shows took out any loans based on the belief they had steady work for a year.
And to add yet another insult to MRC & The CW, only 848,000 were stupid enough to watch last Sunday night!
He’s intelligently trying to zig left when everyone else is zagging right by producing entertaining family programming, of which there is little on primetime other than reality entries Idol and Dancing With The Stars. Both of those shows are obviously enormously successful, in part, because they are suitable for all generations so if just one of these shows connects, Silverman has a home run. And meanwhile, he is intelligently hedging his bets via who he chooses as his suppliers for this content.
It feels like sometimes it would benefit you, Nikki, and some of your posters, to take off your blinders, take a step back from taking any chance you get at bashing Ben, and appreciate the fact that, at times, he is simply doing his job, and doing it well. When you are in fourth place its all about taking big bets, and the smartest places to aim are the places no one else is occupying.
Sure a network in last place needs to take chances, but do you really think all these historical action adventure shows are the way to go? If Ben Silverman wants to zig when others were zagging he should pour some money into developing some really good four camera sitcoms. There are hardly any on the air and I guarantee the public is hungry for them. And considering how much money How I Met Your Mother just sold into syndication for, they wouldn’t even have to be THAT successful to make a profit. But instead he’s producing crap that no one wants to see and will be canceled in a few weeks or reality junk that can’t be sold into syndication or put on dvd.
Is anyone going to comment on the fact that both Keith Samples and Dawn Parouse are no longer working at MRC?