ABC pulls "Daybreak," "Show Me the Money"

Says broadcasting and cable.

Mills...

IIRC, the last ep. of Money ended mid-game with the contestant around
400-500K. Does that contestant get f'ed with the winnings if the
remainder of his game never airs?

David Levy...

I'm wondering that myself. He did appear on television, so I assume
that the precise wording of the contract will determine whether he
receives the payout (if there was one). Based upon my understanding
of the usual terms, I'm inclined to think that he won't (because the
game wasn't completed on-air).

Hunter Rose...

I can't believe players (or their lawyers) would sign
something that leaves actually receiving their winnings up to
completely arbitrary decisions by the production company or network.

David Levy...

Why is that so difficult to believe? The alternative is to not appear
(in which case someone else will gladly take one's place).

There has to be an 'out' where players receive their winnings after a
set amount of time or after the first airing of the episode, whichever

David Levy...

Nope, not in a standard U.S. game show contract.

There is, however, no cutoff point. If GSN were to acquire the rights
to the unaired installments of "Show Me the Money" and televise them
ten years from now, someone (depending upon GSN's contract) would be
on the hook for awarding the contestants' winnings (assuming that ABC
opts not to pay now). This is why we seldom see previously unaired
installments of game shows on GSN (and when we do, they typically
involve relatively minor prizes).

comes first. Otherwise, we'd have seen tons of lawsuits (even if the
contracts were iron-clad).

David Levy...

I'm sure that various contestants have sued over the years (and
promptly been laughed out of court by the judges).

The sucky part is that he was the first likeable player to compete on
this train wreck of series. His name is Bob Glouberman, and this is
the second time that he's been a contestant for a game show's final
broadcast! (He appeared on the last installment of NBC's "Classic
Concentration" in 1991.) He also won $135,000 on the second of only
five installments of Fox's "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" (all
broadcast during the same week of 2000), so this is the *third* time
that Glouberman has appeared as a contestant during a game show's
final week!

"Money" will be replaced by "Funniest Home Videos" reruns. "Daybreak"
will be replaced by a comedy block.

Sean Walsh...

Wait, didn't I read that Daybreak opened to HUGE numbers?

David...

It premiered after the "Dancing with the Stars" finale, which got 27
million viewers. "Daybreak" fell to 10.5 million viewers.

bklyntv...

And I'm sorry, but Groundhog Day without the gorging on pancakes,
donuts and omlettes scene? Pointless.

Sean Walsh...

Groundhog Day without Bill Murray.

This thing seemingly collapsed quicker than the XFL..... :-O

kaydigi...

April Fools right? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? What's point of pulling Day
Break now?

This is officially the worst TV season ever. Smith, Day Break, MY Network
TV, yuck!!.

Garondo Marondo...

Look its 2003 all over again! At least they aired all of the Invasion
episodes.

evwill...

According to TV Week, the remaining produced "Day Break" episodes will
go up on ABC.com.

David Chesler...

It's small consolation I suppose.
Didn't they promise that they really and truly would show 13 episodes
without interruption?

Somehow I'm not watching TV this year, except Family Guy. I think it
has to do with working an effective extra 10 hours per week. The cop
shows were all looking alike, Grey's Anatomy got too soap opera... But
this one I was watching (actually taping -- I watched the pilot live,
but I've slowly been catching up on what I taped.)

I don't want to know how it ends badly enough to download, but maybe
I'll buy the DVD. (Or maybe I'll just watch the last episode -- I
don't think I could stand to sit through it for 10 straight hours.)

Edward McArdle...

If you buy the DVD you are under no compulsion to watch it all in one go!
That's the point of owning it!

copeab...

Which means nothing to people without high-speed connections.

fred_h_haddad...

(1) If you can afford to drop $5000 on a big screen, you can afford to
drop $30 on the Daybreak DVD or Bluray. Then you'll have your
hi-resolution picture.

(2) I don't have high-speed but can still bit-torrent them from the
pirates.

pv+usenet...

Did the finish the storyline? PLEASE tell me they did. *

David B...

The 13th and final episode wraps up the enntire story.

masonReloaded...

I dont understand why networks dont always air remaining episodes of
cancelled series. Surely they have already paid for the production of
the episodes and so lose nothing by showing them? And if its cos the

karl...

I would guess they can get higher ratings with a rerun of another tried and
true.

David...

They've also already paid for whatever they'll put on to replace the
cancelled series since the license allows them to air each episode
three times.

ratings are so low, surely theres a timeslot somewhere where unaired
episodes would get more viewers than the show in that timeslot normally
(even if its at midnight...)

karl...

I would guess that they can get more from selling a couple 30 minute blocks
of latenight time to infomercials.

Jorabi...

I wish the contracts would allow for network affiliates to be offered
the remaining episodes as if they were syndicated shows. They could
run them wherever they feel they would succeed best in their area,
and be able to sell local ad time.

Local time is a lot more plentiful than network primetime and latenight!

Everett W.