Comedy Central airtime?

[on:]

Anyone have any idea what time Comedy Central plans to air Futurama? When does their contract start? Jan 1, 2008?

I hope they put it on after Colbert, but before Stewart would work.

When are their other cartoons on?

[Reply #1 on:]

I'm pretty sure it'll be paired up with South Park, but that's just a guess on my part.

[Reply #2 on:]

Cartoon Network's last shout to the series will start Dec. 26.  They will run every episode on Adult Swim from Dec. 26- Dec. 31.

Then CC will have the exclusive cable rights to the 72 episodes and the 'new' episodes from Jan 1, 2008 to Dec 31, 2013.

[Reply #3 on:]

Yeah thery'd probably put it with South Park. That's the best time slot they have too, because South Park is their most watched show (as far as I know...) so if Futurama comes on right after it the would be very good but that's also at 10:30 so maybe like at 9:30 right before South Park. I guess wen wont know until they get the rights to the show Jan 1 at 12:01.

[Reply #4 on:]

What I was wondering is whether they were going to show all 72 episodes before airing the new ones, or just a key selection.  To broadcast the entire run and still reach BBS in 2007 they'd have to show twice a week.  And I agree they need to show some originals before moving on to BBS, since you really need to be a fan to appreciate BBS.

[Reply #5 on:]

I don't even think Comedy Central has rights to even advertise the show until 2008. And according to the "legitimate" Wikipedia, the show will premiere on the channel in February of that year (and I've yet to see evidence to support that statement).

Comedy Central might air the shows in mini-marathons every few weeks to cover the series within a few months. If they do it in 6-hour marathons every, how about four weeks, and if they start in early February, then they won't be done until about September-ish. I believe that Comedy Central has weird seasons. I'm not sure (correct me, I'll be wrong with something), but I believe that they have two seasons. For example, if South Park made 26 episodes for the entire season that year, 13 episodes would air in the fall and the other 13 would air in the spring. If I'm right, then Comedy Central could air the episode versions of "Bender's Big Score" and "A Beast with a Billion Backs" during the fall season, then in 2009, after the other two movies have had a chance to get released on DVD and reap in the DVD-fan profit, then they could go on to air "Bender's Game" and "Into the Wild, Green Yonder" for that spring season.

I can only hope that Comedy Central would release give the DVDs a chance to first be released before airing the episodes to the public. I don't know how many average fans would go on and buy a movie on DVD when they easily could have TiVo'ed it (us PEELers aren't of the "average" breed, we'd buy it regardless).

[Reply #6 on:]

Comedy Central must have some rights cause I saw a Benders Big Score preview on comedy central

[Reply #7 on:]

 

Originally posted by trickster381:
Comedy Central must have some rights cause I saw a Benders Big Score preview on comedy central

I saw it too, but I'm sure there is a legal/contractual difference between promoting dvd sales and promoting the series. (The Big Score promo was probably a paid ad from Fox, actually.)  I'm sure it is all spelled out in contracts filed in Hollywood.

What I'd like to know is if Big Score has been edited into the four new episodes yet. My guess is that they would show some key story-building episodes first (many examples of such lists on PEEL). If they don't, can you imagine introducing Futurama to a partly new audience by starting with Big Score? No way.

[Reply #8 on:]

 

Originally posted by Frida Waterfall:
I believe that Comedy Central has weird seasons. I'm not sure (correct me, I'll be wrong with something), but I believe that they have two seasons. For example, if South Park made 26 episodes for the entire season that year, 13 episodes would air in the fall and the other 13 would air in the spring. If I'm right, then Comedy Central could air the episode versions of "Bender's Big Score" and "A Beast with a Billion Backs" during the fall season, then in 2009, after the other two movies have had a chance to get released on DVD and reap in the DVD-fan profit, then they could go on to air "Bender's Game" and "Into the Wild, Green Yonder" for that spring season.

I can only hope that Comedy Central would release give the DVDs a chance to first be released before airing the episodes to the public. I don't know how many average fans would go on and buy a movie on DVD when they easily could have TiVo'ed it (us PEELers aren't of the "average" breed, we'd buy it regardless).

It's actually the other way around. The season starts in winter at the beginning of the year and goes 'til like April/May-ish with the first half, then in October start the second half of the season. That's really the only thing that I don;t like about Comedy is the way they air their seasons.I would think that they would have the DVDs go out first then air the season.

[Reply #9 on:]

What I think Comedy Central should, and likely will, do is pair Drawn Together, Futurama, and South Park with eachother on Wednesday night after the Stewart/Colbert hour at 8:00. That way, you get a good audience tuning in at 8 for Stewart/Colbert, then they stick around for Drawn Together to see Futurama and South Park afterwards. Futurama won't just be attached to South Park so it will get good ratings; it'll be attached to help South Park's ratings too. I remember seeing a chart on [as] once that showed Futurama as [as]'s #1 source of ratings and revenue. The chart showed that Futurama got far more ratings and revenue than all of Anime combined. If this is so, Futurama will definitely help South Park, which already has great ratings.

Also, there's 72 episodes of Futurama. (You all should know this.) Comedy Central should air them straight through once. So, if they started this February, they'd run dry in September 2009. By this point, considering the current outlook for movie releases, all the movies will have been out. That gives CC a 16 episode season that they can air just in time for the fall season. They could split it 8 and 8 and air episodes critical to remember during the winter break. This makes it so they would really run dry of new material in Spring 2010.

Now, remember the effects that ratings and DVD sales can have. If the first two or three DVDs have outstanding sales and reviews, we might know next Fall whether or not more Futurama is coming. If CC ratings are great, the network might decide to air more Futurama, thus pushing forward they date they'd run dry from the original run, allowing them to air the new stuff from the DVDs earlier. Waiting an entire year and a half to air anything new is a long wait. If ratings are good enough, it will help the effort for more Futurama past the movies.

So the power to get more Futurama is in the hands of the money in our pockets and the remote in our hands... again.


Edit: I think it'd be hilarious if they aired Everybody Loves Hypnotoad on April Fools' Day, sort of like what they did with Terrance and Philip.

[Reply #10 on:]

 

Originally posted by JustNibblin':
What I was wondering is whether they were going to show all 72 episodes before airing the new ones, or just a key selection.  To broadcast the entire run and still reach BBS in 2007 they'd have to show twice a week.  And I agree they need to show some originals before moving on to BBS, since you really need to be a fan to appreciate BBS.

*nods* That's what I worry about. I don't know how BBS is going to get new fans. It seems like it would be pretty confusing if you hadn't seen the show before.

[Reply #11 on:]

It's still quite confusing if you have seen the show before 

Also, doesn anyone know whether the eps will air in the UK? Becaus ehaven't they got extra footage?

[Reply #12 on:]

Apparently, the extra footage will consist of "previously on..." segments and a couple of fake commercials (a la "Arachno-Spores")

[Reply #13 on:]

or Glagnars Human Rinds.

[Reply #14 on:]

We haven't seen any commercials for the new Futurama on Comedy Central yet. 

[Reply #15 on:]

while I have seen a fairly heavy rotation on the BBS promo, I don't recall any promotion for the series either

[Reply #16 on:]

I've added this to the news thread already but thought it would be useful here too:
 http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NYM12517122007-1.htm

[Reply #17 on:]

Wow it starts on comedy central only a couple days after it leaves adult swim.

[Reply #18 on:]

[aadult swim] will be airing only Futurama from the night of December 26th/27th through the night of December 30th/31st. I plan on watching as much as possible.

You can already find Futurama on the schedule on comedycentral.com, although there is no page on the site for Futurama yet. I'd expect it to come up after January 1st. On the site, it says three episodes a night for Jan 2nd through 4th, and then a 6 hour/12 episode marathon on Sunday the 6th. The future looks bright for Futurama, with Comedy Central airing it a more easy-to-watch times.

Also, for some reason, it numbers the episode by Fox broadcast order and lists "A Bucyclops Built for Two". I just hope they don't air them in the horribly inaccurate Fox broadcast order. Unfortunately, I just looked it up and the order shown for the Sunday marathon is the Fox broadcast order, not the production order.

[Reply #19 on:]

I don't see a huge problem with that.... That's the order I originally saw the show in.

[Reply #20 on:]

Well I never saw the series in anything resembling an orderso whatev. The FOX broadcast order is annoying because stuff is mixed around. Comedy Central why not in the production order? WHY?!!

[Reply #21 on:]

Is the production order the order they are on the DVD's?

[Reply #22 on:]

Yes it is.

[Reply #23 on:]

Didn't want to start a thread for it, but Cartoon Network is going to have a Futurama marathon from the 26th onwards. Interesting how they're going to fit 72 episodes in four days.

[Reply #24 on:]

Am I the only one a little sad when I see the commercials for the LAST airing of Futurama on AdultSwim?  I mean, without AS, Futurama most likely would be dead for good.  Here's hoping Comedy Central treats it even half as good.

[Reply #25 on:]

All 72 episodes could be shown in 24 hours if run back to back.. Also, moving Futurama to Comedy Central would place it at a more reasonable time-slot (hopefully).

[Reply #26 on:]

jacoby, I belive futurama will be treated better on comedy central because it will be shown on more watchable times, and hopefully they don't run about 20 of the episodes over and over and over agian, and maybe they will make futurama comercials

[Reply #27 on:]

 

Originally posted by scruffy_pizazz:
All 72 episodes could be shown in 24 hours if run back to back.. Also, moving Futurama to Comedy Central would place it at a more reasonable time-slot (hopefully).

Futurama WILL be in a more watchable time-slot and it's not possible to wach every episode in 24 hours on a TV station because they have to have comercials because they get revenue from them. I'm not sure about at home though...

[Reply #28 on:]

I don't quite understand about ratings, does it matter who watches, or is it a select few that represent the masses.. I've heard about neilson families and I'm pretty sure I'm not one of them.

[Reply #29 on:]

Unlike over-the-air broadcasters cable companies can say exactly how many sets are tuned into a particluar show. There are some customer privacy restrictions but I think raw data like that can be released to the industry.

[Reply #30 on:]

Pi-for-i.

Neat. 

[Reply #31 on:]

 

Originally posted by scruffy_pizazz:
I've heard about neilson families and I'm pretty sure I'm not one of them.

I'm not sure if it works this way all around, but my family got to be a Nielsen family when someone representing them came around our neighbourhood door-to-door and asked if we'd like to be one. Essentially, they give you a box, plug your family's information into it (age, gender) and assign each family member a number (with leftover spots for guests) - whenever you turn your TV on the box also comes on and you just hit a button to say which family member is watching. So if you don't have one of those boxes, I believe, you aren't part of a Nielsen family.

[Reply #32 on:]

For those who didn't read my post:
 

Originally posted by i_c_weiner:
[aadult swim] will be airing only Futurama from the night of December 26th/27th through the night of December 30th/31st. I plan on watching as much as possible.

You can already find Futurama on the schedule on comedycentral.com, although there is no page on the site for Futurama yet. I'd expect it to come up after January 1st. On the site, it says three episodes a night for Jan 2nd through 4th, and then a 6 hour/12 episode marathon on Sunday the 6th. The future looks bright for Futurama, with Comedy Central airing it a more easy-to-watch times.

The 72 episodes will not be shown in back-to-back-to-back-to-back etc., but will be shown as the only thing on [adult swim] for, basically, an entire week.


Winna, my problem with showing them in the Fox broadcast order is that that order shows characters before they've been introduced. I believe Dwight, for one, is shown before he's introduced.

[Reply #33 on:]

I just recently got cable so I completely forgot they can keep track of that stuff.

[Reply #34 on:]

Perhaps with *digital* cable they can keep track of that, but with standard cable there is no way that they can keep track of who is watching what.  Cable ratings work exactly the same as broadcast ratings.

[Reply #35 on:]

Perhaps you should read your agreement with your cable service. Also check the web for some of the technology that been around for quite some time, even if you have analog service. There's a difference between what cable companies are capable of collecting and what they are legally allowed to share with others (at least in the US).

[Reply #36 on:]

Good News Everyone! We have learned that Comedy Central will be showing Futurama's 72 episodes beginning on Wednesday, January 2, 2008. Two Back-To-Back episodes will air from Wednesday through Friday from 8:00 pm (2000) to 9:00 pm (2100). After the "Premiere Week", episodes of Futurama will air from Monday to Thursday, and also Fridays at 9:00 pm. Also, four new episodes (from Bender's Big Score) will air in the First Quarter of 2008, and another 12 from the next three movies.

This is good news!!

[Reply #37 on:]

Ok, so "first quarter" of 2008. That sounds better than having to wait until they've gone through all the old episodes first.

[Reply #38 on:]

Yep first quarted is damn sight better than having to wait. So we're looking at the new episodes to start airing between January and March.

[Reply #39 on:]

I just hope this doesn't turn out like all the other shows I was so stoked were moving to comedy central. A few times through the series and then it's gone forever, to be shown on nights where they don't have anything between the end of the uncensored movie and the beginning of the infomercials.