An ABC spokeswoman confirmed exclusively to EW that V, the network’s much anticipated reboot of the old NBC miniseries, will air for a limited, four-episode run in November and then return to the schedule after the Olympics in March. News of the show’s unique rollout comes amid rampant speculation that the Warner Bros. TV drama was undergoing a serious overhaul after news broke that it would halt production for a two-week hiatus. Now, an insider confirms, the hiatus will extend for another four weeks to prepare for the show’s previously announced Nov. 3 debut. An ABC spokeswoman says it was always the network’s intent to the run the science fiction drama in “pod” form to treat it more like event programming.
The drama about an alien race that comes to earth – purportedly in peace – stars Elizabeth Mitchell and Scott Wolf. – With additional reporting from Michael Ausiello
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damnit….
They’re really screwing the pooch with this show. Why does ABC feel the need to meddle in all of their best shows? Once the show returns to much lower ratings after the long hiatus like Lost did in Season 3, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.
1, how do you know it’s one of ABC’s “best shows?” 2, this doesn’t mean they think it’s good. It means they think it stinks, isn’t worth the money they’re laying out and are looking for a reason to cancel it.
I was really looking forward to this show, but it seems that the ABC execs just wanna kill the show before it starts. They keep wondering why viewership is down, maybe its because no one wants to invest time in a show that may be cancelled or you have to wait months and months to watch again. If they were planning this they might as well hold the show til the spring and give it a real attempt.
It make’s fun of Obama. And he is not happy wake up. The main streem is for Obama, and if he hates it so do they
I really agree withyou on this one. I wonder what is on the mind of the executives when they make decisions like this.
This doesn’t bode well for retaining viewership.
ABC tried the “pod” approach with LOST in season 3 and the ratings plummetted. Viewers have serious A.D.D. and will not comeback when the series returns. Look at the drop off in viewers in all returning series with each new season premiere. This does not bode well for V unless there is a cliffhanger on par with “who shot JR”.
On the other hand, the shows that did not come back following the writer’s strike did worse than those that did when the new season fall started. Sometimes breaking up the schedule doesn’t kill a show.
Sounds like EM plenty of time to jet over to Hawaii and film some LOST !
Well, that clearly shows they don’t have any faith in this. Its already pre-canceled
“Pre-Canceled” – I love it. That just became my favorite new television term.
Way to go ABC/WB. A-effing-plus.
Not good news…
Hmm. Watching this (namely, seeing Scott Wolf) just makes me miss Everwood.
What the heck? Genius move, if their intent is to kill the show. -_-
There’s the nail in the coffin. It won’t be back next year.
uh if you say so Miss Cleo
4 episodes and then off until March? Yikes!! Has ABC not learned that long breaks kill serialized dramas?
Yeah, that just sucks.
Another stellar move by Always Botching Choices. It’s sad when I am more surprised by an intelligent move by Network execs than I am by an incredibly dumb one. Here those footsteps, its called cable original programming catching up daily.
Ah, I see ABC has picked up on the unfortunate trend of canceling a show before it even airs.
Way to sink a new show ABC.
If the show needed some tweaks creatively, why the hell then did they decide to premiere it in November in the 1st place? They should have just waited to premiere the damn show in 2010 and work out all the kinks then air some episodes and decide the rest aren’t good enough.
This is beyond stupid. Moves like this almost surely result in a cancelled show. If there can be a huge dropoff in viewership when a well-established show like LOST does this, why does ABC think they can successfully do this with a brand new show? Ugh.
Now I’m not sure if I should even bother watching this show.I loved the original but ABC really is screwing this up.
Dang it, I’d prefer they just premiere it in March and run it through – a break like this is what helped kill Pushing Daisies.
I love it when networks screw up and then try and convince the public that “oh yeah, we planned this”. So, they were always going to do the “pod” thing – then why was it never mentioned and why are they only doing it once – with just the first four episodes? Yeah, pod thing.
For the LOVE OF GOD, just hold the whole thing for the spring! How hard is this?
Pod format is very popular in European television especially Great Britain where they’ll show four episodes, consider it a “season” and then wait months before showing any more and call that another “season.” It’s something we’ve managed to avoid over here which is good because it’s annoying as hell, but in the now never-ending attempt to mix things up the networks will try ANYTHING to regain their status as “real TV” and push back against cable’s ever-advancing ratings.
Great Britain doesn’t have ’seasons’ as far as television is concerned. Most series are generally six episodes and there will be two series in one year. Frankly I think it works better than stretching a 22 week ’season’ over nine months which is the ridiculous way network tv works. The sooner they come to the conclusion that the tv season could be, and should be, year round the better for everyone. Having said that, this move on ABC’s part is particularly stupid.
Dear ABC, Stop acting like Fox.
Sounds Foxy to me too. Shame. Maybe the crew in “Defying Gravity” are actually the prequel and meeting the V ship near Venus. Hah Hah
Looking forward to it but not wanting another show cancelled before it even unfolds the story.
WTF? This show is as good as dead! No fans will wait that long!
Oh shut up
ALL I SEE IS DOOM..LIKE WITH PUSHING DAISIES, ELI STONE AND COUNTLESS OTHERS..WHY BOTHER??
Totally sucks big time!!!!
Like DOA….dead on arrival!!!
Way to go ABC. This show is already as good as dead.
I say that ABC shouldnt Air the Remake of the 1983 classic mini series V.I’m not going to watch it.
I gotta agree with everyone else here… This will kill the show. Is it that bad? Honestly? You’ve got a template to work from, how hard can this be? Work out the problems and just hold the show until Spring. By the time “V” comes back, I’ll be so wrapped up in LOST that I won’t remember, or care, what’s happened on “V”. ABC needs to stop messing up shows like this. Bad enough we have to wait so freakin’ long between seasons of Lost (Lost really needed a full 22 or more episode season this last time around, as season 5 seemed rushed), but “V” has pretty much failed before it even starts.