America First! (Outside the UK)
Well this press release posted on the Doctor Who News Page confirms it: Doctor Who series 4 is coming to Sci Fi Channel in the US in April (presumably after it starts in the UK; while it hasn’t been announced, based on past years it’s a safe bet the UK start will be the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend, so March 22). Sci Fi will be showing The Sarah Jane Adventures as well.
See how the wheel turns: in 2005, Canada got to see it months before the US as it was airing Doctor Who 10 days after UK broadcast in those halcyon NHL lockout days. Now citizens of the US will see it before Canadians, since the earliest the CBC could broadcast series 4 is the summer. Presuming the CBC actually shows series 4…
As the CBC were prompted by labour disputes to use Who as a profitable schedule filler in 2005, I suspect the same is giving Sci Fi the impetus to move Who up in the schedule (probably even enabled the Sarah Jane deal, as I would have thought given the show’s younger audience Sci Fi would have passed on the SJAs). The current WGA strike has effectively put their main programming anchor this spring—the final season of Battlestar Galactica—on hold. Doctor Who has proven to be quite successful for them and it seems a natural to fill that gap in the schedule.
Will the CBC follow suit and announce something? We can only hope…
Posted by Graeme on Tuesday, February 5 at 11:47 am
9 Comments...
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if eventually we see the CBC giving DOCTOR WHO some really bad time slot like at 11PM or something like that and on the worst night for ratings. (Which ever night that would be)
Posted by Douglas Grandy on 02/05 at 07:45 PM
My feeling is that they will show it—late Sunday evenings in a janitor closet at CBC Headquarters. Seating will be limited to how many can cram into the closet without moving the mops, since the janitor is picky about that.
Posted by Sean on 02/06 at 04:29 PM
why so negative peeps?
Don’t you remember the aggressive “Hands off the TARDIS, Doctor Who will return shortly!” between commercial breaks for season 3?
CBC positively revelled in season 3! And they had it slotted in Prime Time at 8pm on Monday nights!
Aaaaaaand, they streamed the episodes the day after the broadcast!
For a company that helped fund the creation of the series, they sure did a fantastic job of celebrating and advertising that fact for Season 3.
—little stevie
Posted by little stevie on 02/07 at 08:40 AM
Not to rain on your parade Little Stevie, but you are joking, right? This is the CBC that had NO promos in the month leading up to it (especially important as it was the STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS during that time—you know, the most watched programming period on CBC), never hyped that week’s broadcast but very occasionally ran a single ad with the same damn clips from Smith and Jones, scheduled The 2006 Christmas Special at midnight after the broadcast of the first episode, delayed episodes WITHOUT MENTIONING IT ON AIR.
Yeah, they did the great website, but “hands off the TARDIS” is not exactly promotion, much less aggressive at that (and it’s been their standard outro since Series 2, and even Eccleston said it in Series 1… you know, back when the CBC actually put money into plugging the show to have the stars introduce that night’s episode). And I would hardly call indifferent scheduling, no promotion (especially compared to what they did with Series 1 and even other summer programming) and not even bothering to read the episode synopses to realize they had a 14 episode series (and not 13) “reveling” in Doctor Who.
The CBC, frankly, blew it with Series 3: they had a great opportunity to get ratings at a time when they had a smaller playing field in the summer, had a virtually captive audience for ads during the Hockey playoffs…and did nothing but put up a great website. That’s not reveling. That’s ignoring.
Posted by Neff on 02/07 at 10:41 AM
I’m sorry you see it that way Neff.
I don’t recall the CBC standardizing “hands off the Tardis” since Series 2. The peeps in my posse all noted in surprise how the commentators created the “don’t switch that dial” recordings for series 3. We couldn’t have all missed something that significant in all 14 episodes of Series 2. So, yeah, I do contend that they reveled in it: as in, they had FUN with it ( not to be mistaken with “making fun of” ).
Granted: Series 2 got the polar opposite treatment of Series 1 so you really ought to give credit where its due—CBC came out of whatever stupor they were in for Series 2 and began showing interest again in Doctor Who for Series Three.
Best regards,
—little stevie
Posted by little stevie on 02/07 at 10:12 PM
i predict s4 will be on cbc sometime in 08 for the simple reason of money: as in, they can make lots of it for relatively little investment in production, marketing, publicity, etc. cbc is cash-strapped, oblivious to contemporary watching habits, & kinda arrogant, but they recognize a ratings winner in the rare event they see one. they have every reason to ensure that dw will be back. or so my peeps tell me.
Posted by Jimmy on 02/08 at 11:23 PM
I figure that like last year, we’ll see it after the hockey playoffs - but then of course the Olympics will put a spanner in the works too. Probably a 2 or 3 week break (no doubt with no notice, as usual).
I’m trying to stay positive. If not I’ll just be buying all the vanilla dvds from the UK again….I bought them last year but was a ‘good girl’ and only watched each episode the day before the CBC transmitted, to try and keep some sort of anticipation going.
As far as Torchwood - well again hopefully the fall. Not counting on it though, after all they made us wait a year for the first series.
Posted by Julie on 02/09 at 11:23 AM
When did the CBC announce that they were showing Series 3 last year? It seems later this year to me, and it feels like Doctor Who is unemportant to the CBC to me!
This past week THE HOUR was doing shows from London. I couldn’t believe they had Kylie Minogue on, and didn’t even mention “Voyage Of The Damned!!” I thought maybe the announcement might come around that time, but no silly me for hoping!
Posted by Peter W. Burns on 02/23 at 06:55 PM
Hi, i was wondering, how is the scifi channel gonna show 4th series of doctor who if they havent even finished yet? am i reading it wrong?? lol
Posted by sasha on 03/13 at 02:41 PM
Post a comment