Runaway Bride now to air June 18 at midnight
The truth is, we’re just as confused as the rest of you.
First, The Runaway Bride was going to air on Monday June 11 only if there was no game 7 of the playoffs…then with that being the case it was truly going to air on June 11th. CBC Audience Relations confirmed this as did DWIN’s CBC contacts…
And now comes the announcement it’s airing at midnight on June 18. That’s right, after the series 3 premiere at 8pm.
As best as we can piece together (and DWIN is working to get some confirmation), this is what happened:
From what we can gather from its Audience Relations department, as far as the CBC is concerned, The Runaway Bride is not a part the package of episodes that comprise Series 3. It’s a special, and a Christmas special at that. (That’s probably how the BBC designated it as well.)
Obviously, Doctor Who fans differ with this view. We are guessing the feedback they got about putting on the Christmas Special on in an unscheduled timeslot with little promotion led them to rethink the June 11 timeslot. With the summer schedule booked into fall (and the Christmas special effectively taking up a 90 minute timeslot to air all 60 minutes of it with commericals, thus making the rescheduling of it even more difficult), we suspect the only available time was at midnight the night the series premiere aired
Is it ideal? No. But we’re now seeing The Runaway Bride and it’s going to get some actual promotion.
Let’s answer the big question for any CBC viewers: will they have missed anything by watching Smith and Jones before The Runaway Bride. It’s not ideal, but…no. Other than the resolution of the cliffhanger of Doomsday (which is a cliffhanger based on a lingering mystery, not any direct jeopardy), you won’t miss anything by watching Smith and Jones first. In fact, you can pretty much watch Smith and Jones without ever having seen The Runaway Bride—it’s completely self-contained, unlike, say, The Christmas Invasion.
This story is obviously developing and we’ll have more information as it comes in.