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Babylon 5 officially being rebooted


The Dragon Demands
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9 hours ago, sifth said:

I still don’t trust the CW. The network just doesn’t have a reputation I trust.

Do they have a reputation for interfering with showrunners, or just hiring showrunners that don't impress you?

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If CW does make this, I don't expect it to look anywhere near as good as say Stark Trek: Strange New Worlds or Disney's or HBO's shows. Which is why I don't want a reboot of such a fantastic show to be done by CW. It deserves better. Maybe, at best, it will look like BSG Reimagined

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17 hours ago, felice said:

Do they have a reputation for interfering with showrunners, or just hiring showrunners that don't impress you?

Literally every program they've put on their network in the last decade, I've basically hated. The revival of the Whose Line is it Anyway, is probably the closest they have to a show I like, but even that is basically a shell of it's former self, without Drew, IMO.

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  • 1 month later...

Nexstar to acquire 75% stake in CW network

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Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD.O) and Paramount (PARA.O), the current co-owners of the TV network, will each retain 12.5% of stake in CW and continue to produce originals, while Nexstar, a company with about 200 broadcast stations will own 75%. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Mark Pedowitz, The CW's top boss, will continue to helm the network, Nexstar said.

Pedowitz is B5's champion at CW, so it remains possible it'll be given the green light in January 2023, despite CW possibly reducing the amount of serials it'll be airing.

 

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9 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

Nexstar to acquire 75% stake in CW network

Pedowitz is B5's champion at CW, so it remains possible it'll be given the green light in January 2023, despite CW possibly reducing the amount of serials it'll be airing.

 

I'm not feeling optimistic at all given the buyer and their apparent plans.

https://deadline.com/2022/08/the-cw-will-become-profitable-network-2025-broader-cheaper-programming-nexstar-1235092173/

Quote

The demographic focus of the CW will also change over time, Carter said. Historically, shows like Riverdale, All American, Arrow and Supernatural have focused on viewers in their teens through their 30s. The reality, though, is that the average CW viewer is 58 years old, and Carter said that schism explains why the CW is the lowest-rated broadcast network

He projected “lower unscripted costs,” without elaborating, and said more syndicated shows would likely be added. The CW has recently been programming 13 hours across six nights in primetime.

While demographic wise B5 may look appealing, a rebooted show will need the budget to make it competitive with the likes of new Trek, Netflix and Amazon shows etc. And I'm not sure it would receive such a budget. 

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33 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

I'm not feeling optimistic at all given the buyer and their apparent plans.

https://deadline.com/2022/08/the-cw-will-become-profitable-network-2025-broader-cheaper-programming-nexstar-1235092173/

While demographic wise B5 may look appealing, a rebooted show will need the budget to make it competitive with the likes of new Trek, Netflix and Amazon shows etc. And I'm not sure it would receive such a budget. 

True, but CW appears to have right of first look, and if they decline WB doesn't have a huge stake in CW anymore so I can't imagine them objecting to shopping it around elsewhere.  HBO seems the best bet, being own by Warners.  That possibly seems more likely now.


CW cancelling all its superhero shows reminds me of Netflix cancelling its Marvel shows before the announcement of Disney+.   WB moving its properties to streaming seems like the wise move.

Edited by SpaceChampion
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I think this is bad news for the B5 reboot at CW. Pedowitz is staying on, sure, but he has his marching orders. He's not going to be able to convince the people over him (and there will be people over him) to fund it.

Shopping it elsewhere... maybe, but I don't think HBO/HBO Max is going to be the place for it.

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HBO Max is also shutting down a lot of its original content, so that's unlikely to happen. HBO proper could go for it - "HBO space opera" is a box they still haven't checked off - but I'd also say that's relatively unlikely.

The CW channel's audience demographic is also kind of misleading. The Arrowverse shows were a massive, colossal success for Netflix, and Netflix paid The CW an obscene amount of money to keep making them. They decided to cancel the deal thinking they'd get more money putting the shows on their own service, which was hysterically naive of them (not they gave it much chance to work).

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On 8/16/2022 at 7:22 AM, Werthead said:

HBO Max is also shutting down a lot of its original content, so that's unlikely to happen. HBO proper could go for it - "HBO space opera" is a box they still haven't checked off - but I'd also say that's relatively unlikely.

Isn't most of shows they are shutting down the reality tv stuff?

 

Also, I hadn't realized that was Boxleitner!

 

Edited by SpaceChampion
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  • 2 weeks later...

Later tweets clarify that'll be released some time after next year's San Diego Comic Con, and involved all the remaining original cast, and of course is separate for the B5 reimagining.

 

Edited by SpaceChampion
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13 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:
 

Later tweets clarify that'll be released some time after next year's San Diego Comic Con, and involved all the remaining original cast, and of course is separate for the B5 reimagining.

 

I wonder if it's an audio play? Big Finish were trying to get the rights a few years back and WB were stonewalling them, but with the reboot news, maybe they relented and cashed in.

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I just heard. Gotta say I'm more excited for this than for the reboot.

Even though I'd prefer a real show, and more importantly, so many of the original actors have passed. Most notably I'll miss G'Kar, but also Delenn and so many others. I also fear Bester won't be around, as the actor allegedly has not been well. I'd love a mystery around what happened to Talia Winters (my pet theory is she was not killed as Bester said).

Ugh, if all the remaining original cast members are in it, I'll have to endure Tracy Scroggins (sorry, not a fan).

Anyway, good news!

(I just hope it's not a game because... not my cup of Raktajino. Oops, wrong franchise!)

Edited by Mindwalker
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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

This is startling. Jason Carter, who played Marcus Cole, suffered a serious brain injury more than three years before he started appearing on Babylon 5. He suffered mood swings and changes in personality as a result of it. His son writes quite an interesting, and tragic, account of the impact it had on their family, and may have stopped Carter from having a more successful career.

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Shit, if you believe in show curses, etc. then the Babylon 5 cast is really haunted by one.

I did wonder occasionally why I hadn't seen Jason Carter in anything else. He was very good in the role, and clearly a charismatic guy.

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  • 1 month later...

B5 going to Roku and Tubi.

I think it was a year ago today or yesterday we heard CW finalize it's 2022-23 slate, and delaying the decision on B5 by a year.  So I imagine we'd hear soon.  JMS is very active on twitter at the moment, trying to read the tea leaves is foolish but I want to believe it's a good sign.  heh.

 

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Sadly, I think the chances of the CW going ahead are even poorer today than they were last week. The original series development heads have been let go, and per the reporting, only some "lower-level staffers — i.e., those with smaller salaries — are being retained" in scripted programming development.

Best hope now, IMO, is that JMS gets to shop it around elsewhere again and maybe luck strikes...

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