Charlie Brooker, the Guardian columnist and sardonic host of BBC4's much-YouTubed "Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe," has come up with a clever Halloween programming idea--"Dead Set," a five-part scripted drama mini-series meant to play out over Halloween week, where zombies attack the "Big Brother" house while that series is deep in another season. Since Brooker does his TV work for a division of "BB" owner Endemol, it didn't take many hurdles to jump over and the results, featuring the UK version's Chenbot Davina McCall and cameos from former UK version contestants, are airing this week on "BB" home Channel 4's young-skewing sister digital channel E4 at 10 p.m., against BBC1 and ITV's flagship newscasts. Last night's premiere not only beat its multichannel competition (most notably BBC3's 10 p.m. repurpose of "EastEnders" and a one-time only airing of the second episode of the new season of "Spooks (MI:5)" supposedly scheduled to fend off "Dead Set" and following the season premiere on normal home BBC1), but the C4 mothership and Channel 5 on the terrestrial side, as well :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/28/tvratings-television The "Spooks" ratings stunt is done quite a bit in the UK and would be the equivalent of NBC running another episode of "Heroes" a week early on SciFi or USA after a new ep airs on the parent network--but it won't happen here because the affiliates would be up in arms. Meanwhile, would Showtime pick up an Americanization of "Dead Set?"-- or would Les Moonves be dead set against the thought of his Julie in peril, even fictional peril? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Like TV only smarter. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
