Magnum Pi Cancelled On NBC

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The Jay Hernandez-led reboot of the 1980s procedural will wrap its run with its upcoming 10 episodes on NBC. The news comes as the options on the cast were due to expire June 30, forcing NBC — whose studio sibling Universal TV co-produces the series alongside CBS Studios — to make a decision on either extending those deals or wrapping up the show. The network, which has recently passed on a number of pilots and canceled nearly all of its bubble shows, opted to let the show conclude with its remaining 10 episodes rather than to spend the money to extend the show’s stars as it’s unclear when production will resume amid the ongoing Writers Guild strike.

Magnum P.I. was canceled in May 2022 after four seasons on CBS. The series ranked as one of the highest shows on broadcast television at the time of its cancellation, prompting NBC to step in and save the show from cancellation with a two-season, 20-episode pickup less than two months later.

NBC is calling the 20-episode order a split season, a loophole that allows networks, studios and streamers to avoid giving cast, creators and crew annual salary increases in a practice that has been widely used by basic cable networks and streamers.

Eric Guggenheim serves as showrunner and exec produces alongside Justin Lin, John Davis and John Fox. Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill, Tim Kang and Amy Hill round out the cast of the series, which streams in-season on Showmax and otherwise on Paramount+.

Sprout Is Dead But Still Lives On Through DreamWorks Junior

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Sprout was a preschool channel NBCUniversal acquired from PBS, Sesame Workshop and HiT Entertainment from the period of 2011-2013. Under the new ownership, the channel increased investment toward original programming.

The channel went to experiment with its offering by sourcing more half hours for older preschool audiences with shows like Noddy: Toyland Detective, Floogals, Kipper, LazyTown, The Wiggles, Poppy Cat, Nina's World and Justin Time.

In 2017, it was announced that Sprout would become serve as programming block to Universal Kids a new channel that wanted to aim toward older children with shows like Bajillionaires, Hank Zipzer, Polly Pocket and The Deep.

Universal Kids is not known by a lot of consumers internationally same with Sprout but for several years now the international feed has been known as DreamWorks Channel within the brand there's a preschool block known as DreamWorks Junior.

Unlike Sprout, DreamWorks Jr. doesn't offer much educational content as it follows the likes of Disney Junior and Nick Jr. that gear toward character driven shows or anything remotely similar but tone down to main brands Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.

No matter what opinion Sprout fans have over DreamWorks Junior, these type of content get viewers glued not that the offering on Sprout was bad but the world evolves and you still find alternatives like CBeebies and PBS Kids that do have a following.

Some of the content seen on this new version of Sprout includes Noddy: Toyland Detective, VeggieTales In The House, Doug Unplugs, Go Dog Go, Madagascar: A Little Wild and Dragons: Rescue Riders and you even get nostalgic content like Little Charley Bear and Olivia.

Although Universal Kids was said to have destroyed Sprout. DreamWorks Junior actually saved the brand from complete annihilation. I know the content ain't branded as Sprout but think about for a second.

Not a lot of households had access to Sprout and same outcome had fallen onto Universal Kids. If NBCUniversal had kept Sprout would it have survived the linear business especially now that more consumers are binging their favourite shows through their cellular gadgets.

The History Of Former NBC Soap Passions Once Seen On e.tv

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Passions debuted in 1999 with major fanfare. Creator Reilly had been credited for a large surge in the ratings for Days of our Lives years before, thanks to innovative storylines like that of heroine Dr. Marlena Evans being possessed by Satan that drew new viewers, but also tended to alienate stalwart fans. With Passions, Reilly was able to start with a blank slate and no pre-existing fan base to please.

In the early days of the show, Passions heroine Sheridan Crane is identified as a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales; soon Sheridan recalls speaking to Diana on the phone immediately prior to the 1997 car accident which took the Princess' life. Sheridan also has a similar accident in the same Paris tunnel, and speaks to a "guardian Angel Diana" who urges her to fight to survive, which drew considerable controversy. Sheridan later adopts the name Diana after a boating accident that results in amnesia.

The opening days of the show also introduced the Theresa/Ethan/Gwen love triangle that persisted as an ongoing main storyline to the very last episode of the series.

For much of the first three to four years of the series, supernatural elements such as witches, warlocks, and closet doors leading to Hell were major plot points, many surrounding the machinations of the centuries-old witch Tabitha Lenox and her doll-brought-to-life sidekick, Timmy — named by Entertainment Weekly as one of their "17 Great Soap Supercouples" in 2008. In 2001, HarperEntertainment released Hidden Passions , a tie-in novelization presented as Tabitha's diary, exposing the secrets and pasts of the town's residents. Passions featured a storyline involving Tabitha and Timmy promoting the book, which reached #4 on the real-life New York Times Best Seller list and garnered the series two alternative covers of TV Guide in July 2001.

In 2003, Passions submitted a trained orangutan named BamBam, who had been portraying the recurring role of Precious, for a Daytime Emmy Award. Precious was the non-speaking live-in nurse and caregiver for elderly Edna Wallace, and held an unrequited love for Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, which was depicted in elaborate fantasy sequences. In early 2004, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which administers the awards, disallowed the entry with the following statement:

Our ruling is based on the belief that the Academy must draw a line of distinction between animal characters that aren't capable of speaking parts and human actors whose personal interpretation in character portrayal creates nuance and audience engagement that uniquely qualifies those performers for consideration of television's highest honor.

In summer 2005, the prominent character Simone Russell came out as homosexual; Passions made daytime history by being the first serial to show two women — Simone and love interest Rae Thomas — in bed making love. In 2007, it was revealed that longtime hero Chad Harris-Crane was cheating on his wife with another man. This was also a daytime first, with the men portrayed in bed together. Passions also broke new ground in 2007 with its portrayal of Vincent as an intersexual who becomes pregnant with his own father's son.

Nearly seven years after the debut of Passions on July 5, 1999, the NBC-owned Sci Fi Channel began airing the series from its first episode starting February 13, 2006; the reruns had originally been announced to begin on February 6. Due to low ratings, the reruns were taken off the air as of May 25, 2006. On August 15, 2006, Passions became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for download and purchase from the online music store iTunes. On November 6, 2006, the show also became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for free viewing via streaming on NBC.com.

Though plagued since its inception by low overall Nielsen ratings, Passions was historically top-rated in key demographics. The series was not renewed by NBC for a full ninth season in 2007 because of its low ratings coupled with the network's decision to extend its morning news and talk show Today to a fourth hour. Since NBC owned the series entirely, NBC began shopping for other networks, especially cable networks to pick up the series for a ninth season, however there was no luck in other networks willing to pick up the series because of devastating low ratings and extreme expensive production costs. In April 2007, Satellite provider DirecTV bought exclusive rights from NBC to continue airing Passions, with most principal cast members staying on. As the series was coming to an end on NBC, Passions Live talk show hosted by Eric Martsolf premiered in August 2007 every Thursday night on DirecTV's The 101 giving fans the chance to call the show and interact live with Passions cast members, making Passions the first and only soap opera to ever have live talk show in U.S. history. The Passions Live talk show continued to air every Thursday night after moving to DirecTV until October 2007. The live show was also streaming live on the Official Passions Site at NBC.com. The series ended its NBC run on September 7, 2007, and new episodes began airing on DirecTV's original-programming channel The 101 on September 17, 2007, making Passions both the first soap opera broadcast on a direct broadcast satellite service and the first series to make such a transition from broadcast television. The series ran Monday to Thursday at 2 pm ET/11 am PT, with repeats airing later in the day and on weekends. Although NBC.com continued to cover the series' official website with updating features, video clips of each episode aired, updating news, and products relating to Passions, including all of the full videos of Passions Live show once the series left NBC and had moved to DirecTV, initially new episodes were no longer available for free viewing on the Passions official website at NBC.com or for purchase at iTunes.com since NBC's broadcasting decisions were entirely sold to DirecTV and the NBC.com Passions site promoted a DirecTV link letting fans know that Passions was no longer airing on NBC and was only available on DirecTV. On September 27, 2007, DirecTV announced they would provide an All Access Pass to Passions to view all new episodes on the Official Passions Site at NBC.com for a monthly fee. This service began on October 1, 2007 for $19.99 a month then reduced to $14.99 a month when Passions' schedule was cut from four episodes a week to three episodes a week. After the series moved to DirecTV, the subscription service added a special feature where a trivia question relating to Passions would pop up on each episode airing on The 101 for viewers to use their remote control to answer. Passions is first and only soap opera to ever have this type of feature.

On December 10, 2007, Variety magazine and various cast members confirmed that DirecTV had decided not to renew Passions for another year, but ordered 52 additional episodes to be taped through March 2008. New episodes of the series were broadcast until August 7, 2008, with DirecTV airing three new episodes per week starting January 2008. Universal Media Studios wrapped up production of Passions on March 28, 2008. The cast and crew were told at the wrap party that efforts to find a new outlet had failed and that the cancellation was final. Cast member McKenzie Westmore confirmed the news. Though Passions had been the highest-rated original program on DirecTV's The 101, it was reported that the network had failed to meet the projected number of new subscribers they had hoped to attract with the series.

'Days Of Our Lives': Could The Sand In The Hourglass Be Heading To A New Era In South Africa?

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NBC’s long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives will be leaving broadcast television after 57 years to stream exclusively on Peacock, the network announced on Wednesday. The change means that fans who previously have been able to watch the show for free on broadcast will now have to pay for a streaming service to learn what happens next in the show’s fictional town of Salem.

“With a large percentage of the Days of Our Lives audience already watching digitally, this move enables us to build the show’s loyal fanbase on streaming while simultaneously bolstering the network daytime offering with an urgent, live programming opportunity for partners and consumers,” Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said in a press release.

Earlier in the year, Days Of Our Lives was swept out of e.tv's primetime offering as eMedia tries to boost their original offering with eMedia Investments expected to invest R100 million in their streaming endeavours which has seen success as the company was able to obtain half a million registrations and record breaking ratings.

Of course, Days Of Our Lives' absence still haunts a lot of consumers as they've been following the soap for half a century when it began on the free-to-air SABC 3 channel which was known at the time as CCV channel and after the SABC's controversial COO at the time Hlaudi Motsoeneng put up a ban for international series forcing the drama to air close to midnight. 

As seen earlier in the year, the sand in the hourglass for e.tv has come to an end after almost 5 years of broadcast which has some feeling agitated over an outlet to this ongoing soap opera.

Peacock overseas decided to move Days away from cable as the ratings have been slipping on a year to year basis as direct-to-consumer becomes a top priority for international brands like The Walt Disney Company.

Before this news came into affect, Vodacom's defunct streaming service supplied Bold And The Beautiful another ongoing soap opera and rival to Days Of Our Lives after it was swept out of SABC's lineup due to the corrupt bold man thereafter MultiChoice's DStv as AMC International opt to not supply EVA channel which was the home of Bold on cable.

As it is a lot of long format or in other terms old timers like The Simpsons moved from cable to streaming for consumers in South Africa as The Walt Disney Company retracted the FOX channel as they plan to become a digital exclusive platform like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Now Days Of Our Lives being a digital exclusive doesn't seem far fetched and on Peacock although not available in the region as yet wouldn't be far fetched a stretch as well seeing as Days Of Our Lives: Beyond Salem which is a spinoff to be the soap can be viewed on the platform.

Peacock on top of being a streaming service is owned by NBCUniversal the same people that own Days Of Our Lives and now the chances of it suffering the franchise getting swept on this platform is close to zero but questions amount to how this service will eventually rollout in South Africa

As it is, Peacock is just another Showmax holds a lot of third party content, limited original content and is not knowledgeable by a lot of consumers as seen with Netflix and Disney+. In some regions, the platform was able to fold under Paramount+ which is expected in Africa by early next year but that doesn't guarantee it will supply Peacock.

Peacock is a very complicated case as outlined there's not much to offer on the table that you would dump a hamburger for a salad while others found comfort on Paramount+ (also known to some as SkyShowcase). Others got it as standalone as seen overseas while others found comfort in a local provider to which I nominate Showmax.

Say what you want about their owners MultiChoice but NBCUniversal has a tight relationship to the company as they supply the only alternative to M-Net on the DStv platform as others were retracted due to content or management changes. On top of that, the movie offering on Studio Universal can come in handy when you're avoiding cartoons.