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Rome might not return for Season 2

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Rome might not return for Season 2

Old 11-19-05, 07:52 AM
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Rome might not return for Season 2

HBO Takes the ABC Sunday Challenge

By BILL CARTER
Published: November 17, 2005

Chris Albrecht, the chairman of HBO, does not buy the widely heard argument that something has undermined his channel's former hold on viewers on Sunday nights at 9, something in the form of an ABC show called "Desperate Housewives."

For one thing, he dismisses the notion that HBO plays by the programming rules of the broadcast networks. "We can't get distracted by somebody's else's rules or scorecard," he said in a recent interview in his New York office. HBO, he says, judges the success of its shows by criteria other than one night's rating, criteria that include subscriber totals (up this year), video-on-demand orders and even number of awards won.

For another, he points to what he feels is a deeper lineup of distinctive series on HBO, everything from the comedy "Entourage" to the dramas "Deadwood" and "Rome" to the coming, sure-to-be-talked-about "Big Love." All of these, he insisted, have the stuff to emerge as worthy successors to HBO's hugely popular and award-laden shows like "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City."

But that doesn't mean he hasn't been paying attention to how "Desperate Housewives" has altered the Sunday night landscape. Looking forward to the return of HBO's biggest gun of all time, "The Sopranos," in March, Mr. Albrecht said he had been pondering a potential marketing plan, to center on a photograph to be shot by Annie Leibovitz, which would play off the billboard ad HBO used two years ago. That ad featured the "Sopranos" cast in a rowboat surrounded by the ghosts of the dead characters who had been rubbed out over the years.

"Wouldn't it be funny," Mr. Albrecht said, "if we did the same thing, and all the dead people in the water were the women from Wisteria Lane?" - a reference to the lead characters of "Desperate Housewives." He added: "And the headline would be: 'They're back!' "

HBO was clearly elated (and relieved) when it concluded a deal with David Chase, the creator of "The Sopranos," to extend that show beyond what had been expected to be its final 12 episodes, starting in March, to an additional mini-run of eight episodes, beginning in January 2007. As usual with "The Sopranos," it has now been off the air a long time. "Two years later can 'The Sopranos' be as big as it was?" Mr. Albrecht asked, another way of asking the broader question that he acknowledged had been thrown at HBO in the past year or so: Can HBO be as big as it was?

The question has arisen mainly because of ratings comparisons, which is how broadcast network shows are measured. By that standard, there is no question that HBO is off its best results for Sunday nights, when episodes of its series have their first showings. That powerhouse ABC series at 9 p.m. has to be a factor.

But Mr. Albrecht disputes any notion that HBO is off its game. "I feel like we've done the job we needed to do in programming," he said. "Our audience has certainly moved off Sunday nights to other points during the week." As for "Rome," he said, HBO has been encouraged by the series' growth among viewers and by a second round of critical comments, which largely moved from tepid to enthusiastic.

In strict viewer terms, HBO calls "Rome" a success because, while its Sunday totals are not overwhelming, it accumulates more than 7 million viewers a week during its multiple showings.

Mr. Albrecht announced only a couple of weeks into its run that he was renewing the series for another season. But in the interview he said, "That ship hasn't entirely sailed yet."

The reason, he said, has nothing to do with how well "Rome" turned out. Mainly, the issue has been money. "Rome" was wildly expensive, costing an estimated $100 million. It initially experienced debilitating production delays, fueling rumors that it was a troubled show. Once it was on the air and was seen to be a quality production, Mr. Albrecht said, those rumors subsided.

But he said those delays meant he had only a short window of time to retain a hold on the actors, which was why he renewed the series so quickly. For now, that means ordering scripts, which will be difficult to write because they need to cover the complicated period following the fall of Caesar.

"The real reason why, even though I ordered the show, we haven't formally gone into production, is how long it's going to take," he said. " 'Rome' won't be back until, at the earliest, March of 2007. Which makes you say to yourself: When I bring the show back, can I build an audience?"


Long interruptions have never cooled viewers' ardor for "The Sopranos," but Mr. Albrecht acknowledged that those layoffs had not been ideal for scheduling. "Part of the challenge for us is to figure a way to be a little more flexible," he said.

He is already demonstrating a bit of that flexibility, rethinking his plan to bring back the western drama "Deadwood" in March at 10 p.m. on Sundays following "The Sopranos." Now, Mr. Albrecht said, he thinks the best move for the HBO's future would be to slot its new drama, "Big Love," in that position to direct some of the hordes of "Sopranos" fans to what he says he hopes will be HBO's next significant cultural phenomenon.

"Big Love," a family drama like none other on television, deals with a regular American dad who happens to have three wives and families. The issue of polygamy in the show, set in Utah, is sure to stir debate, and HBO will be only too happy to be in the middle of it.

HBO loved the chatter that accompanied the run of the Hollywood comedy "Entourage" this year, a sign, HBO executives suggest, that the show may be about to take off the way "Sex and the City" did after a couple seasons. Mr. Albrecht has ordered 20 more episodes of "Entourage."

In the meantime, Mr. Albrecht defends HBO, saying it still sets much of the agenda for quality television. "You have seen the supposed successor to 'Sex and the City' be on a broadcast network," he said, "if indeed 'Desperate Housewives' is the successor, which I don't believe creatively it is - maybe from an audience point of view it is."

For Mr. Albrecht, even that may be giving too much credit to the ABC show that has sucked up so much audience during the hour formerly owned by HBO. Re-emphasizing just how unconcerned he really is about that competitor, he noted the critical reaction to "Desperate Housewives" this season. "Anybody who knows anything about television," he said, "could look at that show and say: two years, maybe three."

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