I saw a promo on HBO last ...
Wendell Pierce and Michael K. Williams, The Wire
Question: I saw a promo on HBO last night, and it looks like they're planning to move their movie night to Sunday. Any idea why? What about those great original shows? What will happen to them?
Answer: There are couple of reasons for this temporary shift — which HBO says will only continue through the end of the year, when movie premieres will return to Saturdays, and multiple series, including
Rome, will begin on Sundays starting Jan. 7. First off, though HBO would never admit it, the pay giant has lost the Sunday-night watercooler battle to ABC. (We’ll have to see if
Desperate Housewives can truly rebound in the fall, and
Brothers & Sisters is still a sight-unseen question mark.) Plus, NBC is going all out with prime-time Sunday-night NFL games. Second, HBO’s marquee drama on Sundays this fall is the ratings-challenged, but powerfully good,
The Wire, and HBO figures that the best way to make some noise during the fall will be to turn the night over to high-profile first-run theatricals (including
Fantastic Four and
Wedding Crashers for
The Wire’s first two weeks). Anything to help
The Wire’s chances in this pivotal fourth season (still no word on a fifth yet) is OK in my book. As you may have noticed, HBO’s inventory of original series is a bit thin, and this helps get the network into the new year, when there will be new seasons of
Rome, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras, leftover
Entourage episodes and the final
Sopranos episodes to choose from.
