New for TG4

JP Liz

TG4 has bought Cecelia Ahern’s sitcom Samantha Who?, nine months after it was rejected by RTE for not being “outstanding”.
The national broadcaster still insists it made the right decision not to acquire the series penned by the former taoiseach’s youngest daughter despite its success in the US.
The Irish-language station has now acquired the first two seasons of Samantha Who?, a series of half-hour shows about a woman who wakes up from a hit and run accident with amnesia. The first season will be broadcast this autumn.
Industry sources estimate that each of the 30 episodes will have cost TG4 between €500 and €900. American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the American producer of the show, which also makes Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy, approached Irish broadcasters last year after Samantha Who? attracted 14.4m viewers in its second week airing in America, but RTE, TV3 and Channel 6 all rejected it. TG4 bid, but did not match the asking price.

Dermot Horan, director of broadcasting and acquisitions at RTE, said it had “absolutely made the right choice” to turn down Samantha Who? because it offered “nothing incredibly new or innovative”. He said the initial high ratings in America were due to the popular show that preceded it, and he questioned whether the plot could last a third series.
“It did well at first because it came directly after Dancing with the Stars. That was getting a 20%-21% share of the audience, so Samantha Who? was getting a 14% share,” Horan said.
“Once Dancing with the Stars finished and Samantha Who? had to stand on its own, it went down to a 10% audience share. It’s getting a second series, but the jury’s out on whether it’ll get a third.”
The show was created by Ahern, an author who had box-office success when her debut novel PS, I Love You was adapted for the big screen. It follows the life of a young widow whose husband has left her a series of notes instructing her how to cope once he dies.
Samantha Who?, which had its premiere in October 2007, is about a 30-year-old president of a Chicago real estate company who wakes up from a coma to discover she can’t remember anything or anyone from before the accident. She quickly discovers that she was a horrible person and goes about trying to put her life in order.
Ahern successfully pitched the idea for the show to ABC at the end of 2006. It was the highest-rated new sitcom when it first aired in America last year.
Lis Ni Dhalaigh, TG4’s acquisitions and output director, is optimistic that the show will attract a strong following. It will be broadcast at 9pm on Thursdays, starting on September 11, and will be repeated on Friday evenings.
“The Irish connection appealed to us, that it was written by an Irish person,” Ni Dhalaigh said. “The target audience is young and female so 9pm is a good slot. We hope that they warm to the characters and stay loyal to it.”
Christina Applegate, a sitcom veteran who also featured in Married . . . With Children and Friends, plays the show’s central character. She received Golden Globe and Emmy award nominations this year for her performance. The show has been picked up by several other European television stations, including Channel 4 in Britain.
Horan said Samantha Who? was typical of current American sitcoms, which are going through a bad patch. “The premise of someone with amnesia would work as a romantic comedy film with Julia Roberts,” he said. “But to turn it into a week-in, week-out or year-in, year-out show, you’d wonder where it’s going to go.”
Initial critical reviews of Ahern’s series were mixed. While the New York Times thought the show worked, putting it largely down to Applegate, others were not so kind. Variety, an industry magazine, said it “raises existential questions of whether Sam can redeem herself, but a more immediate concern will be staving off cancellation, since by the end of the second episode the thought of memory erasure doesn’t sound bad”.
In a further effort to win a female audience, TG4 has acquired Lipstick Jungle, a Sex and the City-style comedy, starring Brooke Shields, that follows the lives of powerful New York women. It has also bought a new series of Nip/Tuck.

good news

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Samantha Who? is written by Cecelia Ahearn? I really like that show!!! Now I just feel dirty...

Catari Jaguar

I will never read a book by Cecilia Ahern, but I do love Christina Applegate so.. I'll probably watch it. But not tell anyone. :P

irishcsifan

Lil Kitten wrote: »

Dermot Horan, director of broadcasting and acquisitions at RTE, said it had “absolutely made the right choice” to turn down Samantha Who? because it offered “nothing incredibly new or innovative”. He said the initial high ratings in America were due to the popular show that preceded it, and he questioned whether the plot could last a third series.:P

What the F**k the RTE Know. the treat the other american show they have like S**t

Mossy Monk

You should be happy that they didn't get this American show so.

icdg

Hmm, that RTÉ felt able to turn down Samantha Who, with its Irish connection, and yet still managed to find money to buy the remake of Beverley Hills 90210 says a lot for their overseas buying strategy...

Full_Circle

Well I'm glad SOMEONE finally picked up the show. And maybe its better that its TG4 so I can watch it at a reasonable time, instead of having it on RTE and having to record it at 1 or 2 on a saturday night / sunday morning :rolleyes:

SoupyNorman

Due to shows like this, US droney tripe and other genres...Reality TV etc, Im now reading more, T.V. has become a peripheral part of my life over the last 10 years due to the consistent and unrelenting decline in quality and standards... (which is a new thread in itself)



Should people get excited over second rate tripe like this aforementioned show then thats their business but please dont switch it on while I'm in the room.


Although do I judge too soon? Have TG4 has taken it onboard as it is a break from the usual U.S. uber-glossy, join the dots drama....It remains to be seen, quite literally.

Full_Circle

bravestarr082 wrote: »

Should people get excited over second rate tripe like this aforementioned show then thats their business but please dont switch it on while I'm in the room.

I havent seen it yet, but your saying its crap? Thats a pity, I do like Christina Applegate and wish she got more breaks!

kevmy

bravestarr082 wrote: »

Due to shows like this, US droney tripe and other genres...Reality TV etc, Im now reading more, T.V. has become a peripheral part of my life over the last 10 years due to the consistent and unrelenting decline in quality and standards... (which is a new thread in itself)



Should people get excited over second rate tripe like this aforementioned show then thats their business but please dont switch it on while I'm in the room.


Although do I judge too soon? Have TG4 has taken it onboard as it is a break from the usual U.S. uber-glossy, join the dots drama....It remains to be seen, quite literally.

Ahh the quality argument!! I agree overall standards have declined (mainly due to reality TV and the large amount of channels) but I think individually when a show is quality these days it is of a higher standard than anything gone before it.
Examples being Sopranos, West Wing, The Wire, Dexter, Battlestar Galactica etc.

Elmo

raises existential questions of whether Sam can redeem herself, but a more immediate concern will be staving off cancellation, since by the end of the second episode the thought of memory erasure doesn’t sound bad

LOL