FX drops The Colbert Report

Syferus

It may not have been the biggest draw here, but any of us who watched The Colbert Report regularly can atest to its fantastic writing and overall brilliance.

FX's one year order for the show lapses next week and they're not renewing the contract, for reasons that an FX insider that posts on Digital Spy can best explain:

As for Colbert, the bad news is our license for it runs out on May 1st, we've had it for a year, WE love it, but its just not getting the viewers, and it's a fairly costly process getting it sent over from the States on a daily basis, its a shame, but thats TV, it's properly ruined my mornings, it's the first thing I do usually.

Please feel free to write in and complain about that one, but I can't see the situation changing. I don't know if anyone else has picked it up, but I've not heard anything to that effect.

So we're going to be without it for a while, at the very least. The obvious channels that may pick it up would be More4, who show The Report's sister show, The Daily Show, and Comedy Central, the regional variant of the channel that produces The Report in the US.

A body blow, to say the least. The Report was a fixture of my late-night viewing, and jumping from Colbert to the show that inspired it the most, The O'Rielly Factor, every night was a very enlightening and entertaining look into both sides of the American political divide.

KerranJast

All of it is online on their official site. No need to sit through ads.

Hrududu

Don't you have to be in the US to access it though?

L31mr0d

never watched it on FX anyway. I usually just tune into the official site on my lunch and watch it there.

KerranJast

Hrududu wrote: »

Don't you have to be in the US to access it though?

Nope. All Comedy Central stuff (or at least The Daily Show, Colbert Report and South Park) are all put up straight away on the net for free with no territorial restrictions.
http://www.colbertnation.com/home
http://www.thedailyshow.com
http://www.southparkstudios.com

Richard Dower

YES!

Mossy Monk

Didn't realise it was available on the website. At work I get an error message



I get similar for South Park also

Incidentally I get a Dear Ireland message on the Colbert Report. Perhaps that will change when FX stop showing it.

DapperGent

You can view the entire show if you watch it in clips (this goes for the Daily Show as well), they won't allow you to watch the whole episode but they will allow you to click through all the clips which make up the episode. It's a bit of hassle but worth it.

Syferus

No one denies it's available (just like every show) by a list of means online, legal or otherwise, but that ignores the fact that a huge portion of people in general (like me) don't have high speed internet because it's not even available. I'm sure the precentage watching The Report on FX in a simliar situation is substantially higher than normal as the other sources and the time and nature of the show meant people like you didn't watch it on FX.

JayeL

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

Those liberal media elites, with their cappuccinos and Volvos, are out to destroy America and the Colbert Nation!

Perhaps if FX showed the Report at a more reasonable hour instead of midnight, I might be able to watch it live and boost their viewership. If it, like, counted.

Anyway, hopefully More4 will do the honourable (or should that be "honorable"?) thing and buy it. And show the two in a block from 9-10pm without censorship!

U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A!!!!!!!!

lostexpectation

fx can't cancel the colbert report, they stop buying and showing it but they can't cancel it in anyway shape or form, stop with your alarming threads titles

Syferus

lostexpectation wrote: »

fx can't cancel the colbert report, they stop buying and showing it but they can't cancel it in anyway shape or form, stop with your alarming threads titles

Maybe you could read the actual post and take it into account? Just a small thought.

FX has cancelled The Colbert Report - the wording is perfectly valid and not 'alarming' beyond stating a fact.

Bondvillain

Fair enough.

Using that logic, I'm hereby cancelling fair city.

It's still being made, of course, and other people can still see it, but no-one using my televisual facilities will be able to watch it.

So fair city is cancelled.

Brimmy

Pity.

Regularly tried to watch it and the Daily Show on the tv rather than clips/other means because of this. Would love to see More 4 pick it up now though and air it alongside the (superior) Daily Show.

I was livid last summer when they placed the block on full episodes until I realised you could watch it all in clips. Are the web players for both sites still kind of screwy though? I remember the audio would always screw up or something else would go wrong. Didn't bother me though because I watched about a years worth (probably more) of each show just to get me through work last year.

Syferus

Bondvillain wrote: »

Fair enough.

Using that logic, I'm hereby cancelling fair city.

It's still being made, of course, and other people can still see it, but no-one using my televisual facilities will be able to watch it.

So fair city is cancelled.

Both of you are trying to argue semantics and you made a terrible attempt to try and satirise it, because it again ignores the fact that thousands of people could only get The Report on FX.

FX have canceled The Report from their schedule; The Report still exsists as it's obviously a US show. I thought I didn't need to put that in capital letters in the title along with 'FX' to ensure you didn't rage against the messenger.

Attacking me for the title when it's very clear to both of you what was meant is more than a little childish.

Leaderbored

Syferus wrote: »

Both of you are trying to argue semantics and you made a terrible attempt to try and satirise it, because it again ignores the fact that thousands of people could only get The Report on FX.

FX have canceled The Report from their scheadule; The Report still exsists as it's obviously a US show. I thought I didn't need to put that in capital letters in the title along with 'FX' to ensure you didn't rage against the messenger.

Attacking me for the title when it's very clear to both of you what was meant is more than a little childish.

Firstly, this being a television forum, "cancelled" was probably not the correct word to use in the title. FX are not in a position to cancel someone elses programme. "Dropped" would probably more appropriate.
(Just as if Rté suddenly decided to stop showing Eastenders. Headlines reading "Rté cancel Eastenders" would raise eyebrows, but "Rté drop 'Enders from schedule" would probably be ok. Y'know, if you wanted to get into semantics... )

Syferus wrote: »

FX have canceled The Report from their scheadule;

In my experience, "Cancelled from the schedule" is not common telly parlance regarding the non-renewal of programmes bought from other channels. (cancelled being commonly used to denote the absolute final termination of production.) In this case, The Colbert report has not ceased production, but has simply been dropped from the schedule of an additional broadcast channel.

The use of cancelled in the title could, as stated above, mislead people who've dropped into the thread & are not necessarily fully up to speed with which cable channel produces each individual programme. Especially at 4.45 a.m.

Secondly, I have to say, I thought your response was a little over the top. You made what could be considered a mild conversational error, and as a consequence, you suffered one correction and one mild p*ss take. Your response with accusations of attacks & potential rage, not to mention a healthy dose of abuse for those who disagreed with you, could easily be considered disproportionate.

It's a discussion, not a court case. It's be better if you dusted yourself down and got on with what you had to say without insulting people.

Mossy Monk

Wow. This thread sure took a turn that i never thought it would

DapperGent

People really can fight about anything. Dickheads. :rolleyes:

Ron DMC

Hopefully More4 will pick it up. They're freeview anyway, I never had FX before.

Syferus

I ain't touching that.

120_Minutes

If "paramount central" had any sense they'd move their schedule in line with their parent station. enough with the scrubs and 2 1/2 men marathons already. they should be showing stewart/colbert here along with nicking adult swim from bravo where it goes unnoticed.

warrenstown

Aw great, just as I move into a house with Sky TV, FX gets rid of Colbert. As many posters have said, hopefully More 4 picks up on it. It is just such a funny show.

Syferus

I nearly choked when I watching last night's final FX episode. The school segement should have come with a food warning.

lostexpectation

did colbert mention it was his last episode on fx?

Syferus

lostexpectation wrote: »

did colbert mention it was his last episode on fx?

Nope, but I'd love if he made reference to it in the exclusive segement he does for The Global Edition which of course won't be shown on TV here either.


And to whichever mod that changed the title - I don't mind, the biggest reason I was defensive was because I was getting scholded for something that never even crossed my mind.

robby^5

Good news for those of us without FX, here's hoping More4 pick it up so we get The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on the same channel.

Syferus

robby^5 wrote: »

Good news for those of us without FX, here's hoping More4 pick it up so we get The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on the same channel.

Lovely logic.

robby^5

Syferus wrote: »

Lovely logic.

I suppose I should rephrase to good news for me, possibly

I cant get FX and I'd love if The Report was on a channel that's on NTL Digital, More4 would be excellent as we would get Daily Show and The Report together, as they are meant to be watched imo.

Syferus

robby^5 wrote: »

I suppose I should rephrase to good news for me, possibly

I cant get FX and I'd love if The Report was on a channel that's on NTL Digital, More4 would be excellent as we would get Daily Show and The Report together, as they are meant to be watched imo.

Well it could be good news if The Report was on a FTA channel that already had vested interest in this area, but the key word is could. There's a real chance no one will pick it up, or that it could be a long time before someone does.

tennessee time

pretty sickened at the colbert report being dropped as well, fx still has family guy but colbert was the reason that fx was on my favourite channel list (love that blue button),

thought it was brilliant that he had lisa hannigan on and said he was gonna "tear her a new one" at the start of the interview..

the daily show is good but i prefer colbert, cant believe it wasnt getting ratings because anyone i talk to who has sky loved the show...

where will we end up without a daily dose of truthiness???

Mossy Monk

Will the website ever be changed to allow us to watch episodes. It still says we can watch on FX UK