Mad Men drama

[zero]

Source

A shakeup looms at Sterling Cooper: “Mad Men” could be canceled if creator Matt Weiner doesn’t bow to AMC’s cost-cutting demands. Here’s your Flash scoop:

“Mad Men” may have succumbed to greedy men. The biggest hit in the history of the AMC cable channel might be canceled after four hugely successful seasons because the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner, and his producing partners at Lionsgate are balking at making budget cuts and “revenue enhancements” designed to boost AMC’s bottom line.

Parent company Cablevision is planning to spin off its Rainbow Media Holdings — which also includes WE TV, IFC and the Sundance Channel — in an initial public offering soon.

If successful, the IPO will net top execs huge windfalls. Josh Sapin, president and CEO of Rainbow, stands to make $25 million, an insider said.

“Weiner is being completely screwed by AMC,” said one source on the creative side.

“Nobody would have heard of AMC if not for Matt Weiner and ‘Mad Men.’ But they will not renew the show unless he accedes to all of their demands.”

The execs are said to be demanding that Weiner cut three minutes from every episode so they can sell six more 30-second advertisements, and they are demanding the elimination of two characters.

“They want to fire two actors to save costs and show how profitable they are,” said our source.

Presumably, the show’s stars — Jon Hamm, January Jones, Christina Hendricks and John Slattery — would be spared.

“Weiner just may walk away from the show, and the AMC execs are threatening to go ahead with ‘Mad Men’ without Weiner, but that would be like doing ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ without Larry David.”

“Mad Men,” which usually starts filming in April for a season premiere in the summer, already had been pushed back as negotiations dragged on. The next season, if there is one, won’t air until 2012.

Weiner was said to be skiing with his kids and couldn’t be reached for comment. He had complained in January about the fight over his “very lucrative property,” telling Entertainment Weekly: “It’s one of the perils of success — everyone wants a piece of it now, and they are fighting over who is gonna get the biggest chunk.”

AMC just released a statement an hour ago saying season 5 will happen (in 2012), but it sounds like that could be without Matt Weiner. What a bunch of fucking idiots, way to piss on the show that made you a legitimate network, instead of a place to watch Rambo 3 or Wild Wild West.

[I Don't Mind]

Fuck everything about this. I don't want the show to be canceled or to see the show without any of it's characters. I see Peggy as important as Don, as important as Pete, as important as Joan as important as Roger. I'd say Betty can go cuz I'm not a big fan of January Jones, but she's been in enough other media to bring name value and sex appeal

[GoGo Yubari]

Straight up, if this comes to pass I am never watching AMC in any way that profits them again. Which may mean that good shows suffer for it, unfortunately, but that is completely insane. I also really, really hope this doesn't have something to do with Walking Dead (which can't be a cheap show to make) because I like to not have another reason to be testy at it.

[Jimmy]

This is beyond stupid. I hate the idea of losing two of the characters from the show. Mad Men has been the most consistantly brilliant show on television and I'd hate to see it take a dip in quality due to something as ridiculous as this.

[zero]

Looks like cancellation is off the table, but the news isn't good.

Source

The upcoming fifth season of Mad Men is now slated to debut in March 2012. That is 17 months from the series' fourth season finale. While the protracted negotiations between Mad Men creator/ exec producer Matt Weiner and AMC/Lionsgate TV led to the acclaimed series' pushed production start and, in turn, caused the show to miss its original July premiere date, the new March return date is not directly tied to the contract talks. According to sources with knowledge of the negotiations, Weiner had been actually pushing for a shorter gap between Seasons 4 and 5 and had stated that he could get Season 5 produced and delivered on budget for a 2011 premiere. However, I hear AMC's argument was that it has now 5 original series to accommodate and its next available slot for Mad Men was in March 2012. Mad Men was AMC's first series, which put the cable network on the original programming map. Since then, AMC has successfully launched several other series, most recently The Walking Dead, which supplanted Mad Men as the network's highest-rated show.

So basically, "fuck you, we have Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and a slew of experiments that won't succeed to go on before you."

[GoGo Yubari]

Since then, AMC has successfully launched several other series

Two is not "several."

Sort of a passive-aggressive move by AMC, but at the same time unless they were able to put everything together effectively so it could run from like August to October, it would be running into The Walking Dead's season which is a bad idea for AMC because why the fuck would you run your two flagship shows (which are radically different in terms of setting and tone) at the same time? Since TWD has a full cable season, it'll be running until like the end of January.

Like, if the options are Possibly Hastily-Made Season vs. Bastardized Season With More Ads, Less Actors, and No Matt Weiner vs. waiting 3/4ths of a year longer, I might actually be willing to wait. But at the same time, it's the best show on TV; with the level of talent they have, I wouldn't be horribly shocked if they could have pulled out a great season.

[maninblack]

I don't agree with firing cast members simply to control costs, but I don't think it's unreasonable to cut the running time by 3 minutes to allow for more advertising.

[GoGo Yubari]

Mad Men has been renewed for at least two more seasons, but probably a third one too.

If you don't want to go through the whole thing, basically the main changes are as follows; the episodes will be cut down to 45 minutes on broadcast, with 47-minute versions being released on Video On Demand services eight days later, and when it comes to product placement they're going to be more "transparent" about it (which apparently means they'll show "Mad Men was brought to you by (product mentioned in the show)," as opposed to going the Chuck route of deliberately cheesy, obvious plugging of Subway Sandwiches).

[zero]

Well that's good news. Only shitty thing now is the return date.

[Trey]

So we'll be waiting all week for a new Mad Men, then we'll have to wait another 8 days to get the complete version?

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah. I can't imagine a lot of people will go for that in terms of actually watching both in a short period of time. What I'll probably do is watch the 47-minute versions once season 5's out on DVD.

You know, in December 2012.

[Trey]

I'm just now getting into Mad Men and had planned on paying to get AMC just for that show but with the way all of this is going I might just wait those 8 days and then find those shows another way.

[TGC]

Netflix and Liongate reached a multiyear syndication deal earlier this week to make "Mad Men" available streaming for Netflix subscribers.

The first four seasons of "Mad Men" will go up on Netflix Instant starting on July 27 and subsequent seasons -- Matthew Weiner recently reached a pact guaranteeing at least two more seasons, with an option for a third -- will be available when the individual seasons end.

"'Mad Men' has been and continues to be a representation of TV at its best and Netflix is proud to be the syndication home for this acclaimed series," stated Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix. "This deal secures long term instant access to an iconic show for Netflix members for years to come."

Added Lionsgate President and Co-Chief Operating Officer Steve Beeks, "We're delighted to partner with Netflix to begin our syndication of 'Mad Men.' We have ensured 'Mad Men's' value for years to come by layering today's unique syndication deal with a leading digital distribution partner on top of last week's licensing agreement with AMC. The innovative structure of our distribution plan underscores the tremendous value of producing and owning content in a digital world where demand for content continues to grow and pathways for reaching consumers continue to diversify. We will announce our transactional digital plans and other elements of our syndication strategy for 'Mad Men' shortly."

"Mad Men" is expected to return for its fifth season in early 2012.