Network money down the drain in 2008: 10 most pirated shows on the international primetime
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TorrentFreak posted the list of the most downloaded television shows in 2008 last week. Lost, Heroes, Prison Break and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles came out on top.
Other than being a handy resource for checking the pulse of global audiences to see where their tastes lie, the list paints a very interesting picture on several fronts.
First, since more than 90 percent of the downloaders are outside the U.S., this takes away the distinction between shows broadcast on major networks and those offered by cablers, effectively taking the number of live viewers out of the equation. This also eliminates factors such as television advertising that may otherwise play a part in how many viewers a show attracts.
Second, it illustrates the international popularity of serialized as opposed to episodic shows as well as non-genre and genre television. Based on the list, viewers tend to shift in favour of science fiction and, other than House, there are no procedurals among the top 10.
Most importantly, the list gives one an idea of how much money networks could earn if they made their shows available - legally, with ads or for a fee - to audiences outside the U.S. at the same time that they are broadcast domestically. (A lesson film studios learned years ago, judging from the number of major releases that have premiered internationally over a matter of days as opposed to months, which was usually the case in the 1990s.)
If last year’s numbers are anything to go by, more than 40 percent of international viewers would either pay or watch ads to be able to download content online instead of having to watch it live. (Read Blood, peanuts and the future of television for more info on those numbers.)
The headcount below only covers the people who aren’t squeamish about piracy when it comes to watching the latest episodes of their favourite shows, and the numbers are the sum of all torrent downloads for the most popular episodes.
While some shows that are very popular with Nielsen audiences (e.g. Desperate Housewives) can live blissfully on network television forever without having to count the loyal pirates across the pond, it is interesting to note that The Sarah Connor Chronicles - a show that only premiered in 2008, while others on the list are well into their mature seasons - can garner an international following of 2,42 million for a single episode, compared to only 5,5 million live viewers it gets in the U.S., while SCI FI’s Stargate Atlantis even gets more viewers outside the country than it does domestically.
The top 10 most pirated shows in 2008 were:
1. Lost - 5,730,000
2. Heroes - 4,400,000
3. Prison Break - 3,840,000
4. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - 2,240,000
5. Desperate Housewives - 1,990,000
6. Stargate Atlantis - 1,810,000
7. Dexter - 1,660,000
8. House - 1,520,000
9. Grey’s Anatomy - 1,380,000
10. Smallville - 1,150,000
While the top three – Lost, Heroes and Prison Break – are on the U.S. primetime A list as well, clear of any cancellation fears, number four - The Sarah Connor Chronicles – has struggled with ratings this season, which has resulted in Fox moving the show from Monday to a Friday slot, with Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse as the lead-out that will to some degree depend on Terminator’s audiences. (The Sarah Connor Chronicles returns from the winter break on February 13 at 8 p.m., followed by the Dollhouse series premiere at 9 p.m. So mark those Fox Friday nights if you’re a genre geek. Early Saturday mornings if you’re outside the U.S.)
It’s hard to predict the fate of either show at this point, especially with Terminator getting picked up for a full season even though the numbers spelled certain cancellation a couple of months ago, so one can only hope that 2009 will bring broadcast television a step closer to a new, sustainable business model that will allow shows like these to become less dependent on the Nielsen audiences.
Working out international streaming rights sounds like a good place to start, but so far there has only been talk. Still, since it does not seem likely that network television will win back the 2.6 million households (the equivalent of the city of Philadelphia, as Variety reports it) that it lost in the past year, and the economic crisis will not go away overnight, maybe 2009 is the year that will bring some constructive change on this front.
Sphere: Related ContentWeekend box office, December 19 - 21
Here are the top 10 movies at the box office this weekend and their ratings on Rotten Tomatoes:
1. Yes Man - $18,160,000 - 45%, rotten
2. Seven Pounds - $16,000,000 - 28%, rotten
3. The Tale of the Despereaux - $10,507,040 - 52%, rotten
4. The Day the Earth Stood Still - $10,150,000 - 20%, rotten
5. Four Christmases - $7,745,000 - 25%, rotten
6. Twilight - $5,227,000 - 50%, rotten
7. Bolt - $4,256,000 - 85%, fresh
8. Slumdog Millionaire - $3,150,000 - 93%, fresh
9. Australia - $2,325,000 - 53%, rotten
10. Quantum of Solace - $2,150,000 - 65%, fresh
Sphere: Related ContentScreen Actors Guild announces SAG Awards nominees
The Screen Actors Guild revealed the nominees for this year’s SAG Awards yesterday. John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, dominated the nominations this year, with nods in five categories. It was followed by Gus Van Sant’s Milk and David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which nabbed three nominations each.
Here is the list of the SAG Awards nominees:
FILM
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
Sean Penn, “Milk”
Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”
Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road”
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Josh Brolin, “Milk”
Robert Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Doubt”
Heath Ledger,” The Dark Knight”
Dev Patel, “Slumdog Millionaire”
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams, “Doubt”
Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Taraji P. Henson, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
ENSEMBLE CAST
“Doubt”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Milk”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
STUNT ENSEMBLE
“The Dark Knight”
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
“Iron Man”
“Wanted”
TELEVISION
ACTOR IN A TV MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Ralph Fiennes, “Bernard and Doris”
Paul Giamatti, “John Adams”
Kevin Spacey, “Recount”
Kiefer Sutherland, “24: Redemption”
Tom Wilkinson, “John Adams”
ACTRESS IN A TV MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Laura Dern, “Recount”
Laura Linney, “John Adams”
Shirley MacLaine, “Coco Chanel”
Phylicia Rashad, “A Raisin in the Sun”
Susan Sarandon, “Bernard and Doris”
ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Michael C. Hall, “Dexter”
Jon Hamm, “Made Men”
Hugh Laurie, “House”
William Shatner,” Boston Legal”
James Spader, “Boston Legal”
ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Sally Field, “Brothers & Sisters”
Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order: SVU”
Holly Hunter, “Saving Grace”
Elisabeth Moss, “Mad Men”
Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer”
ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”
Steve Carell, “The Office”
David Duchovny, “Californication”
Jeremy Piven, “Entourage”
Tony Shalhoub, “Monk”
ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Christina Applegate, “Samantha Who?”
America Ferrera, “Ugly Betty”
Tina Fey, “30 Rock”
Mary-Louise Parker, “Weeds”
Tracey Ullman, “Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union”
ENSEMBLE IN A DRAMA SERIES
“Boston Legal”
“Dexter”
“House”
“Mad Men”
“The Closer”
ENSEMBLE IN A COMEDY SERIES
“30 Rock”
“Desperate Housewives”
“Entourage”
“The Office”
“Weeds”
STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A TV SERIES
“Friday Night Lights”
“Heroes”
“Prison Break”
“The Unit”
“The Closer
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
James Earl Jones
Sphere: Related ContentLife on Mars sequel Ashes to Ashes travels to BBC America
BBC AMERICA has acquired the U.S. premiere of Ashes to Ashes, the award-winning drama and eagerly awaited sequel to Life On Mars, premiering in March 2009.
With the U.S. adapted version of Life on Mars currently on air, BBC AMERICA viewers have a chance to see what happens next to their favorite characters in the original U.K. series. In Ashes to Ashes, Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) is transferred from Manchester to London and embraces the ’80s. He is joined by sexy psychological profiler, Detective Inspector Alex Drake from 2008, played by Keeley Hawes (MI-5), who finds herself stuck back in 1981 having been shot.
Frustrated by each other’s stubbornness, the friction between Alex and Gene heats up and as the two titans collide, it becomes apparent there is more than just a professional tension emerging. Hunt’s faithful sidekicks, a newly permed Detective Sergeant Ray Carling and the overly cautious Detective Constable Chris Skelton, are also along for the ride as the new team takes on criminal scum in the nation’s capital.
Sphere: Related ContentAmerican Film Institute unveils top 10 movies & TV programs of 2008
American Film Institute has revealed the winners of the 2008 AFI Awards, including the annual lists of the best films and television programs of the year. Here they are:
TOP 10 FILMS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Frozen River
Gran Torino
Iron Man
Milk
Wall-E
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler
TOP 10 TELEVISION PROGRAMS
Breaking Bad
In Treatment
John Adams
Life
Lost
Mad Men
The Office
Recount
The Shield
The Wire
Sphere: Related ContentRobert Carlyle cast as lead in SCI FI’s Stargate Universe
Award-winning Scottish actor Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Full Monty) has been cast in the leading role of Dr. David Rush on SCI FI’s highly anticipated new original series, Stargate Universe, the latest adventure in the Stargate franchise produced by MGM television. Production will begin in Vancouver in February ‘09 with an eye toward a summer 2009 premiere. Additional casting is currently underway.
“We couldn’t be more excited to set Robert Carlyle for Stargate Universe. He brings a depth, intelligence, and complexity to his roles, which will fit perfectly with the fresh, new reinvention of this franchise, “said Mark Stern, Executive Vice President, Original Programming for SCI FI & Co-Head Original Content, Universal Cable Productions.
Edgier and younger in tone than the two previous series, SGU follows a band of soldiers, scientists and civilians, who must fend for themselves as they are forced through a Stargate when their hidden base comes under attack. The desperate survivors emerge aboard an ancient ship missing in the far reaches of space. As they fight to survive, Dr. Rush (Carlyle) works to unlock the mysteries of the ship and return the group home, but evidence of his ulterior motives soon arises.
Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, co-creators of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis and who both currently serve as executive producers on Atlantis, will serve as executive producers and writers on the new series.
Carlyle is best recognized for his roles as Francis Begbie in Danny Boyle’s hit independent film Trainspotting and the stripper Gaz in The Full Monty, which earned him both a BAFTA and SAG Award for his outstanding performance. His career began in the UK where he gained attention in the British television series Cracker featuring Robbie Coltrane.
He has starred in such films including 28 Weeks Later, The World Is Not Enough, Angela’s Ashes and The Beach, where he re-teamed with Boyle. His television credits include the Emmy-winning miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil, and Human Trafficking, which garnered him an Emmy Award nomination. He recently starred in 24: Redemption opposite Kiefer Sutherland.
Stargate Universe will debut as a two-hour movie event on SCI FI and will be distributed by MGM Worldwide Television Distribution.
Related news:
New Stargate series announced for summer 2009
SCI FI greenlights Stargate Atlantis television movie
Sphere: Related ContentSatellite Awards 2008 - the winners
The winners of the 2008 Satellite Awards, voted by the International Press Academy, were announced at a ceremony at the InterContinetal Hotel in Century City last night. Here they are:
MOTION PICTURE
ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA
ANGELINA JOLIE Changeling
ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA
RICHARD JENKINS The Visitor
ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
SALLY HAWKINS Happy-Go-Lucky
ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
RICKY GERVAIS Ghost Town
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
ROSEMARIE DEWITT Rachel Getting Married
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
MICHAEL SHANNON Revolutionary Road
MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
MOTION PICTURE, FOREIGN LANGUAGE
GOMORRAH Italy
MOTION PICTURE, ANIMATED OR MIXED MEDIA
WALL-E
MOTION PICTURE, DOCUMENTARY
MAN ON WIRE
ANITA O’DAY – THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER
DIRECTOR
DANNY BOYLE Slumdog Millionaire
SCREENPLAY, ORIGINAL
THOMAS MCCARTHY The Visitor
SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED
PETER MORGAN Frost/Nixon
ORIGINAL SCORE
A.R. RAHMAN Slumdog Millionaire
ORIGINAL SONG
“Another Way to Die” Quantum of Solace - Jack White
CINEMATOGRAPHY
MANDY WALKER Australia
VISUAL EFFECTS
CHRIS GODFREY, JAMES E. PRICE, DIANA GIORGIUTTI Australia
FILM EDITING
DAN LEBENTAL Iron Man
SOUND (EDITING AND MIXING)
RICHARD KING The Dark Knight
ART DIRECTION & PRODUCTION DESIGN
KAREN MURPHY, CATHERINE MARTIN, IAN GRACIE, BEVERLEY DUNN Australia
COSTUME DESIGN
MICHAEL O’CONNOR The Duchess
TELEVISION
MINISERIES
CRANFORD
MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
FILTH: THE MARY WHITEHOUSE STORY
ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
JUDI DENCH Cranford
ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
PAUL GIAMATTI John Adams
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
FIONNULA FLANAGAN Brotherhood
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
NELSAN ELLIS True Blood
TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA
DEXTER
ACTRESS IN A SERIES, DRAMA
ANNA PAQUIN True Blood
ACTOR IN A SERIES, DRAMA
BRYAN CRANSTON Breaking Bad
TELEVISION SERIES, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
STATE OF THE UNION
ACTRESS IN A SERIES, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
TRACEY ULLMAN State of the Union
ACTOR IN A SERIES, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
JUSTIN KIRK Weeds
Related articles:
International Press Academy announces Satellite Award nominees
Sphere: Related ContentBoston Film Critics vote Wall-E, Slumdog Millionaire Best Movies of the Year
The Boston Society of Film Critics awarded top honours to Wall-E and Slumdog Millionaire in a vote for the Best Movies of the Year. This is the second big win for Wall-E coming from a critics’ association. The film already won the Best Picture Award from the Los Angeles Critics Association earlier this month.
Similarly, there were two actors to win Best Actor of the Year honours: Sean Penn for Milk and Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.
Here is the complete list of winners:
BEST FILM
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
BEST DIRECTOR
Gus Van Sant, Milk, Paranoid Park
BEST SCREENPLAY
Dustin Lance Black, Milk
BEST ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
BEST ACTOR
Sean Penn, Milk
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
Tropic Thunder
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Let the Right One in
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Man on Wire
BEST ANIMATED FILM
Wall-E
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy, Paranoid Park
BEST FILM EDITING
Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire
BEST NEW FILMMAKER
Martin McDonagh, In Bruges
Related articles:
New York film critics vote Milk best film of the year
Wall-E voted Best Picture by Los Angeles Critics Association
Benjamin Button, Milk lead Critics’ Choice Award nominations
Sphere: Related ContentThe Day the Earth Stood Still takes box office
Here are the top 12 movies at the box office this weekend and their ratings on Rotten Tomatoes:
1. The Day The Earth Stood Still - $31,000,000 - 21%, rotten
2. Four Christmases - $13,270,000 - 24%, rotten
3. Twilight - $8,013,000 - 45%, rotten
4. Bolt - $7,506,000 - 85%, fresh
5. Australia - $4,285,000 - 53%, rotten
6. Quantum Of Solace - $3,800,000 - 65%, fresh
7. Nothing Like The Holidays - $3,500,000 - 49%, rotten
8. Madagascar Escape 2 Africa - $3,250,000 - 63%, fresh
9. Milk - $2,635,552 - 93%, fresh
10. Transporter 3 - $2,250,000 - 36%, rotten
11. Slumdog Millionaire - $2,200,000 - 93%, fresh
12. Cadillac Records - $1,600,000 - 65%, fresh
Sphere: Related ContentThe Day the Earth Stood Still steers clear of politics, revisits existentialist SF
It is difficult to see Scott Derrickson’s The Day the Earth Stood Still as a movie that exists independently of Robert Wise’s 1951 original, mostly because the two use a very similar tone in delivering their messages. However, while the original never really attempts to rise above its didacticism - a popular trend back in the day - the premise of the remake is primarily a reflective one and thankfully shows little ambition to be as instructive as Wise’s film.
It is precisely the effect of the time gap between the two films that allows The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) to reveal its greatest strength: where Wise’s film showed little interest in being more than a political animal - reflecting a tendency that had given the genre legitimacy and allowed it to evolve so well since Lang’s Metropolis - Derrickson’s remake chooses to expand on the metaphor of the human side of the story, effectively turning the idea of an alien with a message into a much darker, yet more immediate statement on life, loss and the possibility of transformation that comes with it.
While the film retains the portrayal of people as generally trigger happy - one that makes you wonder if fearfulness and hostility were the right sins to riff on in a movie that carries an environmental message and that would have perhaps resonated better a couple of years ago - they do serve a purpose: they echo the theme that finds a microcosm in a little boy dealing with an earth shattering loss of his own, the death of his father.
And this is where Derrickson’s The Day the Earth Stood Still parts ways with the original. Keanu Reeves‘ Klaatu is neither a politican, diplomat nor the preaching voice of moral sanity. He is more of an inevitable consequence, an alien with a task that does not necessarily call for moral judgment. If there are political or moral undertones to the character, Reeves does an excellent job of keeping them in check, allowing Klaatu to not only keep the story grounded enough for present day audiences to absorb, but also for his alien to function as a stand-in for the force of life itself, moving at its own indifferent speed no matter how much you shake your fist at it, whether it’s because you think it’s out to get you (because apparently sometimes it is) or, as is the case with Jaden Smith’s character, because it can’t give you your father back.
Rather than going for a climactic statement or offering a sight of people miraculously rethinking their ways in the end, The Day the Earth Stood Still serves an unexpected, surprisingly philosophical coda in the final scenes between Klaatu and the boy: a reflection on the necessity of transformation when dealing with a major loss. While this is not an easy, satisfying resolution one usually encounters in movies of the blockbuster species, it is certainly an ethical conclusion to the movie.
Which in the end is why, while The Day the Earth Stood Still is hardly a poster movie for flawless execution, it definitely lands on the positive side of the fence that divides brainless entertainment and good science fiction.
The film opened internationally (including IMAX) on December 12. It stars Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, Jennifer Connelly as microbiologist Helen Benson, Jaden Smith as her stepson Jacob, Kathy Bates as Secretary of Defense Regina Jackson, Jon Hamm as Benson’s colleague Michael Granier, Kyle Chandler as John Driscoll and John Cleese as Professor Basil Barnhardt.
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