Torchwood air date ‘later in the summer’ in the UK…
UPDATE HERE: Torchwood gets it UK air date!
GeekTown has just read something rather disturbing in a BBC news article…
As we all know Torchwood: Miracle Day is due to be airing soon. We have the US air date – 6th July on the Starz network. We’ve been seeing stories saying Torchwood wouldn’t be airing simultaneously with the US as they did with Doctor Who earlier in the year. So, the assumption was it will air during the week following the US air date. It now seems that is not the case…
In the article it clearly states, ‘The series will air in the US in early July and be shown later in the summer on BBC One.’ So, it looks like Torchwood is not going to be just after the US air date, but rather several weeks behind it! What has prompted this rather odd decision from the Beeb is as yet unknown. I have requested a response from the BBC but so far they are silent on the matter.
Given the heavy amount of promotion and hype Torchwood has been getting online, this seem like a massive misstep by the BBC, and is only likely to eat into the viewing figures as fans find “other ways” of watching the show… Which is a real shame, as lower viewing figures could effect Torchwood’s chance of renewal. *sigh* I am getting rather sick of TV networks shooting themselves in the foot with bizarre scheduling decisions at the moment…
Thoughts? Comments? Leave them below…
Dave has over 20 years experience in the digital industry, and is founder and editor of Geektown. Obviously a huge geek himself, he can often be found in front of the latest tv show or movie, on various video games, or with his head in a comic book.
I’m possibly the only person happy with this for selfish reasons- I’ll no longer miss the first episode. But objectively, a British show should air at least as early as it does in America.
I guess we don’t know whether Starz had a stipulation in the contract which meant they got to show it earlier than the BBC. In a way they wiould be much more affected by torrenters because they need high viewing figures to attract advertisers. This doesn’t really matter to the BBC. Even so didn’t expect it to be any more than 1 weeks difference in output, its not just the being annoyed that others see it first, its the impossiblity of avoiding spoilers on Twitter that will pee me off 🙁
Aw… not thought of that… the spoiler avoidance is going to be a real pain…
I’m sure the BBC will complain when viewing figures for Torchwood aren’t as high as they would hope when they finally air it, mainly due to people downloading it from America. To be honest I expect the BBC to probably air it on BBC3 and not in HD as it should be because they have little respect for most sci-fi/fantasy shows. It really amazes me how the BBC invest money in that dreadful pile of tripe “Outcasts” and then mistreat shows like Torchwood, Survivors etc, even the mid-season break for Who is a way to drag out their poor TV schedule until the quite “painful to watch” Merlin returns!
Daryl