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May 25, 2012

Three TNT shows to premiere without commercials

by Adam Finley, posted May 2nd 2006 8:30AM

TNT will be premiering two new series and the season opener of another this summer without commercial interruptions. The two new shows, Saved and Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, will eschew commercials for product placement and on-air promotions. Saved is being sponsored by Dodge and Quiznos, but no sponsor has been announced for Nightmares and Dreamscapes. In addition, the second season opening of The Closer, which will make up a drama block along with Saved, will also premiere sans commercials, but sponsored by Audi. AOL (which owns TV Squad) will also be integrated into the storylines of both Saved and The Closer.

The idea of a commercial-free episode is nice and all, but I'm somewhat wary of this if the "product placement" or "brand integration" or whatever you want to call it gets too out of hand and distracts from the story. I guess we'll have to wait and see if they can make it as seamless as it needs to be. If not, I'm willing to accept a few commercial breaks.

Chris also picked this story up earlier over on Ad Jab.

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Robert

I think the networks have to experiment with new revenue models. Tivo and bitorrent are killing the advertising business model -- lots of people either fast forward through the commercials or download a show that's been cleared of commercials. Maybe product placement is the way to satisfy advertisers, but get rid of the annoying 30 second spots. A question will be how subtle the placement will be. It it's as intrusive as 7th Heaven's Campbell's Soup labels or Oreo episodes, then it isn't going to fly. If it's a matter of showing characters using actual proucts, instead of the made up labels that they now use, then I'd be more receptive. Let's see what they come up with...

May 02 2006 at 11:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Carissa

Product placement - Guiding Light on daytime is going there, and they used "I can't believe it's not butter" - someone on the show actually took a bite of something and said, "I really cannot believe this isn't butter." Talk about messing with the integrity of the show! Oh - yeah, I forgot. It's a soap. They used to pitch detergent.

May 02 2006 at 6:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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