Posted on 08/10/2003 7:56:43 PM PDT by foreverfree
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Subject: Clock Ticking On Pax? [ Reply ]
Posted by: Joseph_Gallant
Posts: 189
Status: Offline
Posted on: 08/10/03 10:32 AM
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Some months ago, there was speculation (including on this message board) that Pax TV was going to cease to exist.
For one thing, primary owner Lowell Paxson was looking to sell the network and it's owned stations.
But this past Spring, Pax announced that there would be new episodes of some of it's series for the 2003/2004 Fall season.
Now it appears that Pax may not have a Fall season--or at least a Fall season with first-run shows.
In his website about TV game shows, Steve Beverly reports that Pax had originally ordered 130 new episodes of "Supermarket Sweep", but the network's order, according to "Sweep" host David Ruprecht (quoted by Beverly), has been cancelled. Beverly also wrote that Pax "apparantly is going forward with no new episodes of any of it's series at least until sale talks are settled".
Interestingly enough, "Sue Thomas F. B. Eye" is produced in Canada for CTV, while "Body and Soul" is also filmed in Canada, and although I couldn't find it currently listed as being on either CBC, CTV or Global, it probably has run on one of those networks. Thus, those shows might continue with first-run episodes as long as Pax is around since they are produced in Canada in conjunction with a network there. But on the other hand, they may not continue to air on Pax even if they continue to air in Canada.
Since it appears that first-run programs on Pax are (at least) on hold, it appears that the final first-run program (at least for now; possibly ever?) on Pax will be Saturday's (August 16th) WUSA women's soccer semifinal game (While Pax and ESPN2 share the WUSA television package, the championship game on the 23rd will be on ESPN2).
Even a sale of the network and/or it's owned stations may not mean that Pax will be "saved". NBC owns a piece of Pax, and I think it's most likely that the network will buy Pax and it's O&O's, shut down the network, sell-off Pax O&O's in cities where it already owns NBC and Telemundo stations, and convert the remaining Pax stations to Telemundo.
I'm beginning to think that Lowell Paxson may decide to shut down the Pax network even before it's stations are sold. I could see the what's left of the program schedules on Pax TV stations (5-11:30 P.M. ET/PT weekdays, 4-11 P.M. ET/PT Saturdays--likely to shrink to 6-11 P.M. after the WUSA season) and 6-11 P.M. ET/PT Sundays) converted to infomercials. Such a change could happen anytime after next weekend.
What do you think? Is the clock ticking on Pax? Is the network's demise at hand?
foreverfree
He's also got a total complex about ending up in Hell. He admitted to an interviewer once (I'm paraphrasing here, of course), "The Bible says it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. I'm a very successful businessman. What does that mean for me?"
So maybe he subconsciously sabotaged his own network? Just a hypothesis.
My bad. TBAA is on Hallmark. I couldn't remember if they were on PAX or HALL.
foreverfree
D'oh. That's not the same PAX.
I'll expect a reply within 12 months.
That was almost certainly a mistake. There is a "social justice" organization called PAX, but it is not the same as PAX-TV.
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