http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:26:19 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/12/171346.php#comment-695451 All these reality shows that feel like they're two hours long are over-stuffed with commercials, for two reasons. The biggest reason is to fill time without re-runs. 'Gladiators' was probably conceived orginally as an hour long show, and the network suits gave the order to inflate it to two hours pretty late in the post-production process. The whole staff then had to sweat it out and drag out the filler to make time. And the other reason is make-goods... NBC especially is hurting with the upfront promises to advertisers. Since the ratings promises they made to advertisers didn't come through, they basically owe the sponsors a crapload of free airtime, hence the wall-to-wall commercials in AG. 695451@blogcritics.org Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:26:19 EST