Newsgroup: it.fan.tv.friends
Titolo: La 10a stagione dovrebbe essere di 18 episodi

fonte Waashington Post
NBC, Eyeing Rivals and Ratings, Gets 'Friends' Back for 10th Year 
By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 22, 2002; Page A08 
NBC's "Friends," set to end its nine years of dominance as
television's top-rated comedy in May, will return for a 10th season
next fall, the network and the show's producer confirmed yesterday. 
The show, a critical and commercial success, has been NBC's Thursday
night anchor for several years, winning ratings and advertising
battles over its rivals and keeping viewers tuned to NBC throughout
prime time. So powerful is the hold of "Friends" on the night, rival
networks essentially cede the show's 8 p.m. to 8:30 time slot to NBC,
often refusing to schedule new programs for which they have high hopes
opposite the ensemble comedy. 
"Friends" features the intertwining lives of six young characters,
three men and three women, who live in close proximity to each other
in New York City. All of the cast members -- Jennifer Aniston,
Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David
Schwimmer -- have gone on to appear in feature films. The show
resonates with the younger viewers, typically toward the
twentysomething end of the 18-to-49 demographic that advertisers
covet, at least partly because of its conversational,
next-day-at-the-water-cooler ethos. [SPOILER] Episodes carry titles
such as "Gur Bar Jurer Ab Bar Cebcbfrf." [/SPOILER]
Fans mourned the announcement last year that this would be the final
season of "Friends." But NBC mourned it more, as it had no show ready
to take the comedy's place. The series was ending more for financial
than creative reasons. It is produced by Warner Bros. studios, which,
thanks to complicated licensing and syndication contracts, essentially
could not afford to make the show anymore. 
NBC had paid Warner Bros. $7 million per episode to license "Friends,"
but rising cast salaries -- $1 million per episode for each of the six
actors -- essentially ate up the fee. The rest went to the show's
producers, meaning there was almost nothing left to pay for actually
shooting the show. 
NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker was determined to ensure the
series's return for a 10th season and increased the license fee to
Warner Bros. to about $10 million per episode, industry sources said. 
Even though "Friends" commands advertising rates in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars for a 30-second commercial, advertising alone
will not cover the show's costs. But its carryover audience to NBC's
other Thursday night shows, which enjoy high ratings thanks to their
proximity to "Friends," makes the program invaluable to NBC. 
"Friends" reruns have been a boom business for Warner Bros., which is
paid by individual television stations to air reruns through
syndication. But because the syndication deals were capped at nine
years, Warner Bros. would get no money from syndication next season to
defray the cost of making another season of new "Friends" episodes.
Hence, NBC was forced to hike its licensing fee to Warner Bros., a
unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company. 
There will be some changes in next season's episodes. Aniston, married
to movie star Brad Pitt, said she wanted to appear in fewer episodes
because she wants to have a baby. The other five cast members said
they would not appear in episodes without Aniston, so instead of the
typical run of 22 episodes, next season's "Friends" will have about 18
episodes, sources said. 
The show's screenwriters must now alter the storylines for this
season's episodes, which have been building toward a final show in
May. The show is airing reruns during a holiday hiatus and will resume
new episodes on Jan. 9. 
"Friends" was nominated for a Golden Globe award last week for best
comedy series. Aniston and LeBlanc each received nominations as well.
"Friends" has received 44 Emmy nominations over the years.
-- 
j./Here I come to save the day.
Still alive (very alive) on Sunday at 13:59:24 - 
http://www.iftf.it

Friends tornerà con una 10° stagione il prossimo autunno.
Ci saranno dei cambiamenti negli episodi della prossima stagione. La
Aniston, sposata con Brad Pitt ha detto che vuole apparire in un
numero inferiore di episodi perchè vuole avere un bambino.Gli altri 5
attori hanno detto che non appariranno in nessun episodio senza JA
quindi invece dei soliti 22 episodi la prossima stagione ne avrà circa
18.
Gli autori dello show ora devono cambiare le storylines per gli
episodi di questa stagione, che stavano andando verso il finale a
maggio.
Mavi