Nurse Jackie To Sky Atlantic - Are The BBC Mental?

So it seems that in just one week non Sky viewers have lost two great shows, Glee and Nurse Jackie.

Sky Atlantic has poached the show from the BBC and will be showing season 3 from July 5^th. Just weeks after the second season finished on BBC 2.

Now I’m not going to go into the pros and cons of shows going behind pay walls. I did all that on Monday with Glee. But what I will question is why do the terrestrial channels not want good quality shows? Nurse Jackie is quite frankly one of the best half hour dramas on the TV (if you haven’t watched it go buy it on DVD immediately) and I don’t understand why they wouldn’t fight to keep it. Poor ratings has been sited as the reason the BBC didn’t renew it but they only have themselves to blame for that by putting it on at 10pm on a Saturday night.

Up until 6 months ago the BBC was home to Mad Men and Nurse Jackie. I mean it’s one thing giving up Nurse Jackie but they gave up Mad Men! It’s almost farcical. So instead of having two of the best shows in America on the BBC, we pay our license fee for endless episodes of Family Guy, Eastenders and My Family.

I didn’t really agree with Glee moving to Sky 1. I felt like you were taking a great show away from its core audience but with Nurse Jackie moving to Sky Atlantic, well I’m pleased! It now means we can watch the new series in two weeks time and it will be treated with the respect it deserves. Not taken off for ‘book week’ mid season. True story, one week it was taken off for Book Club the week after that taken off for the Golf. If it weren’t for Chris Lilly’s Angry Boys I would be demanding my license fee back!

E4 and Glee - RIP

So it’s been confirmed that perhaps the biggest show on TV has gone behind a pay wall. I’m of course talking about the news that tonight will be the last time we see a new episode of Glee on terrestrial television.

To be honest I’m surprised it’s taken so long. These things usually happen half way through the first season on such a big show, so I suppose non-sky viewers can count themselves lucky that they’ve seen so many Glee episodes.

I’ve been having a read around some forums since the news broke and it seems people are mainly blaming Murdoch and Fox for Glee moving to Sky 1. But I really don’t think you can put the blame on them for this, you can’t be annoyed at Sky for wanting the best shows on their channels. No, the problem lies with Channel 4. Glee is the best show on E4 yet from what I can tell they hardly put up a fight to keep it. Instead with the money they’re saving by not buying Glee they will be showing AMC’s The Killing and concentrating on homegrown shows. Yep that’s right they are giving up Glee to concentrate on shows such as Made In Chelsea and Gypsy Weddings. Seriously who is running that joint? If I didn’t have Sky I think my head would explode!

Personally, I feel sorry for the kids who don’t have Sky and won’t be able to watch the new season on TV, but I’m sure that wont stop them from watching it. Glee going behind a pay wall isn’t going to make parents rush out and get Sky TV because their kids are upset. If anything it does the opposite, people get so angry that their favorite shows are being taken away; they just acquire them by other means.

But for the rest of us Glee fans, that thankfully do have Sky, well I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. Yes the ratings will go down and Glee will probably be littered with even more adverts, but at least we wont have to wait until January for new episodes. Sky intends to start showing the new season in the autumn days after the States and that is never a bad thing.