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‘Passions’ Finds Satellite Outlet

Apr 25, 2007  •  Post A Comment

DirecTV is exploring new “Passions.”

The satellite television provider has signed a deal with NBC Universal Television Studio to keep the studio’s daytime soap opera “Passions on the air. The series was dropped from NBC’s daytime lineup earlier in the year.

Under the new agreement, NBC Universal Television Studio will produce new episodes to air Monday-Thursday on DirecTV’s original programming channel, The 101.

“‘Passions’ fans no longer need to mourn the demise of their beloved program, as it has found new life on DirecTV,” said Eric Shanks, executive vice president of entertainment, DirecTV. “We care about this show and are extremely proud to give it an exclusive home here at DirecTV.”

The daytime drama, which averages 2 million viewers, will end its network run Sept. 7 with a series of cliffhangers. The program then will resume on DirecTV on Sept. 17, picking up where the series left off on NBC.

The series will remain in its current time slot of 2 p.m. and DirecTV will air encore marathons of the show each weekend.

The majority of the cast and crew are expected to return for the new season.

“This new arrangement with DirecTV is truly a landmark development that allows NBC Universal to extend the ‘Passions’ brand, in a fresh and entirely new way, to DirecTV’s 16 million homes,” said Marc Graboff, president, NBC Universal Television, West Coast. “It will reward the dedicated fans of the daytime drama who can continue to enjoy it on DirecTV and also opens up a great new model for other television programs to find new life on other nontraditional platforms.”

(Editor: Horowitz)