New episodes of Day Break may premiere in Canada

Day Break may be returning to Canadian TV February 1st 2007.

Fans of ABC’s Day Break, starring Taye Diggs, were disappointed to learn of the show’s early cancelation last month. This show was slated to run its 13 episode course during Lost’s hiatus but was canceled after a mere 6 episodes due to poor ratings. As all episodes of this show have already been made there are plans still in the works for ABC to release the show online. Apparent problems with rights to music have hindered this process and it now seems they may be released online in late February.

The Canadian channel that played the show, Global TV, was even less forgiving than ABC and stopped airing the show 2 weeks earlier than ABC did. Had they decided to continue airing the show it may very well have run it’s course as ABC’s decision to quit distribution would not have affected Global TV’s deal.

Since the show’s early cancelation TV station NTV, the local CTV affiliate for St. John’s Newfoundland in Canada, has begun airing the show Thursdays at 9pm. This week episode 4, What If He Can Change the Day aired and next’s week’s episode 5, What If They’re Stuck, is currently slated to be played based on the coming week’s program schedule. Following with this progression episode 7, which never aired on ABC, would be playing on Thursday February 1st at 9pm. Confirmation of this will be determined through the program schedule on Friday January 26th.

It’s fairly common for Canadian channels to play shows on a different schedule than their US counterparts. While for the most part shows will air at the same time or later due to the original channel’s interest in keeping viewers tuned to their station this does not apply for a channel that has decided to stop airing a show because it’s unprofiteable. While there is certainly no confirmation at this point that we will be getting these new episodes it would be foolish for a channel to begin airing a show knowing fully well that it won’t be playing more than the first 6 of 13 episodes.

Check your local listings to see if your Cable or Satelite provider carries NTV. Rogers Cable in Ottawa has it as part of its extensive time shift package so don’t let the fact that you’re not from Newfoundland rain on your parade. US viewers will most likely not be able to get these episodes except through potential Internet piracy.

Now let’s all hope NTV doesn’t cancel Day Break due to bad ratings!

Thanks to my brother and fellow Day Break fan Deitog for figuring all of this out.