Monday night’s episode of FlashForward was the last for the year on Seven, and screened before the US which took a broadcast break for Thanksgiving.
That resulted in the episode being uploaded as a torrent and now “leaked” to America.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that “Australians don’t care about our guilt-tinged empire-expanding holiday traditions and didn’t take a break. Whether the US-Aussie FlashForward schedule being jolted out-of-sync will result in future episodes also being leaked isn’t known.”
Presumably the episode will be downloaded across the US complete with a Channel 7 watermark.
It’s all rather ironic given Disney / ABC went to great lengths to make sure Aussie media didn’t reveal information on the series in the lead-up to the premiere, insisting they attend a cinema screening and sign confidentiality clauses.
The Hollywood Reporter goes as far as to note that “For the record, Aussies do have a Thanksgiving holiday, but it’s in May and they don’t really do it right.”
We do what?
Looks like somebody has been reading thanksgiving.org.au and presuming a religious observance amongst (some) worshippers is a national holiday. Not here, yankee…
Pass me the turkey.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Relatively few people download or care about it. As an American, though, I think it’s unfair that another country aired an episode of one of Our shows before it was aired in the US. The country of ownership should have first rights for TV broadcasting. I’d say the same of a Canadian or British, etc., show. FF is an American show, and people in This country therefore deserve first rights to it.
@tasmanian devil – yes your right… now when was the new Scrubs starting LOL
As for the ‘leak’ it’s not like most popular shows aired in the US end up online. If there wasn’t a demand for it then people wouldn’t bother putting stuff online. Look at, YouTube, iTunes and iView, if you build a successful service free or not people will use it!
IMO it’s just sour grapes from fans in the US that didn’t get to see it first for once.
Isn’t it great to see that all of Freeview’s restrictions (including the recent crippling of Sony’s PlayTV) have been so effective in stopping the unstoppable?
The few original Australian shows worth the effort are out in the internet wild within minutes of their broadcast, and FlashForward was always going to join them with Australia getting to show it first. Happens when Canadian stations do ahead-of-time broadcasts as well.
Hope the Americans enjoy all the pop-ups and promos and lack of HD. Thankfully Seven doesn’t do those awful blinding-white diagonal pop-ups any more or Australian TV would be a laughing stock.
Oh, and Disney’s embargo back at the launch of the series now looks kinda foolish, doesn’t it? Then again, movie companies have for years gone to great lengths to prevent press coverage of their turkeys…
Episodes are always leaked from the US to Aus, so now its time for the US TV giants to see what our TV networks (which are small time compared to the US ones) have to put up with.
Americans, they think they’re the best at everything. And does it really matter if the episode was leaked? I really don’t understand why people download shows anyway. You’re not going to die if you have to wait a couple of days, weeks or even months. People have to learn to be patient.
I like the irony that this is a show about seeing things before they happen.
Anyone working at the Aussie Synchrotron willing to put their hand up to claim that they caused Australia to see this before the US?
Guess Seven’s and Disney/ABC’s legal team will send cease and desist orders to anyone sharing the torrent.
Yep, nice 7HD logo in the corner, and probably our Monday Lotto results too! I can just see some US viewers going into a tizzy as to how a torrent of the episode could possibly be released before it has aired in the States. It’s Magic!!! And probably wondering where they can watch this mysterious 7HD channel! LOL
@Craig: I think you’re right re: “I’m sure ABC could have stopped Seven from airing it if they wanted to”. Seeing as the yanks think we do Thanksgiving, maybe they also think we don’t have things like electricity or the internet here and don’t have the means to upload shows so they figured they were safe from the show being downloaded.
Thanksgiving in May, since when??? Yes and we also celebrate American Indpendence Day because we love America soooooo much. LOL.
I never saw the need for downloading, even shows i’m a massive fan of, i can wait a few weeks for it to screen here.
“Now we know why the US has so many serial killers.”
Based on one person’s opinion article. ROFL.
I love being reminded of how stupid american media can be
That FlashForward episode was good though, cant wait for it to come back next year 
Slow TV news days in the US today ?
They get upset because people in the US can download it.As far as I know people don’t have a gun to the head and are being forced to download it.Yanks just get upset over the most minor things,as you can see if you read the comments on the link,in particular one from HMS.All that anger over a simple download.Now we know why the US has so many serial killers.
The average person wouldn’t probably know how to download shows or really care for that matter.
Sadly I should clarify my last post, I’m being dragged back to the ftv commercial fold with programmes like Judge John Deed, Kingdom and coming up the very very expensively made Kenneth Branagh ‘Wallander’ on Seven and 7Two, shame Auntie couldn’t get these bewdies. They of course will be recorded for watching in the next full on ratings periods
Damn I missed all the fun, I don’t watch commercial tv, now a Supernatural ep that would be cool, no wait I’m up to date with them.
americaaaaaaaaah – f**k yeah !!!!!
The comments on the page are pure gold!
Interestingly there didn’t appear to be a huge increase in ratings for Seven because Australians were seeing it premiered and had not oppurtunity to download before it aired
Does downloading more harmless than the networks would have us think or is it more that no one in Australia actually cares about Flashforward?
- I’m betting Flashforward gets bumped to 7Two in 2010 or a 9.30 slot on Seven.
ETA @Jason S – last nights will be the last for the year in the US as well.
I think the reporter is the turkey in this story!
Next time get your facts right and don’t blame ‘Australia’ for leaking it I’m sure ABC could have stopped Seven from airing it if they wanted to. Obviously they didn’t do anything wrong or the Disney&ABC lawyers would be all over them.
IMO they did this to promote the show more are it’s not the hit they were hoping for.
I have a hankering for some green beans and sweet potato pie to go with my deep fried turkey. Yee-haw! I’m off to watch the game.
The comments made by the Hollywood Reporter are really stupid and insulting.
How many more episodes are the yanks screening before its off for the year?
Pumpkin pie?
I think Seven’s going to be pleased with the response. If only OzTam measured uploads… Does Seven offer downloads of FF?
I can’t understand why they need to download it when it will be on in a few days anyway.
…and boy did they get upset at me in the comments, yeow-ch!
Canada is the source of many more early releases than Australia ever will be. They’ve seen all the Law and Order UK episodes, as an international example.
Though I remember there was some controversy last year when AU had the most recent “Wallace and Gromit” several months before anywhere else, including the UK, and it was speeding across the torrent sites.
These Americans, think everyone, think we need too care about their Thanksgiving.
Haha, thanksgiving in May for us Aussies! That’s hilarious
I don’t know how or why they allowed it to happen but I think it’s great that we got the show before the yanks. Don’t forget the cranberry sauce with that turkey…
for the record, you are wrong hollywood reporter.
Reminds me of the shocked Brits trying to work out how the new Wallace & Gromit episode “leaked” onto Torrent sites earlier this year prior to its airing in the UK… complete with an ABC1 watermark.