Developments, Part Two

A couple of red flags have emerged in the attempts to move Arrested Development to Showtime.

Red flag number one: Arrested creator Mitch Hurwitz has not yet made up his mind as to whether or not he'd want to continue running the series, should it continue for another season. So why is this a problem for the potential move to Showtime? Well, Showtime has made it clear that they are only interested in Arrested if Hurwitz is running the show. No Hurwitz = no Showtime deal.

Red flag number two: Twentieth Television and Imagine Entertainment are asking for a substantially higher license fee for Arrested than Fox had been paying to license the show. It's been well-known that Arrested was an expensive show to produce during its Fox days, so a "substantially higher" license fee could prove to be a serious impediment on the road to Showtime.

But have no doubt: Showtime is VERY interested in snagging the show. In fact, this week Showtime's entertainment president Robert Greenblatt commented on the record about his network's interest in the show, stating "if even only a fraction of the Fox audience came to Showtime, it'd be a hit show for us."

So... come on, Mitch: don't give up on us yet. We're thiiiiiiiis close...