July 19, 2005
'Carnivale' Fans Besiege HBO with E-mails

In a somewhat unusual strategy, HBO Chairman Chris Albrecht refutes claims that his network is no longer capable of generating watercooler buzz by referencing an already cancelled drama.

"Never have we gotten besieged the way we have been besieged by 'Carnivale' fans for deciding not to go on with the third season of that show," Albrecht admits. "I mean literally 50,000 e-mails over a weekend and I don't mean the first weekend. It's so over-the-top, not just in terms of the number, but in terms of things that they say and threaten."

Do you hear that, "Carnivale" fans? HBO has heard your wailing and gnashing of teeth, but no matter how much you threaten to boil their bunnies, make pate of their dogs or get medieval on their hindquarters, the Depression-era drama, starring Nick Stahl and Clancy Brown, isn't coming back any time soon.

Albrecht tells reporters that the second season of "Carnivale" was originally supposed to concl! ude with a satisfying and close-ended conclusion -- the ultimate confrontation between Brown's problematic Brother Justin and Stahl's miracle-working Ben -- but that producers decided to add a cliffhanger, leaving the show's small, but passionate legion of devotees at a loss.

Sure, audiences for "Carnivale" were down dramatically in the show's second season. And sure, creator Daniel Knauf signed a development deal to defect to Showtime as the second season was still concluding. Those factors aside, though, it sounds as if the problem was money.

"[H]onestly, if 'Carnivale' was a $2 million-an-hour show, we'd keep going with it," Albrecht says. "But a period piece, shot all on location, a huge cast like that ... by the third season of a show time that -- and you've got to order at least 13 episodes to give something a real shot -- it's an enormous investment."

Albrecht still sounds proud of the show, which has hauled in an impressive number of technical Emmy ! nominations the past two years, but he's also got an air of finality.

"You have to says, 'Can I take this money and allocate it in other ways to appeal to that same audience?'" he explains. "Although after reading the e-mails, I'm not sure."

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