The Wire, Def Comedy Jam Set for On-Demand Premieres

LOS ANGELES, July 12: Two HBO original series—The
Wire and Russell Simmons’ Def
Comedy Jam, which is returning after a
ten-year break—will premiere on HBO On Demand six days prior to their
debuts on the main HBO channel.

Beginning September 4, each weekly episode of The Wire and Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam will be available on HBO On Demand the Monday prior
to their Sunday debuts on the main HBO channel. The HBO On Demand debuts will
continue for the entire 13-episode season of The Wire and the entire nine-episode season of Russell
Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam.

In addition, as of September 10, HBO will also move the
debut night of theatrical films to Sunday night from Saturday. The first title
to debut on Sunday night will be Fantastic Four.

“Entering the fall, we decided to experiment with our
schedule, so we can learn more about how our viewers prefer to watch our
programming,” said Dave Baldwin, the executive VP of program planning at HBO.
“Having the luxury of not having to worry about premiere night ratings, as well
as the ability to now measure HBO On Demand usage, we decided to test the
waters with episodic premieres on HOD and shift theatrical movies from Saturday
to Sunday night.”

Season four of the acclaimed drama The Wire centers on the lives of four young boys coming of age
in the drug-saturated streets of West Baltimore. The Peabody Award-winning
drama series was created by David Simon, and executive produced by David Simon
and Nina Kostroff Noble.

The new season of Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam will be hosted by comic actor Mike Epps (The
Honeymooners, Friday After Next). It was taped in front of a live audience at Los
Angeles’ Wilshire Theatre June 23-25. Created by rap music impresario Simmons
and veteran director-producer Stan Lathan, the series originally ran on HBO
from 1992 to 1997.

At its Television Critics Association presentation today,
HBO also announced that production has begun on the second season of the BBC
co-production Extras. The first season
of the Ricky Gervais comedy launched on HBO last September.

In addition, the epic drama Rome kicks off its second and final season on January 7,
with filming on 10 new episodes currently underway at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios.
HBO Video will release the first season of Rome on DVD August 15.