LAST EDITED ON 01-12-05 AT 01:21 PM (EST)>Only problem is that this seems
>like a one-time deal type
>thing.
First, hey, I watched every episode too -- I just didn't get to post about them.
Just one note on the ratings -- Rebel's ratings were just about as bad as those for Fox's canceled Boss' series (Boss averaged 4.04 million viewers while Rebel averaged 4.23 million -- ranking 110th and 113th in the season-to-date viewership rankings), but I strongly suspect the reason that one show was canceled and the other was allowed to serve up its entire eleven episode run was because Branson's show was basically a paid weekly infommercial for everything ranging from Virgin's soon-to-launch stateside domestic airline to the upcoming Virgin Galactic, to existing things like Virgin Wireless, Virgin Megastores, etc.
Frankly, I doubt Fox paid much money for the series and might even still have profitted on it despite the pitiful ratings -- the whole idea for the series had it's origins in Virgin's marketing group as basically the ultimate Virgin publicity stunt. Bunim-Murray wasn't even invloved in the show when the concept was first annoucned -- initially they were planning to handle the whole thing (gulp) inhouse with basically freelance reality TV talent that they'd hired.
In the end I agree the show proved to be surprisingly entertaining and pretty well produced -- but I think it's continued broadcast was more likely to have to do with some contractual obligation on Fox's part than it was to have anything to do with Fox's belief in the show.
-SB