LAST EDITED ON 09-04-04 AT 02:25 PM (EST)

>Umm, I'm down with wherever you put me. Should I
>read those "???"s as "we're not sure if the show
>will run that long", or "there will be 16 episodes,
>but we're not sure when ep16 will be"?

The ???'s mean that, in the case of the Thanksgiving episode, November Sweeps end the day before so we're theorizing NBC might air that week's schedule the Wednesday before Thansgiving rather than Thursday night. In the case of Christmas, we're thinking there's probably an episode sometime that week, and it will probably be broadcast by the 23rd at the latest, but given the rumors that they are considering making the finale into a 3-hour Survivor-style thing, they might air it sometime earlier in during the week of the 23rd.

>If it's later than the 23rd, I **may** have a conflict,
>as I **may** be going out of town the week
>between Christmas and New Year's. Plans are not firm,
>but being looked into...seriously. I don't have any other
>Fall conflicts.

OK, noted... although as I mentioned above, since the 23rd is the last available broadcast evening before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I'm thinking the chances that the finale doesn't air by 12/23 at the latest are somewhere between slim and none.

>I'd love to do the finale, though. Although last season,
>didn't they split it into 2 episodes?

The penultimate episode started with 4 folks, and Nick and Amy were eliminated partway through... with Kwame and Bill starting their tasks for the reminder of the episode. But given the increase to 18 contestants and the number of weeks between next week's premiere and the holidays, we're thinking that's not likely to happen this year (which also fits well with the rumors that the finale is going to be adopting a Survivor-like 3-hour format.)