Bad news for Sugar Rush Series 3

英國衛報Guardian在3月6日刊出一則報導，指Channel 4 因預算縮減，新推出的節目數也縮減，因此Sugar Rush第三季雖然謠傳已在製作中，Channel 4 極有可能不會在本年度推出．這個夏天將會變得有點無趣...

已有死忠網友發起請願活動，寄出信函內裝糖果，上書 "We desperately need our Sugar fix... Please bring Sugar Rush back!"．地址是：
Channel 4 Enquiries
PO Box 1058
Belfast
BT1 9DU
ENGLAND

下面是報導全文(要看全文須註冊，我代勞全文張貼出來).

Channel 4 downsizes dramatic ambitions by Ben Dowell Tuesday March 6, 2007

Channel 4 will fail to fulfil its stated ambition of showing a major new drama every month this year or in 2008.

The broadcaster's commissioning editor for drama, Liza Marshall, has admitted that Channel 4 would not be meeting its target of 12 flagship pieces per year.

But Ms Marshall denied industry rumours that the tally would be cut by as much as half.

"There is likely to be a refocusing and we are going to do less than 12 - but we are certainly going to do more than six," she said.

Channel 4 drama projects which are understood to have been shelved include plans for a third and fourth series of the teen drama Sugar Rush.

A planned TV adaptation of the blog turned book, Belle du Jour: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, is also understood to have hit the buffers, despite the fact that Billie Piper was attached to play the lead in the Tiger Aspect project.

Ms Marshall was responding to industry speculation that Channel 4's budget for drama - easily the most expensive genre in terms of cost per hour - was being hit hardest in the Channel 4 programming budget freeze for the coming year.

Overall, Channel 4 has frozen its £600m budget to buy in and commission shows, representing a real-terms cut of about £30m this year.

This was partly prompted by the higher fees Channel 4 is paying Endemol for Big Brother under the recent three-year-deal.

The Channel 4 programming budget is also being squeezed because advertising revenues dropped by around 7% last year to about £665m, down from £706m in 2005.

One drama producer said that there was "ill feeling throughout the indie sector" about the likely cuts to programming budgets, because the Channel 4 is understood to have agreed to increase its annual payment to Endemol for Big Brother to £30m-£40m.

"It would have even been better to have seen the channel lose Big Brother to a rival broadcaster where it would have probably died a death than to have to make cuts elsewhere," he added.

A Channel 4 spokeswoman said that, this year, the drama department would be showcasing eight flagship dramas "with a similar number next year."

She added that the commitment to 12 a year was only "an ambition" and that the channel's annual drama budget would be frozen at the 2006 figure of £101.6m and not reduced.

"We have moved massively towards that target of 12 and are showing far more than we used to," the spokeswoman said.

"In addition, other pieces are coming out of other departments such as the upcoming Irvine Welsh film Wedding Belles which comes from the comedy department."

The spokeswoman added that "there were never plans for a series three or four" of Sugar Rush, insisting: "It was concluded at end of the second series because we felt the girl's story had run its course."

Other upcoming dramas include Mark of Cain, the Tony Marchant film about British soldiers in Iraq that will be shown in April; and Secret Life, Rowan Joffe's film about a child sex offender which stars former spooks actor Matthew Macfadyen