Gandolfini hurt? What's the latest?

He was injured a month or two back when his motor scooter collided with a cab. He needed surgery on his knee (already performed) and that caused the show's filming schedule to be pushed back two months.

Just found the article tonight, here's a link:

CNN: Gandolfini injured; \'Sopranos\' delayed

(Quoted from the article link Tony Love posted above):

Albrecht also said that HBO will be offering debuts of its original series on HBO on Demand six days before they air on the HBO channel.

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Huh?

I don't know why HBO would do that. They would lose a bunch of viewers, with the new episode sitting right there, no one is going to watch on Sunday if it's available early. Dumb move from HBO.

Is On Demand a pay service?

I think they're only doing that for the new season of "The Wire", as a way to gain more viewers. There's no way they'd do that for the final episodes of The Sopranos.

Don't be so sure.

At first (when I read it in the linked article above) it didn't make any sense, but consider this: in order for any customer to get HBO On Demand they must first subscribe to (regular) HBO service; thus HBO won't be losing any subscribers. In fact, something like this will probably increase HBO's revenue because they charge an additional $4.95/month for their On Demand service.

Wait what?

So we could be seeing each new episode 6 days before it actually airs?

(Assuming you have On Demand)

Yes.

Thats....fucking stupid.

Yes.

But then again, I do have HBO On Demand, so good for me...

I hope the new season is better than the last. Too much going on, too many characters! Still loved it, tho!

Here's my reasoning, why I think they'll only have episodes On-Demand a week in advance for the new season of The Wire:

The Sopranos is a much bigger and popular show than The Wire. I remember the day after certain key characters on The Sopranos were killed off, the media would have all kinds of articles about that event, talking to the actor/actress, the story behind the whacking, etc etc. It was literally major news, especially for surprise ones like Ralph or Adriana, and even long-awaited ones like Vito and Big Pussy.

So imagine HBO puts new episodes On-Demand a week before it actually airs on the network. Word would get out quick with major plot advancements and twists and whackings. People that don't have HBO On-Demand would get supremely pissed off when it's revealed to them in newspapers and TV. Imagine Christopher gets killed off in the penultimate episode of the series. People who saw it On-Demand would spread the word everywhere, there'd be interviews with Michael Imperioli all over the news circuits, and by the time the episode airs on regular HBO, the impact would be ruined.

The Wire is a little watched show that's struggled in the ratings, and HBO's attempting to give that show a boost, first by having it On-Demand and by moving their movie premieres to Sunday nights to create a lead-in audience.

I think they're messing up from not reairing the Soprano's, I really wanted to rewatch this season. Instead I just started watching Brotherhood on Showtime and like it better, so not really caring about the show anymore period. I think HBO would really increase their ratings if they reaired the whole damn series but I know they won't. It sucks.

You guys in the U.S. and Canada can thank your lucky stars - UK viewers still haven't had the first airing of season 6 yet. It's supposed to be sometime next month on More4, which is a satellite/cable channel. Imagine if you're a terrestrial TV viewer, having to wait until the Region 1 DVD comes out before it's aired on terrestrial TV.

Still, I'm not complaining as I've seen all the episodes to date - I just feel sorry for the people here who haven't seen it and who are eager to find out what happens.

same here, the show isnt out here till september