BREAKING NEWS: UK Flashpoint DVD Boxset Details!

Special thanks to one of our readers (and huge Flashpoint fan in Britain) Yvonne for sharing some pictures of the just-released Flashpoint DVD boxset. We really love the cover! The back reads "Flashpoint is a high stakes police drama about a team of elite cops. A SWAT team highly trained in psychology, specialising in the use of state of the art weaponry, sniper rifles, snake cameras, and robotics along with expert negotiating tactics. Their task - to talk down or take down, terrorists, hostage takers, and bomb-makers, delving deeply into the minds of the human beings at the centre of explosive situations." We are so pleased to see the logos of CTV, CBS Paramount, the Canadian Television Fund, and the Canadian Government featured below the credits! Sadly, there are no extras included on the boxset. We know CTV and CBS both produced behind-the-scenes promotional videos when the series began , and CTV's eTalk followed the cast and crew on many journeys, from shooting segments behind-the-scenes, to following them on photoshoots and award shows. We hope, that if there is a North American DVD release, that they will be included, or perhaps other extras of any kind (maybe a chat with the writers and producers about why each song was picked to play at the end of an episode). Nonetheless, for those of you dying to know what the boxset looks like, we have pictures featured below from Yvonne (click to enlarge)! She tells us that the first season ended last Thursday (stopping at the 13th episode), on a cliffhanger. We remember your pain all too well when we saw that episode for the first time!

Flashpoint DVD Boxset Out in Two Weeks, Brits!

As we reported earlier, Flashpoint is being released on DVD in the UK - and based on the details given on Amazon UK, we don't think there are going to be any extras - at 520 minutes it looks like it's going to be an episodes-only release. We really love the cover though - especially the slogan "Who's got your back?" The slogan we usually see here in North America is "What would you do" in the CBS promos. To our readers in the UK - we would love to hear confirmation from you if there are any extras included on the DVD! Don't hesitate to send us an email! Pending announcements from CTV and/or CBS about a DVD release in North America, we may purchase a copy in May (these days, being an Otaku almost forces you to have a region-free DVD player because Japanese releases come with more bang for your buck). Some of us on staff are still "old school" and like watching our tv shows on a tv screen rather than our computers or (in some cases) non-existent portable media devices. Alas, CTV seems to have posted the wrong episode description this week on their site. The episode this week will be Aisle 13, which tells the story of a teenage boy who is sad over his best friend moving far away, because of financial difficulties. So, he decides to rob a local food store to give their family some money so they can stay here, but it all goes awry and he takes several people hostage. And for those of you wondering what it's like to write for Flashpoint, we found an old interview from almost a year ago!

Flashpoint News And Ratings!

So, today I found out that what I had read elsewhere was wrong, and that new episodes of Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis' Flashpoint begin tomorrow :O. Please tune in everyone! I thought I would have had another week to finish up the summaries, but I guess I'm going to fall behind. Sorry to you all! Tomorrow's episode is entitled Business As Usual, and is a plot that reflects these times that we are currently in. Three men take the CEO of a mortgage company hostage , and the SRU reluctantly looks for a replacement for Jules as she is still in the hospital recovering from her wounds in the last episode of Season 1. We're really looking forward to seeing this episode! And we can also bring you some behind the scenes information! This episode was shot last month at Toronto's MaRS Collaboration Centre, more specifically, its auditorium which had to undergo a quickie transformation into a stock exchange. Fans can click here to read the blog entry on MaRS's site, and here to check out some photos of the set!

And before we hit the ratings, we bet all our worldwide fans of Flashpoint just got a little more jealous of the UK! While Canada has the episodes available on iTunes, the UK will be the first market to have the show on DVD! Even we are a little confused by this , wondering why a North American show isn't getting a DVD release first on it's shores! It is currently listed on Amazon UK for around $35 USD, and ITV has posted a very tiny image of what we believe is the DVD cover. And we really love the way the SRU looks with the glittering blue skyscape of Toronto behind them. We can't wait to see this one on North American shelves!

Flashpoint Ratings:

The show, despite it's competition, held its ratings pretty steady. New episodes aired on January 9th, 16th, and 23rd, and February 13th. In between, repeats were shown, and they still pulled in significant ratings. On the 9th, Eagle Two aired, and scored 10.06 million viewers in the US, and a 2.2/6 rating with viewers between the ages of 18-49, winning it's timeslot and CBS the night. In Canada, the show scored 1.269 viewers, and was the 13th most watched show that week. On the 16th, Backwards Day aired, and scored 10.53 million viewers, and a 2.4/7 rating with 18-49ers, again winning its timeslot and CBS the night. In Canada, the show scored 1.741 million viewers, and was the 7th most popular show that week! On the 23rd, Haunting the Barn aired, and scored 10.21 million viewers in the US, and it's 18-49ers rating unchanged from the previous week (2.4/7). Once again, it won its timeslot and CBS the night! In Canada, the show scored 1.279 million viewers, and was the 16th most watched show that week. In the weeks in between, in Canada, the show managed to hold it's viewers over a million, and in the United States over 8 million, as reruns aired. On the 13th, Between Heartbeats aired, scoring 8.7 million viewers in the US, making it the top of the ratings by numbers, however it scored a 1.8/6 with the 18-49ers. That score put the show behind Fox's Dollhouse which had less viewers, but scored a 2.0/6 for the same demographic. Last week, Dollhouse tied with a rerun of Flashpoint at 1.7/5, but only had about half as many viewers. I have a feeling that the viewer gap between the two shows will become larger this week as last week's episode was so terribly convoluted. It left me more confused than the first episode, and I don't believe Dollhouse is as big a threat to Flashpoint as I feared. Don't get me wrong - as many Sailor Moon fans are fans of Joss Whedon's work, this one sure isn't winning any of us over. We'll have to see what tomorrow holds, however. We really loved the last four episodes of Flashpoint, and we hope the same quality carries the show through the second season! However, the ratings are taking a pretty steep dive in Canada, so those of us canuck otaku who are freezing in the Great White North, please turn your TV sets to Flashpoint tomorrow okay?

Flashpoint Acquisitions!

Hey everyone: My laptop is very slowly coming back into being. Today if I get all my productivity software installed and running, I should be able to watch He Knows His Brother and get a summary up. We have more exciting news for all of our overseas readers in Britain and France! Britain's ITV3 just picked up the show and all 13 episodes are slated to air on their fall schedule! Jay Kandola, Director of Acquisitions at ITV3 said "Flashpoint was really this year's surprise summer hit on Network TV in the USA. The series already has made the unusual leap from Canadian TV to CBS in the states and now will find its perfect home in the U.K. when it arrives on ITV3." We encourage all of our British fans to watch this show when it airs! Et pour vous en France - regardez Canal Plus! Flashpoint est une série à guetter prochainement sur Canal plus. I am not sure when it will start but my guess would be in the spring at the earliest since the series would likely need to be dubbed or subtitled for the French market (and that takes at least a few months to do). Congratulations (et Felicitations!) to Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis on Flashpoint's continued success around the world!