Exclusive interview with Josh Schwartz (Chuck creator) about Season 3 of Chuck below - Ausiello.
Q: NBC said the show's budget will remain unchanged from last season. I'm hearing different. What's the deal?
A: Schwartz: I can tell you that [Warner Bros.] asked us to make budget cuts to meet a decrease in the NBC license fee. That's how it was presented to me. That's as far as I know. My job is to then be able to produce the show at the number the studio is able to deficit it for.
Q: How will the cuts affect what we see?
A: Schwartz: Hopefully, you won't be able to tell. I don't think the look of the show is going to change. We might have certain episodes where Chuck's mission is such that we don't get the opportunity to go to the Buy More [as much]. We love our cast and, obviously, we want to use them as much as possible in as many episodes as possible.
Q: I heard Julia Ling [Anna] might not return. True?
A: Schwartz: No. We have plans for Anna to return.
Q: Has she been taken off contract?
A: Schwartz: We actually haven't finalized all of our actor deals yet. It's all being sorted out. But, like I said, we're going to do whatever we can to try to keep the ensemble together.
Q: Will the show's central trio be in every episodes?
A: Schwartz: Yes. Chuck, Sarah, and Casey are in all episodes.
Q: Will Sarah be working at a Subway next season?
A: Schwartz: [Laughs] You know, I don't know the full details of the Subway integration yet. I know it will be significant. Chuck is a show that happens to be well positioned for effortless product integration, especially because Chuck works at an electronics shop in a strip mall. If Sarah or someone worked at a Subway it would hopefully be no more intrusive or unrealistic than Liz Lemon working at NBC.
Q: Are you concerned at all about the show being off the air for 10 months?
A: Schwartz: It was really a tough choice that the network faced: Put us on Friday or [hold us until] midseason. I really believe Chuck is the little show that could. Our fans are clearly passionate, clearly loyal, and hopefully all we'll do is get them more and more [excited] for our return. And we'll come up with fun ways of stoking the fans throughout the fall. We also have something very, very fun planned for Comic-Con this year.
Q: How about a season 3 spoiler in honor of the show's renewal?
A: Schwartz: The biggest thing, obviously, will be dealing with the ramifications of how we ended the season. What does it mean for Chuck [and] how will it manifest itself? And I think for anyone who is concerned that he's no longer going to be the Everyman, or an accidental hero, fear not.
Q:Will Chuck and Sarah start the season off as a full-fledged couple?
A: Schwartz: I don't want to give anything away, but obviously, Chuck having the Intersect in his head will severely complicate their ability to be a couple.
NBC chief Ben Silverman is making it clear: Fan love for "Chuck" helped ensure the show's survival for a third season.
And he's making it just as clear that lack of passion for "Medium" and "My Name Is Earl" doomed those series.
In the case of "Chuck," Silverman said, "Both the fans of the shows that matter and the advertisers of the shows raised their hands to say, 'We need "Chuck" on the schedule.' We will send you Nerds. We will buy Subway $5 footlongs. We will do whatever it takes." - Source.
NBC has finalized a deal to bring Chuck back for a third season, multiple sources confirm.
That's the good news. Here's the bad news: The 13-episode pickup came after Warner Bros. agreed to make significant budget concessions, including scaling back the number of episodes several members of the show's stellar supporting cast will appear in and, per one insider, possibly eliminating one actor altogether (R.I.P. Anna Wu?). The show is also expected to cut two of its staff writers.
But back to the good news: Chuck lives on! Celebrate in the comments section! - Source.
Here are some easy steps that you can take to try and save Chuck. You can Save Chuck by visiting the official NBC Chuck website (every visitor number to counts), Sign our exclusive Renew NBC's Chuck For A 3rd Season petition (40,000 signatures and counting) and Donate to the American Heart Foundation.
Image owner: Unknown.
No matter what NBC announces next Tuesday with regard to bubble show of the year Chuck, some good will come from the campaign to convince the network to renew it.
As of Friday 15 May 2009, $14,676.92 had been donated to the American Heart Association in the name of Chuck Bartowski, the show’s title character. The favored charity of Chuck sponsor Subway mailed a donation acknowledgment card to NBC execs Ben Silverman or Angela Bromstad for each of the 400-plus donations made
No, fans didn’t inundate the network with nuts or other snack food. They didn’t lash out at the network in a dizzying series of online tirades across message boards, chatrooms and Twitter feeds. They didn’t even hang their heads in resignation.
Instead, they put their money where their hearts are and came up with Have a Heart—Renew Chuck. - Article Source.
So Chuck fans, have a heart and find out more about donating to the American Heart association on this dedicated blog: WeHeartChuck.
We may have the winner in the "Chuck vs. the renewal" face-off as early as Sunday. Sources indicate that the bubble NBC dramedy with strong Web following is close to a third-season pickup. The network had asked for significant budget reductions on top of the cuts producing studio Warner Bros. TV had already made going into the second season.
After weeks of back-and-forth, the two sides are said to be very close to a compromise that would bring the karate-enhanced intercept back next season. - Source.