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Massive Leak of Pre-Air TV Shows: Piracy or Promotion?

Several TV shows from the upcoming TV season have leaked to BitTorrent over the past week. Weeds, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chonicles, Pushing Daisies, Californication, Brotherhood and Dexter, to name a few. It makes you wonder, Is this the work of hardcore pirates or just a new form of promotion by the TV studios?

weedsMost shows are rips from preview and review DVDs sent out by the studios to several media outlets and TV editors. Even though there is no hard evidence that these shows are leaked on purpose, the leaks will definitely get the hype going on the Internet. Unofficial, pre-air reviews are already popping up at several places on the Internet.

The Sarah Connor Chonicles, Pushing Daisies, Californication, Reaper, and Chuck are new TV shows that are about to start on their first season. The leak of The Sarah Connor Chonicles, highly anticipated by fans of The Terminator, stands out because this show is scheduled to launch in 2008. All the other leaks will air within the next few months.

For Weeds, it’s the second time that episodes have leaked before being aired on TV. Last year, exactly the same thing happened and thousands of people downloaded and watched the first episodes before they aired on TV. TV studios already offer a number of pilot episodes on the iTunes Store for free. Would it be too big a leap to assume they do the same on BitTorrent?

Here’s a list of the TV shows that leaked to BitTorrent this week, including the ‘offline’ air date:

  • Weeds: (season 3) scheduled to air on August 13, 2007
  • Chuck: (season 1) scheduled to air on September 24, 2007
  • The Sarah Connor Chonicles: (season 1) scheduled to air on early 2008
  • Pushing Daisies: (season 1) scheduled to air on September 26, 2007
  • Californication: (season 1) scheduled to air on July 24, 2007
  • Reaper: (season 1) scheduled to air on September 25, 2007
  • Brotherhood: (season 2) scheduled to air on September 30, 2007
  • Dexter: (season 2) scheduled to air on July 29, 2007
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    • Flatlinebb

      I just have a minor correction: Dexter will be starting its second season. And it’s a great show – I highly recommend it.

    • kornflake

      what better way to get intrest in a show then to leak it out i am watching the The Sarah Connor Chonicles right now and i think it is lookin good so i might give fox a try hen it airs

    • http://torrentfreak.com Ernesto

      [quote comment="136836"]I just have a minor correction: Dexter will be starting its second season. And it’s a great show – I highly recommend it.[/quote]

      Thanks, corrected.

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    • Daniel

      Along with newcommers Pushing Daisies, tSCC, Chuck and Calofornication, Reaper has also leaked. Just thought you might want to add it. :p

    • http://torrentfreak.com Ernesto

      [quote comment="136910"]Along with newcommers Pushing Daisies, tSCC, Chuck and Calofornication, Reaper has also leaked. Just thought you might want to add it. :p[/quote]

      Thanks, added.

    • mj

      I’m in love with pushing daisies…but I’m worried most people won’t like it ‘cus it’s quirky

    • mike

      Californication doesn’t start until August 13th (same night as Weeds).

    • luke

      Its a marketing strategy for sure. Like the last season of 24, 4 episodes got “leaked”, and at the end of the 4 episodes was a huge cliffhanger. A fairly obvious marketing attempt to generate interest

    • Jrad

      Aliens in America (The New CW Show Coming October 1st) has been leaked. Although its labeled as a DVDSCR, The quality is quite low.

    • John

      Add Bionic Woman to the list.

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    • Shaded Spriter

      I have not seen the Bionic Woman leak yet…(looking forward to that show.)

      I am currently struggling to if I should get season 3 leak of weeds…because I have not seen season 2 (Sky owns the rights…but have not showed it for god knows what reason.)

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    • Manda

      I’m not sure about BitTorrent, but 4 new Men in Trees episodes have been leaked on usenet.

    • Grimmis

      yep bionic woman is been up for almost 24 hours

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    • blahblah

      For Bionic Woman, I do know it’s being screened at Comic-Con so leak might be from there.

    • Jack Gater

      Leaks happen every year. Weeds had about four episodes leaked last Season, Shark had it’s Pilot leaked and probably a bunch of other stuff too.

      I think it would be a decent way to promote them. They can’t get rid of torrents, so why not use them to get viewers? I for one will be watching Sarah Connor, Reaper and Chuck new this season. As for Weeds and Dexter leaks…they’re just an added bonus.

    • John

      Because of these leaks I will be watching, when they premiere on TV:

      CHUCK
      PUSHING DAISIES
      ALIENS IN AMERICA
      REAPER

    • papa

      This is nothing new. It happens every summer. I watched the pilots to Heroes, Jericho, Studio 60, Shark, Kidnapped, The Nine, Smith, and a bunch of others this time last year.

    • papa

      Hell, I even watched pilots to shows that didn’t even hit the airwaves…Angriest Man in Suburbia, The Singles Table, and a couple of others I forgot the name too.

      This is nothing new. I watched the two hour pilot to Lost a full two months before it aired back in the summer of 04.

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    • jayrodathome

      dexter prereleased the first two episodes to dvd then it was ripped and put on torrents. I just watched them both today and it was great. It’s definitely one of better and creative shows around today.

    • Steve R

      There’s a pretty good piece on this here:

      http://allyourtv.com/0708season/falltvpilotsonline.html

      Basically, talking about the fact that it’s happened before, and giving some pretty educated guesses on where the leaks are coming from.

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    • SantaBJ

      Yeah, I love pilot season…for some reason, most – at least half – of new pilots, and for some reason often the most hyped shows, will leak. Now, I’ve been through two years of these leaks as part of #EZTV; and even though we’re technically outside the arena where the actual leaks happen (ya know, those “Scene” guys…long robes, hoods, big *cough* tubes) I believe I’m justified in voicing my suspicions that the leaks are indeed intentional on the part of the copyright holders.

      Think about it – what better way to gain hype? They have nothing to LOSE on leaking it; no commercial income will be lost, and with the leaks people will get a feel for the shows before they even begin on TV. Of course, I can’t be sure – but it does make sense. Oh, and naturally they can’t talk about it. Duh. That would be, like, acknowledge that piracy has potential as a hype building mechanism… and we can’t have that, can we. -.-

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    • DeistDennis

      I’m a regular poster to Showtime’s Weeds message board and we have been talking about the “leaks” for almost a week now, telling other posters where and how to download the BitTorrents. They are VERY particular as to what can be said on their message boards, citing copy write policies, etc… so I found it strange that we could talk so freely about the shows being online, courtesy of BitTorrent. But post a comment that these “leaks” are not leaks or piracy at all but a promotion by Showtime and that post/thread is cut as fast as you can put it up.

      Their actions silencing people who speak truth only speaks volumes about themselves. Playing the public for idiots in order to gain more subscribers to their network is nothing but stupid business; but then politicians play that game successfully all the time…

    • deptaro

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      â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘PEOPLE WHO GENERALIZEâ–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘
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    • twanbiz

      first off, these arent released to bittorrent, its called the scene and release groups like sitv have been providing these rips, it eventually gets spread down to bittorrent but trust me these networks arent releasing these eps online, and they are furious that they are there, especially showtime.

    • drumnbass88

      weeds! theyre great

    • Elle

      The pilot of Lipstick Jungle is on EZTV also

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    • AnneR3

      Sites such as Netflix have agreements with some networks to preview their shows online (Californication is available to subscribers of the service via their ‘watch now’ option). For people like me (who can’t afford cable) this is great… Promotion, promotion, promotion…

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    • Christopher

      Stargate Atlantis S04E01+E02 also leaked (unfinished promo preairs, just like the rest of em). And I downloaded, and chuckled at the crew members having to shout “BANG!” or “beepbeepbeepbeep!” because they add all the SFX in post :D but it was still enjoyable.

      And I’ll still watch it when it airs on TV.

      Preairs own… The 24 preairs earlier this year were probably the most exciting ones (at that point), I can’t wait for more! :D

    • arkivx

      Don’t forget about the first the episodes of the fourth season of Stargate Atlantis.

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