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All Episodes Talk: Utopia (US)


Zahdii

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I want to see a "celebrity" version of Utopia with famewhores from other reality shows - Big Brother, Bachelor/Bachelorette, America's Next Top Model, Masterchef...it would be phenomenal clusterfuck of epic proportions!

 

* Cause "epic" is one of the most overused words in reality tv.

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Well, we're all so smart, and we have the Internet, so... how would *we* do things if we were on the show? What would our priorities be, how would we get the farm going, what money making ideas would we have, how would we budget, and how would we organize? What system of organizing or reward/punishment would we use to keep things humming along?

 

 

 

How would I utopia?   

Well, first step would be having a discussion about decision making.  Do we elect/appoint leaders?  Do we let leaders make decisions, or do we vote on everything?   Are we capitalist, where we each get our own money?   Or communist, where everything is shared?  How do we divide up the work?  What are consequences for people not obeying what is agreed upon?  What are the skills people have that they can contribute?  what are the skills the group is lacking?  

 

I think that everything starts with that.  

 

Other than that, my ideas would be to buy cheap nutritious food - rice, beans, oats, potatoes, flour.  If we're going to spend more money, buy more chickens, as eggs are a great source of nutrients.  

Get veggie plants into the soil as quickly as possible - stuff like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers - all easy to grow and pretty fast-growing. (And don't tell Bella, but add some Miracle-gro, the stuff WORKS!)  

 Do whatever it takes to maximize milk production, then make sure we can make butter and cheese.

Figure out a fishing system - poles, nets?   

Don't waste money on processed food.  Instead,  if people need sweets, get the fruit off the fruit trees and make fruit cobblers (can be made over coals).  

you can feed a LOT of people cheaply with eggs, beans, rice, fish.   Meat is expensive, so have it only a couple of times a week.  

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Well, we're all so smart, and we have the Internet, so... how would *we* do things if we were on the show? What would our priorities be, how would we get the farm going, what money making ideas would we have, how would we budget, and how would we organize? What system of organizing or reward/punishment would we use to keep things humming along?

 

I would have revamped the premise so that the "pioneers" had no contact with the outside world for at least the first month.  In addition to their start-up fund of $5000 I would have provided enough food staples (oats, flour, rice, beans, etc.) to last a month and provided some simple building materials and hand tools.  During the first week, their would be daily visits from farmers and large animals vets to teach the pioneers enough to let them be self-sufficient.  Those daily visits would be the only outside contact for the first month.

 

I'm not sure I would have provided a completed living space for the people (animals yes; people no); I think I would have rather seen that the people entering the complex discovered they only had a framed out living space (roof, floor, no more than two walls) and had to design/complete their own living space.  In addition, I would have set up tasks (i.e., sustainable farming, recycle/reuse, innovation to greener living, setting up new business) for the pioneers that could earn them money/rewards in addition to any money they would/could make from their own business ventures.  Use of electricity is its own reward for completing the electrical line.

 

I wouldn't have rushed to purchase a stove (gas or not), indoor sinks, or install toilets until the complex was earning a steady income; camp stoves and a good ole fashion (properly dug & maintained) outhouse would have been sufficient for the first month or two (granted there might have been a lot of complaining - but so what).

 

As far as business ventures - it would be wise to take stock of each individuals skill set and figure out how to combine them to create a product that can be produced quickly/easily and in sufficient quantity to provide a steady income.  I'm sure between the glass blowing, weaving, and carving skills a nice line of jewelry can be produced.  Homemade butters and cheese can also be sold to local farmers' markets.  This is of course in addition to the yoga, archery, and whatever other "classes" that they want to teach.

 

While one does expect chaos and jockeying for position in any newly formed group, I would have quickly found a like-minded individual and steer the group toward achieving common goals (i.e., electrical line, feed boxes for cows, chicken tractor, living space, garden).  I would work to establish a system of rules complete with consequences and set up a rotating leadership (very much like the idea that Red proposed).

 

I would never let one person be "in charge" of a single task - doing so would have alerted others to Bri's non-care of the animals and Aaron/Kristen's stealing.  

Edited by OakGoblinFly
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I don't know if they could serve wine, but wine and pottery and wine and painting are activities that might draw more people. It doesn't even have to be good wine. What are the rules there on massage? Could they market organic spa parties? Make organic soaps, lotions, and body butters?

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FYI,   utopia has a channel on youtube.   search for     utopia tv usa

 

lots of videos, and two live camera streams from utopia.    somewhere I saw that the 2 live feeds would be available until 30 September.

 

might be interesting to see some live stuff from the open house saturday

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FYI,   utopia has a channel on youtube.   search for     utopia tv usa

 

lots of videos, and two live camera streams from utopia.    somewhere I saw that the 2 live feeds would be available until 30 September.

 

might be interesting to see some live stuff from the open house saturday

 

Thanks for the info.  I bet these will be a highly edited feeds selection.  Probably live editing to cameras showing something they think remotely follows their script.  Maybe the "live" bit will be on 10 t o15 second delays for quick cutaways too.  Yes, I am that cynical about the show.  But going to this free stuff shows how desperate they are to try to get anyone to watch their failing show.  And I bet a lot of the people who paid to see live feeds want their money back at this moment.

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Thanks for the info.  I bet these will be a highly edited feeds selection.  Probably live editing to cameras showing something they think remotely follows their script.  Maybe the "live" bit will be on 10 t o15 second delays for quick cutaways too.  Yes, I am that cynical about the show.  But going to this free stuff shows how desperate they are to try to get anyone to watch their failing show.  And I bet a lot of the people who paid to see live feeds want their money back at this moment.

 

The live feeds are already delayed by 10 minutes.  Some things are still slipping through, but it seems that Utopia is heading into Big Brother territory, with the TV shows being edited with a set story line in mind.  The Utopians have also been told to recreate a meeting that they'd held once already because Production didn't get enough footage of it.  It's like Allison Grodner has been cloned and is now running Utopia.

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They've gotten so desperate that they're already making the utopians redo events so they can get more footage. It's like they gave up and admitted it's just like every other reality show except there's no prize at the end except getting to leave.

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Yeah, I'm getting close to tuning out even from these forums; they're entertaining, but as green so eloquently put it on the Live Feed thread:
 

They would never ever cast a "normal" human being.  These producer idiots forget you need, as another poster pointed out, an "everyman" or two to identify with on these shows.  Everyone is looking to find someone, anyone to remotely "like" on this show.  Thus Josh gets forgiven quickly as he seems to be the only real hard worker.  Then Hex is forgiven too cause she seems nice and caring. Then they do something and they go down again in the eyes of viewers like Hex insisting on drinking when she know she shouldn't or Josh passing off Aaron's crap.

 

All of a sudden Amanda is no longer stirring the pot but going after the truth so she suddenly is okay right now.  Until she is found stirring the pot in the future.  Red has suddenly seemed nice compared to what people thought of him early on.  Until he doesn't something whacko again in the future.

 

All these people are so badly flawed that I refuse to invest in liking any of them.  In the end they will all disappoint.

 

If a couple, maybe three, were these melodramatic "live wires" among a group of mostly normal, healthy people, that'd be one thing.  But it's clear that Jon Kroll- if not John de Mol himself- have such a hatred of commune living or hippie idealism, they want the train wreck, and think we're willing to give them a year of our lives watching this dreck.

 

Except with no center, with no progress, no goals or challenges, and non-stop producer intervention they try to deny... what's the point?  We are the die hard fans, and even we're bored and growing disinterested.  John and Jane Q. Public already tuned out after the first episode or two, and won't even linger on the show if they zip past it on their remote.  I don't think they can even survive with casual viewing ratings (where any given week, there are just enough casual people watching out of boredom, or because nothing else was on, to give it life support ratings on a Friday night).

 

 

Idle thought:

I'm starting to think the only thing they could do is just give in and embrace the lack of purity, embrace the interaction between Myopia and the outside world... but mediated via computer.  Have the whole point be that these people depend on the outside world, and their own popularity.  Wasn't there some (horrible) Japanese game show where a guy lived in an apartment for a year and only had those things people were willing to send him- include food and clothes? 

 

Let's do that here: people can get money or goods from the producers, but only if enough viewers vote for them to get them. I... I kind of sadistically want that, if for no other reason than to watch people like Bri and Aaron realize that so very few people like them, they can't get enough "votes" to even get food, and get only some subsistence mush from the producers.  Watch as they realize their dreams of becoming a reality TV star are going up in smoke because they are awful people.

 

Then let's take it even further!  Let the Myopians have a Facebook and other social media, but never let anyone come or go into the compound itself unless it's to evacuate someone for medical reasons.  Lock up the gates, and all deliveries would be made and left at the door, so for the next 11 months the Myopians would literally see no other person but each other. 

 

However, they'd have "Total Information Awareness" of their little world as seen by others, over the computer.  It could be an interesting show exploring the 21st century nature of interconnectedness, of how perceptions are shaped social media by the places we go on the Internet, and how our world and our society changes with omnipresent surveillance. 

 

Hell, instead of preventing people like Red and Amanda and others from getting little tips about what's "really" going down... open up the floodgates!  See how Americans would react living in a world where your every single move is monitored, and we all have the Big Brother view into each other's lives.  Call me crazy, but that could be a genuinely interesting experiment.

 

But already, I've put far more time and thought into this silly mess than it was ever worth.

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watch people like Bri and Aaron realize that so very few people like them, they can't get enough "votes" to even get food, and get only some subsistence mush from the producers.  Watch as they realize their dreams of becoming a reality TV star are going up in smoke because they are awful people.

 

 

Yeah, but people like Aaron and Bri wouldn't realize that a lack of social media support could be a reflection on them.  They're not self-aware enough.  It would be the viewers' fault for not liking them.  Viewers are racist and mean and don't know how rough life can be when you're menstruating and sleepy.

 

Last year, Opposite Worlds gave punishments and rewards to players based on twitter votes.  While there was a whole world of other problems with that show, it would be interesting to see how the Utopians would react if people on the outside could vote punishments and rewards for them.  Punishments, especially. Of course, the lack of a reason to stick around the whole year comes into play again.  The fact that they can leave anytime they want and there's nothing at the end of the "experiment" to motivate them to stay really hurts the show.

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Rewards and punishments, ooh that'd be cool too.  Sadistic, but cool.

 

Agreed- that they should have adopted the NL model and made them pay some significant portion of their own money to keep them there, and with a pay out of pretty good interest when they go, as well as rigid contractual obligation to stay excepting cases of medical emergency, or family emergency.

 

So long as the producers made sure they had actual food and safety, they would be safe in keeping them there with a penalty of "Everything you paid us, plus a huge penalty if they leave early.  So yes, you can walk out the door- but you lose your buy-in and are also now on the hook for $100K.  Sure you want to leave?"

 

I don't know why they aren't leaving already. $52K simply isn't much; do they really think this is the ticket to fame and fortune through 'exposure'?  None of them are redeemable, but some slightly more so than others; yet they're not eating well thanks to Aaron's thievery.  Why not just leave, the experiment is a failure?

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While there are many things that bother me about this show, there are 2 that I have seen discussed yet. First, it seems inherently unfair to cast married people without their spouses. The singles can (and apparently have) hook up at will, but the married people have to wait for their occasional brief conjugal visits. So I don't think it's unreasonable for Red to suggest his wife be brought into the compound permanently. The second thing is the portion sizes of the food. I know I'd be fighting tooth and claw to get my fair share of the food and I'd be mightily pissed and vocal about people getting more than their share. Why have none of these yahoos thought about investing in a measuring scoop (or some other measured serving item) that can be used to ensure fair portions?

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First, it seems inherently unfair to cast married people without their spouses. The singles can (and apparently have) hook up at will, but the married people have to wait for their occasional brief conjugal visits.

They've voluntarily signed up to to be on the show so I do not agree with the inherent unfairness.  And the married people don't have to wait for their spouse if they want to hook up - they've (he? Red is the only left married I think) been perfectly willing to show all sorts of bat shit craziness to the world, why not infidelity?

 

Since I figured most of this was scripted reality tv, I thought for sure we would see Preacher Jon tempted by the pleasures of the flesh before leaving.

 

ETA: Not trying to be contrary, just see this issue differently.

Edited by DeLurker
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Seems to me if you sign up to be on a show where you have to be away from family for a year, then you understand what you signed up for.

As to food rationing, grown men doing physical labor require more calories than smaller women.

 

Except that Aaron serves himself the most and he isn't exactly doing any really heavy heavy work.  Kristen also is fed by Aaron and she does nothing but flatter him.  The people that are short changed the most are the ones on Aaron's s**tlist.

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Except that Aaron serves himself the most and he isn't exactly doing any really heavy heavy work.  Kristen also is fed by Aaron and she does nothing but flatter him.  The people that are short changed the most are the ones on Aaron's s**tlist.

Absolutely. I was responding to the idea of using a scoop to ensure equal portions. It won't work, because people have different nutritional needs.

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I think they should get that glass blower guy set up, and start making things!

 

My husband is a professional glass artist.  The cost for gas to run the furnace and glory hole (yes, I said glory hole. It's a common glassblowing term, and makes me giggle) is $5000+ a month. These guys could never sell enough to afford the upkeep and supplies to make glassblowing a viable business venture for them.

 

ETA: And that $5000 is gas alone. It doesn't account for tools, equipment, and chemicals.

Edited by Pixel
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Utes.   there.  I said it.    I want to call them Utes.     (sounds like the "yoots"  in "My Cousin Vinny")

 

 

can anyone tell if the Utes are wearing makeup?

 

 

they are spending a lot of time and energy on "growing food", when they should be preparing to "make money".

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Wait, where did they get makeup?!? Either these geniuses had their makeup kit prioritized as vital in the initial "all your stuff must fit into the one big crate" purge that sent Dave into a tizzy the first morning, or they've inexplicably bought some since, or....

... duh, obviously the producers just gave it to them in this oh-so-pure "experiment". Gotta have our fame whores looking their best for the cameras when they recite Jon Kroll's poorly scripted lines.

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What if Fox cancels this show? 

 

I mean I like it because I will pretty much watch any crap but from what I have heard ratings are not doing that great.  If it gets taken off the air then they would have to move all of those people out.  I wonder if Fox is committed to doing one season no matter what.

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I wonder if Fox is committed to doing one season no matter what.

 

I highly doubt it.  If the rating fall too much more, Fox would make more money justing showing repeats, especially if the advertisers start getting upset.  Fox hasn't been shy in the past to cancel shows so I imagine this one is probably not coasting them too much per episode. But I think once they've premiered all of their shows they'll easily have something to take over the time slot (even if it's debuting a winter show early).  

 

My money is on them not lasting till Halloween.  

Edited by Matt K
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So we can nominate 2 or 3 people, and the cast then has to vote out one? I thought it was the other way around.

In any case, I may get off my butt and vote just so that Aaron, Bri, and Mike are there... I hate them the most, and I'd love for all three to be shocked they are so unliked. I might even watch that episode, since they apparently announce it live. Schadenfreude-tastic!

Assuming the producers haven't already rigged the voting, ha ha. Ha. :(

Edited by hincandenza
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Except per the rules, we can vote for up to one person, and collectively add them to the two the cast nominate. If the top online vote getter is already nominated by the cast, then it falls to the next highest.

So even if Bri got 99% of the online vote, if the cast nominates her anyway she won't even be revealed to them as universally regarded as vile.... and the cast might say still nominate and vote out Bella anyway, completely ignoring the voice of the people. They are under no obligation to even acknowledge much less care about the third, public nominee, and this spiteful group ceetainly wouldn't.

So like everything else about this show, it's a lie and a sham. Our online vote means absolutely nothing if we can't control all 3 candidates. The best we could do is make Bri and Aaron the top 2 vote getters (maybe Mike at 3), so that one of them at least shows up as nominated. Which won't even register with these maladjusted jackholes.

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Well 0, because they don't actually have any rules from what I can tell, so I dont know when they change them. Plus, any rules we have heard of haven't made a difference, since they've violated them instantly.

This "reality" show is as well-run as a game of Calvinball.

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I watched some of the show and saw that AT LEAST they made mention of Bri's poor treatment of the animals, but I drifted off to sleep before the halfway point.

 

It's so bizarre that they actually have the source material for a show with huge numbers and they choose not use it.  Footage from the feeds has people foaming at the mouth with outrage and concerned about what's going to happen next, but the television show is still singing a benign little pop tune about "the great social experiment of building a new society, deetlee deetlee dee."

 

Most reality shows work hard to create fake sensationalism while this one has the genuine crazy and doesn't want to show it.  Does FOX somehow not access forums like PTV?  It's pretty easy to see that the live feed blog is going strong with 19 pages while the latest broadcast episode is rocking two or three comments.

 

 

Of course the latest move on the feeds seems to be turning the cameras away from anything controversial or muting the sound, so there you go--there's crazy/stupid on both sides of the secret production booth inside the barn.

 

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Can anyone fill me in on the dietary restrictions of the group?  I know Nikki is vegan, Red has a gluten intolerance, and Amanda has pregnancy related restrictions (low sodium?).  I thought I read somewhere that Mike is a vegetarian, but I don't know if that's true.  I understand Aaron doesn't want to be a short order cook, but couldn't he offer two options - one for those with no restrictions, and one that figures in the restricted people?  Besides lack of desire to do it, I think Aaron just doesn't know how.

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The major needs are vegan and gluten-free options. Also feeding everybody sustaining amounts of it all, but details.

 

I'm not sure why they don't just get a bunch of bulk appropriate things like gluten free oatmeal, rice, beans, and other such basics. It wouldn't be hard or expensive to make a big vat of those and just have them available so people aren't going hungry. The basics aren't hard. I refuse to believe Aaron is so incompetent he couldn't make vats of rice, bean-based chili, gluten free oatmeal, creamed rice, grits, baked beans and such in enough bulk nobody has to ever be hungry. I ate like that in college when I had no money. It's not exciting, but it'd be a hell of a lot smarter than buying candy, frozen pizzas and booze. 

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Red has a gluten intolerance

 

I doubt the veracity of Red's claims. I distinctly remember the image of his toothless gums chomping down on a mouthful of Oreos.

 

That would be Red's 'self-diagnosed' gluten intolerance -- though I think it would be a challenge for Red to spell 'gluten' or 'intolerance'.  Just saying you have it doesn't mean you have it.  But in Red's mind, it does.

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I'm fully indoctrinated into the cult now--got my Passport so I could vote against Bri. (The latest America's Vote will break a tie when the Topes choose their evictee "later in the week.")

 

Essence of the voting discussion thread:

 

--Bri universally despised.  If she lives to 100, her tombstone will still read:  

Waterboarded Baby Cow

 

--Red is a highly polarizing figure.  Many demand he goes (Can't control his temper) but more threaten to quit the show if he leaves (Save the animals.)  Red or Bella leaving = dealbreaker.

 

 

--Outrage for shutting down the post-vote feeds and substituting a written update statement.  No kidding.  FOX has their disclaimer posted all over the site that the producers aren't responsible for what's said on air because "This is a live 24/7 broadcast with absolutely no privacy for the individuals."

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Call me crazy, but--once the animals are removed--I would actually be very interested to see a screen shot of Utopia ten months down the road.  Based on their hygiene and candy consumption, I'm thinking there would be one person with teeth instead of one without.  Is that cemetery some kind of money-maker project or strictly for Extopians?

 

But since the pin is already out of the grenade, I propose we all meet back here on April 1st for some closure on what became of these fools. (And also because the posters here are passionate and extremely funny, so let's have a reunion.)

 

Meanwhile, what do you think their futures hold?  Who got another reality show gig and who got jail time?  Is Bri the star sugarbaby of SeekingArrangment.com?  Did Mike get any closer to the District Attorney's office than an arrest warrant with his name on it?  Is Red the medical marijuana Kingpin of Kentucky?  Will Josh build Amanda a house in Jersey for her baby?

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While the show had an excellent idea... the show is an absolute crock.  While I don't think it is actually scripted, you can pretty well bet that everything in it is pretty well faked.

 

Of the first 15 contestants, 8 of them are from California or New York... two of the biggest states for wanna be actors or actresses.  A ninth lives less than an hour outside of New York in Jersey.

 

Arthur "Red" Vanwinkle - Was on last year "The Blue Grass Boys" a reality tv show about pot growers in America...

 

Dedeker Winston - A professional Actress (albeit poor) and professional model...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3515790/

http://www.modelmayhem.com/1748674

 

Robert Hospidor - Contestant on another Fox show, "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss"

 

Nikki Noce - A health nut doctor who has been featured on many things

http://www.drnikkinoce.com/media/

 

Bella Betrand - Real name Anne Scoville, another failed actress/model, though she does have real estate advise in her resume

http://www.exploretalent.com/annescoville

http://abcmastermarketing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66&Itemid=77

 

 

Not saying that some of these people on the show aren't "legit", but it does seem that some people were thrown in just to keep things interesting, and might be following some loose script to cause conflict within the show...

 

On a side note...

 

Taylor Vaugh - Listed himself as an MMA fighter, Utopian profile says "loves cagefighting" ...  dude has an amatuer career fight time of 62 seconds, where he tapped out.  0-1 amatuer career.

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It's getting hard to even mock these people. They're all horrible, production mutes anything going on that's interesting, they made free feed access hard, it's just a matter of time/baseball until they cancel it entirely, and I'm hitting the point where I should probably set a google alert to find out who goes into porn first. 

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I only started reading the live feed reports because I didn't understand why Nikki said on the TV show last week that she had a problem with Aaron. After getting up to speed with all of the shenanigans done by production and the cast of bullies, I can't wait until this turd of a show finally gets officially canned.

With the World Series on Friday, Oct. 24, and sweeps starting on October 30, Oct. 17 is probably the end.

I can't see Fox letting this flop drag down its sweeps ratings, so they'll probably yank it from sweeps month, at the bare minimum, and because it seems unlikely that Fox is going to pay them to stockpile footage for a month without broadcasting any of it, I think we all know that we can stick a fork in it. Utopia's done.

Edited by mmal
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