Jeff Neira/FX Keri Russell in the FX series “The Americans.â€In this brave new world of serialized television dramas every minute counts. Miss the closing moments of your favorite show and you could lose out on crucial plot details that send its story spinning off in new and unexpected directions. But when your beloved FX cold war-era spy drama is cut off before its conclusion by your overeager DVR, whom do you blame The C.I.A. The K.G.B. HBO
Before an international incident could break out, FX swallowed its own cyanide capsule and took the blame for an error that prevented many viewers from seeing the last seven minutes of the most recent episode of “The Americans.â€
“The Americans,†which stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as 1980s Soviet operatives posing as wholesome American suburbanites, broadcast its ninth episode, “Safe House,†on Wednesday from 10 p.m. to 11:07 p.m., Eastern and Pacific times. But FX said in a news release that its publicity department had given incorrect information “to television listings services that provide information to media outlets, cable and satellite providers.†As a result, an unspecified number of brainwashed DVRs simply stopped recording the episode at the one-hour mark. (FX is carried in more than 98 million homes.)
“The error is regrettable and I apologize to all the loyal fans of The Americans who were cheated out of the full viewing experience of one of the most important episodes so far this season,†John Solberg, the FX network’s senior vice president of media relations, said in a statement. “Unfortunately mistakes happen and this happened to be a very unfortunate time for this kind of mistake.â€
FX said it would make the entire “Safe House†episode available online at its Web site, FXnetworks.com, until May 15. The network also pointed out that the next episode of “The Americans,†called “Only You,†runs on Wednesday from 10 p.m. to 11:03 p.m.
