Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 722.
Talking about television shows This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 722.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
Download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is a dialogue between Cleo and Victor.
They're talking about television shows and some common vocabulary we might use when we talk about TV shows.
Let's get started.
The new TV season is starting this week and I can't wait.
I've been watching reruns all summer and I'm ready for the premieres of my favorite shows.
You watch Mad Women, right?
Yes, it's my favorite show.
Then I've got some bad news for you.
It's been canceled.
How is that possible?
The show was on hiatus last season because of contract negotiations, but I heard that it had been renewed for another season.
The season finale was a cliffhanger I know, but something must have gone wrong.
They filmed two episodes, which they'll air, but then there'll be a mid-season replacement.
This is outrageous.
I've been waiting nearly two years for its return.
Oh, well, at least I can watch my other favorite show tonight, Reviver.
Sorry, but it's been preempted.
The president is giving a televised speech tonight.
Are you kidding me?
Nope.
Sorry.
The world is conspiring against me.
I've had enough.
I'm giving up TV watching.
You?
That I've got to see.
Cleo begins by saying to Victor, The new TV season is starting this week, and I can't wait.
The TV season traditionally has been the time of year where most of the new entertainment television shows are shown.
This in the US is usually between September until May, so the TV season typically starts in September.
Everyone is back from vacation, the children are at school, and people are watching more television.
That's the idea.
They start the new shows in September.
So the TV season would be that period of time.
A season is a period of time.
It could be weeks.
It could be months.
There are four seasons in the year.
We talk about summer, winter, fall, and spring.
But we can also have a season for some other event or some other activity.
Baseball season or football season, for example.
Cleo says I've been watching reruns all summer and I'm ready for the premieres of my favorite shows.
A rerun, R-E-R-U-N, is a television show that is shown more than once.
The same episodes are shown again, sometimes on the same television station or channel.
A rerun could be something from a show that is still producing new shows.
During the summertime, the big television stations usually show episodes of television programs from the previous year.
They have been shown once, but now they're showing them again.
Sometimes reruns can go many years after the show is no longer on the air, that is, are no longer producing new shows.
There are many examples of this.
Friends, MASH, Seinfeld.
Those are three television shows that have we would say been in syndication.
They have been showing the reruns on different television channels for many years.
Cleo is tired of watching reruns.
She's ready for the premieres of her favorite shows.
A premiere, P-R-E-M-I-E-R, is the first time that something is shown or seen.
In this case, it would be the first episode of a television show beginning the new TV season.
Victor says, you watch Madwoman, right?
Madwoman is not a real television show.
There is a real television show called Mad Men, but this is a different show.
Cleo says, yes, it's my favorite show.
Victor says, then I've got some bad news for you.
I have something special. bad, or unfortunate to tell you.
It's been cancelled.
To cancel C-A-N-C-E-L means to decide not to continue doing something that was supposed to continue to be done.
For example, a television show may be canceled after its first season.
Maybe it wasn't very popular.
Sometimes television shows are canceled after only two or three episodes.
If no one is watching them.
The television station, the television we would call it network the national company will cancel a show.
Cleo says, how is that possible?
Hiatus, H-I-A-T-U-S, is a break or a pause in something or in a series of things.
When we say a television show is on hiatus, we mean that they are not actually working on it right now.
That's a word you'll hear in Los Angeles when you talk to people who work in the movie or television industry.
Here we simply call it the industry.
A television show will be in hiatus.
It will not be filming.
They will not be actually making the new episodes during a certain period of time.
Cleo says that this show was on hiatus the entire last season last year because of contract negotiations.
Contract negotiations are discussions between two or more people to determine how much you should be paid.
If an actor has contract negotiations, he's trying to get more money from the television company, the production company.
Cleo says, I heard that... her favorite show had been renewed for another season.
If a television show is popular, they will continue it for another set of shows, another season, and that's called renewing the show R-E-N-E-W-I-N-G.
She says, Cleo, that she thought the show had been renewed.
The season finale was a cliffhanger.
A season finale of a television show is the final episode of that year.
We talked about the premiere being the first episode.
The finale is the final episode.
If the television show is being canceled, sometimes they'll have a series finale, the last episode they will ever make.
The season finale, according to Cleo, last year was a cliffhanger.
A cliffhanger.
One word is a story in a television show or perhaps a movie that Victor says I know, but something must have gone wrong.
There must have been a problem.
They filmed two episodes.
They made, they produced two episodes which they'll air, but then there'll be a mid-season replacement.
An episode is one of many shows in a series of shows.
We have different podcast episodes each week, three every week.
Well, television shows have episodes.
They filmed two episodes, Victor says, which they will air.
To air, A-I-R, as a verb, means to show on television, to broadcast on television, we used to say.
After they show or air those two episodes, Victor says there will be a midseason replacement.
A replacement is something that takes the place of another thing.
Mid-season would be sometime between September and May before the complete season ends.
A television season for a TV show might have 25, maybe 30 episodes, usually a little less.
A mid-season replacement might happen in November, December or January, when a show isn't very popular, and so they put on a new show.
Cleo says, this is outrageous.
This is terrible.
I've been waiting two years for Madwoman's return.
Oh, well, at least I can watch my other favorite show tonight, Reviver.
Again, not a real show, though it sounds like Survivor, which is a real show.
Victor says, sorry, but Reviver has been preempted.
To preempt P-R-E-E-M-P-T means to replace something with something else, especially something more important.
On television, for example, if the president is going to be giving an important speech, sometimes they will preempt shows.
They will not show them and replace them with, for example, the president's speech.
And that's what is happening in our dialogue.
The president is giving a televised speech tonight.
Televised means shown on TV.
Cleo says, are you kidding me?
Meaning, are you joking with me?
Victor says, nope, which is an informal way of saying no.
Nope, N-O-P-E.
If you want to say yes, the informal phrase would be, yup.
Y-U-P.
But nope, I think is a little more common.
Anyway, Victor says, nope, sorry.
Cleo says the world is conspiring against me.
To conspire against someone is when you have many people working trying to harm another person in some way or trying to make life difficult for you.
Of course, no one is actually conspiring against Cleo.
It's an expression we sometimes use as a joke to say that everything is going wrong, as if someone were trying to hurt you or harm you.
Cleo says, I've had enough.
I'm giving up TV watching.
To give up is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to stop doing something that you normally like to do.
I'm going to give up smoking.
I'm going to stop smoking cigarettes.
Actually, I don't smoke.
It's just an example.
I'm going to give up Earl Grey tea lattes at Starbucks.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm not going to give up my Earl Grey tea lattes.
Victor says, you, meaning you're going to give up TV, that I've got to see.
The expression that I've got to see means that you don't believe the person, that You think that what they said or just promised to do won't happen.
You don't believe them.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
The new TV season is starting this week, and I can't wait.
I've been watching reruns all summer, and I'm ready for the premieres of my favorite shows.
You watch Mad Women, right?
Yes, it's my favorite show.
Then I've got some bad news for you.
It's been canceled.
How is that possible?
The show was on hiatus last season because of contract negotiations, but I heard that it had been renewed for another season.
The season finale was a cliffhanger.
I know, but something must have gone wrong.
They filmed two episodes, which they'll air, but then there'll be a mid-season replacement.
This is outrageous.
I've been waiting nearly two years for its return.
Oh well, at least I can watch my other favorite show tonight, Reviver.
Sorry, but it's been preempted.
The president is giving a televised speech tonight.
Are you kidding me?
Nope.
Sorry.
The world is conspiring against me.
I've had enough.
I'm giving up TV watching.
You?
That I've got to see.
Our script writer is fortunately not on hiatus.
It's the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say who brings you today's script.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
