AXN revives weekend programming

Supernatural Thrillathon will extend the programming to weekends. It will launch Season 9 in October, concurrent to the US telecast.

English general entertainment channel AXN has revived its weekend programming with the launch of Supernatural Thrillathon, with the telecast of three seasons of Supernatural.

The channel was so far airing script-based shows from Monday to Thursday and movies on weekends. With Supernatural, it has extended the telecast days of a series to weekends. While the seventh and eighth seasons of Supernatural will air for 46 days back-to-back, every day at 9 pm and ending sometime in September, the ninth season is expected to be launched in October.

Arpit Mankar, programming head, AXN, tells afaqs! "Supernatural is a cult show and one of the top 25 cult shows in the US. This is the first time we are airing a script-based show on weekends and I can't recall if any other channel in the genre has done the same. Airing this series over the weekend is our USP. It will also help us build a following for the series that will lead to the launch of Season 9. With Supernatural Thrillathon, we are reviving the weekend slot for the category."

The channel will start promoting the ninth season of Supernatural during the telecast of Season 8. The season will be simulcast in the US.

Supernatural is an American supernatural drama television series created by Eric Kripke, which was first broadcast in 2005. Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows two brothers as they hunt demons, ghosts, monsters and other figures of the supernatural.

AXN has also launched Top Chef Masters Season 4, wherein 12 world-renowned chefs stand against each other to see how well they fare in fierce culinary competition. Based at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, each week will whittle down the number of chefs until the finale, where one winner will be crowned "Top Chef Master" and receive the grand prize of $100,000 for a charity of their choice. The show is aired on Monday to Thursday at 8 pm.

The next show in the pipeline on AXN is 'End of World', a series premiering on September 23. A brand new series coming on AXN 'End of the World' has six unique stories that tell the world how its end might happen all because of man-made reasons. The stories: Air Force One is Down, Cat 8, Delete, Eve of Destruction, Exploding Sun and Ring of Fire aim to bring in the best ever action to Indian TV screens.

For the record, backed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, AXN was launched in 1998 in India. Targeting affluent adults aged 18-44 years, the channel delivers four distinctive types of programming which includes the latest global hit series, action movie blockbusters, latest seasons of adventure-reality and lifestyle sports programmes and innovative AXN original productions.