"Pitchmen" To Continue Despite Billy Mays Death: Discovery Channel

TV Decoder:

"Pitchmen," the Discovery Channel series that starred Billy Mays, will be renewed for a second season, the cable channel announced Tuesday, two weeks after Mr. Mays, the infomercial star, died, apparently of a heart attack.

Read the whole story: TV Decoder

Comments

[Hammerofthor]

Oh, no. No,no,no,no. No more Discovery Channel. Mays was horrible.

[cplKlyde]

Someone call Vince

[johnr49]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first series. Although the second will not be the same without Billy, as the article states his son will be helping develop the format, his family clearly want it to go ahead. I hope for their sake that it's a success.

[levibatgirl]

Oh cr@p.

[filo]

They're changing the name to Beating a Dead Horse.

[LetsGetToWork]

For the love of God, why?!?!?!?!?

[sydfynch]

that show was terrible. It provided no insight into anything other than how far people will go to fleece the public out of $9.95.

[sportwarrior]

Did you even watch the show? Because you've missed the point entirely..­. like "missed the barn and hit the farmer" kind of entirely..­. If anything it validated the industry. It showed how much Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan cared about the products themselves, about refusing to attach their names to anything substandard, lacking in quality, or that didn't work as advertised.

[hypnus]

In other words, a quick demographic study done for Discovery Channel has found that a greater percentage of those watching, Pitchman, aren’t watching because of Mays and a list of suggested replacements for Mays the focus group saw either scored at or above Billy on likeability. “Bottom-line, Billy’s dead but we can still make money on this show.” I’m sure at least one media consultant uttered the now ubiquitous line when something like this happens in television, “it’s still not as bad as Hoss dying on Bonanza”.

[RGKahn]

I'm sorry, but is there a problem with this? Shows have continued on after the principle actor or one of the principle actors have left the show or died.. It will get another host and survive or fail. That is the bottom line.

[benglert01]

Without Billy there is no show. The show succeeded because of the relationship between Sully and Billy. That's like replacing Letterman with random bloggers and hoping for the beat.

[smokeystover39]

First of all I hope Billy rests in peace. Second, (sorry Billy) I hated his "infomercials", but often watched them because he was so-o-o-o outrageous - he DID bring entertainment value to stuff like Mighty Putty. Third, the greedy turds who employed Billy have some nerve continuing to run his infomercials after his demise. Fourth, and finally I won't be watching the new season of "Pitchmen" because it was Billy who made the show interesting and with his departure we'll be subjected to listening to the droning nasal voice of his obsequious limey co-host who reminds me of the Charles Dickens character - Uriah Heep. (Shudder)