UPN on a mission to bring ‘Mars’ to the masses

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, July 20, 2005

UPN President Dawn Ostroff announced today at the TV Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles that four repeat episodes of the network’s breakout hit, “Veronica Mars,” will air on CBS in the coming weeks.

Both networks are owned by Viacom and it’s the first time they’ve done anything like this. Other networks have taken done similar deals with their cable partners — notably NBC, which recently aired a mini-marathon of “Battlestar Galactica,” which regularly airs on cable’s Sci-Fi network.

“Mars” was critically acclaimed in its first season and many TV writers (including this one) believed that star Kristen Bell deserved an Emmy nomination for her lead part. Still, it’s been sort of an underground success and the move to put some episodes on CBS on some upcoming Friday nights is an effort to expand the show’s audience as the second season approaches.

Two episodes will air from 8 to 10 p.m. July 29, and others will air at 8 p.m. Aug. 5 and Aug. 12.