BET Taps 'THE WIRE' With The Basic Cable Premiere Of The Peabody Award-Winning Drama

The Surveillance Continues on BET When the Critically-Acclaimed Series Begins with Marathon Presentation on January 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 3 -- On Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, the critically acclaimed HBO series THE WIRE will begin airing on BET with its series premiere. The basic cable, multi-season run of THE WIRE on BET will consist of all 50 produced episodes, with each episode airing in a 90-minute block. The first three episodes will be shown in a three-day marathon beginning Wednesday, January 10 through Friday, January 12 from 9- 10:30 p.m. ET/PT each night. Beginning January 18, THE WIRE can be seen every Thursday night at 9 p.m ET /PT with an encore run on Saturday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The Peabody Award-winning series tells the story of a single drugs-and- murder police investigation from the point of view of both the police and their targets.

As episodes unfold, a probe by Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives results in a complex sprawl of wiretaps and surveillances, revealing a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self- sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

Since its inception, THE WIRE has garnered critical praise from some of the nation's top critics. Entertainment Weekly proclaimed, "'THE WIRE'- the best series on TV, period - is brutal and brilliant."

The first season of THE WIRE starred Dominic West as Detective James McNulty, Sonja Sohn as Narcotics Detective Shakima Greggs, Lt. Cedric Daniels as Lance Reddick, Larry Gilliard, Jr. as young midlevel dealer D'Angelo Barksdale, Wood Harris as Avon Barksdale and Idris Elba as Stringer Bell. The first season of "THE WIRE" also features John Doman, Frankie R. Faison, Seth Gilliam, Domenick Lombardozzi, Deirdre Lovejoy, Clarke Peters, Corey Parker- Robinson, Wendell Pierce, Andre Royo, Jim True-Frost and JD Williams.

THE WIRE was created by David Simon, who also serves as executive producer. Robert F. Colesberry and Nina Kostroff Noble also executive produce. Joe Chapelle is co-executive producer and Edward Burns and Karen Thorson are producers.

About BET Networks

BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 83 million households according to Nielsen media research, and can be seen in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of businesses extensions: BET.com, the Number 1 Internet portal for African Americans; BET Digital Networks - BET J, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management and production company; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Mobile, a service venture into the lucrative world of ring tones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, an extension of BET network programming for global distribution.

SOURCE BET Networks
http://www.bet.com/