'Desperate Housewives' in China

Somewhat inconsistent with recent government efforts to restrict American motion pictures and television shows in China, the prime-time comedy-drama-soap, Desperate Housewives, is set to explode in the world's most populous nation.

From Variety:

The ABC sudser will premiere this September at 10 p.m. on the Everyday Jiayi block of primetime programming, which airs on state-run CCTV-8. Zone Vision operates the one-hour block, which airs seven nights a week on the broadcaster's countrywide cable system, reaching a whopping 700 million eyeballs, or about 180 million TV households.

Whether any scenes or dialogue will have to be cut from the racy show remains to be seen, but even so, Chinese viewers will be exposed to a new level of Western-style sizzle.

Announced Thursday, details are lacking in the Zone Vision Networks deal with Disney's foreign sales arm, Buena Vista Intl. Television -- Asia Pacific (BVITV-AP). Nevertheless, excitement from timely press coverage of the deal is everywhere as the Chinese anxiously await seeing and hearing American suburban housewives speak Mandarin.

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