Dirty Sexy Money is an American prime time drama television series created by Craig Wright. It ran for two seasons on ABC from September 26, 2007, to August 8, 2009. The series was produced by Berlanti Television and ABC Studios. Wright served as an executive producer alongside Greg Berlanti, Bryan Singer, Matthew Gross, Peter Horton, and Josh Reims, with Melissa Berman producing. The series revolves around lawyer and family man Nick George, portrayed by Peter Krause. When Nick's father mysteriously dies in a plane crash, he agrees to take his position as the Darling family's lawyer, while trying to discover who committed the murder. The Darlings, the richest family in New York, constantly rely on Nick to solve their problems. Nick struggles to balance his morals and family life while dealing with the demands of the Darlings.

Premise

The Darlings are one of the most powerful families in New York. In the line of the Kennedys, they have the money, the power, the ambitions and a tendency to find themselves in impossible situations, to mess with unsavory people... If they had not Nick George, their lawyer, to save them, to avoid the front page of trashy magazines or, worse, prison, their decline would have begun a long time ago. Yet Nick, an idealistic lawyer, has long refused his destiny: to serve the Darlings. Before him, his father had given himself body and soul to this destructive family by becoming their adviser. Nick doesn't know if serving the Darlings is a chance or a sentence. Due to the cancellation of the show, the running plot line of the mystery of Dutch George will never be solved. Craig Wright told the Los Angeles Times that had the series lasted, Juliet would have been arrested after getting into a situation like that of Patty Hearst, later teaching drama at a boarding school in Connecticut, marrying the school's soccer coach and having kids.

Cast and characters

Main

Broadcast history

The series premiered in the United States on September 26, 2007, on ABC following the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice, airing on Wednesday nights at 10:01 P.M. Eastern/9:01 P.M. Central. On November 16, 2007, ABC ordered a full 22-episode season for the show, making it the first show to receive a full season order since the WGA writers' strike began on November 5, 2007. However, in the end, the first season comprised only 10 episodes due to the strike. Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete First Season, a three-disc DVD set including all 10 original episodes and exclusive bonus features including bloopers, audio commentary, deleted scenes, and featurettes, and more, was released on September 16, 2008. The second season premiered on October 1, 2008, ten months after the first-season finale. On November 20, 2008, ABC decided not to order any additional episodes for the 2008–2009 TV season. On December 10, 2008, Billy Baldwin appeared on NBC's Today Show asking for fans to support the show by watching the show and by visiting the ABC website and sending nice messages of support to the ABC executives. He said the show was not canceled, but on hiatus until ABC knew how the midseason replacement shows fared. All cast and sets continued to be contracted and on hold. The last scheduled episode of Dirty Sexy Money aired on December 17, 2008, while four episodes remained unaired in the USA though they were broadcast elsewhere. After Dirty Sexy Money was officially canceled, ABC announced the series would return on Saturday, July 18, 2009, at 10:00 P.M. Eastern/9:00 P.M. Central. The final episode, "The Bad Guy", aired on August 8, 2009, and the second season came out on DVD on August 18, 2009.

International distribution

In Canada, CTV first aired the show on Sundays at 10 P.M. (four days after ABC), then it moved to 7 P.M. CTV then moved the show to its secondary A system effective October 24, 2007 where it airs it in simulcast Wednesdays at 10 P.M. The show will be broadcast on TNT in Spain, Studio 23 in Philippines, Dizimax in Turkey and Nelonen in Finland. The series is being broadcast in Spain on TNT and Antena 3 since January 17, 2008. New Zealand's TV2 started airing the show Wednesday nights at 9:30 P.M., beginning February 6, 2008. In Australia, the Seven Network began airing Season one on Monday February 11, 2008 at 9:30 P.M. Season Two began on December 2, 2008, initially at 9:30 P.M., but due to low ratings, it was pushed back to 11:30 P.M. The Seven Network in Australia has aired all episodes of Season 2 that were unaired in the USA. Also Kanal 5 in Sweden aired the episodes, the last one on March 18, 2009. In Latin America, the series began broadcasting on February 12, 2008, on the AXN channel, season 2 will begin broadcast on February 3, 2009. The series premiered in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2008, at 9 P.M. on Channel 4. Dirty Sexy Money was on hiatus due to the WGA writers' strike as of January 9, 2008, the date on which replacement series Cashmere Mafia assumed the time slot. Men in Trees, which has a total of 11 filmed unaired episodes available, assumed the slot on February 27, 2008, potentially for the balance of the spring season. In the United Kingdom, Channel 4 began airing the episodes on Friday, March 21, 2008, at 9:00 P.M. Channel 4 began airing the second season on March 8, 2009, on E4 in the 11 o'clock timeslot. Because of its cancellation in the US and low ratings for its first season in the UK there will be no new shows on Channel 4 for the foreseeable future. However, Season 2 commenced airing on E4 in a new time slot. For Season One it aired Tuesday nights at 9:00 P.M., whereas for Season Two it aired on Sunday nights at 11 P.M. between March 8 and May 31, 2009, including the four episodes not yet shown in the US. In Israel, the series was launched under the name "Money, Darling" on July 7, 2008, on Yes Stars Drama. Season 2 premiered on February 16, 2009, with all 13 episodes confirmed to air consecutively, including those not aired in the US. In Hong Kong, the series was premiered Thursday nights at 10:30 P.M. on July 17, 2008, on the mainly English free-to-air network TVB Pearl with bilingual audio in both English and Cantonese and widescreen on the same channel in Digital. Series 2 is due to air on March 26, 2009, at the same time-slot. Same as the rest of the world, Hong Kong also aired the unaired episodes before the US on May 28, 2009, starting with the thanksgiving recap episode "The Facts". In Russia, the show premiered on 1TV in summer 2008. Two seasons were shown in summer of 2009. The series launched under the name "Dirty Wet Money". In 2012 the show was aired late at nights on Domashny channel. In North Macedonia, the show aired Sundays at 12:00 P.M. in 2008 on A1 television, and later on Fox Life. In Ireland RTÉ One began airing the program on Friday, August 1, 2008, at 00:05. In South Africa, the series began in September 18, 2008 and the full series has been aired on the local satellite or analog channel M-Net. The channel has broadcast the remaining episodes of Season 2 which followed on from the Organ Donor episode which aired on January 29, 2009. The series aired on Thursday nights at 8:30 p.m. with a repeat on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. The season finale has aired on February 5, 2009. In France, the show premiered on Canal+ pay TV in 2008 and the second season was aired from 2009 until Feb 11, 2010. In Norway, the show premiered on TVNorge on November 12, 2008. The first season premiered in Greece on Fox Life on December 3, 2008. All 10 episodes aired. Season 2 premiered in October 2009. The show also will premiered on ANT1 on 2010. In Estonia, the show premiered on TV3 in summer 2009. The show is broadcast on Fox Life in Bulgaria. In Slovenia, the show's 1st season aired on Mondays on POP TV, It reaired on POP TV's new sister channel POP BRIO in September 2010, after the reruns the 2nd season premiered in the same time slot (Monday–Friday at 10 P.M.).

Marketing

Promotion

Using publicity from Paris Hilton's jail sentence controversy, ABC placed full-page advertisements in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Post that read: "We love Paris. The Darling Family." Later, an airplane towing a banner with the same message flew above the downtown courthouse on June 8 during Hilton's subsequent hearing. The network has also placed fake advertisements on popular gossip blog Perezhilton.com on August 6, 2007 "denouncing" the diva-like behavior of Samaire Armstrong's character, Juliet Darling, among others. The song "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" by singer Lady Gaga was used during advertisements for the show. Clips from the show were also used in an alternate version of the music video

Episodes

Season 1 (2007)

Season 2 (2008–09)

Home media

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released both seasons on DVD in Regions 1, 2 and 4 in 2008/2009. The region 1 releases have been discontinued and are now out of print. On February 9, 2012, it was announced that Lionsgate Home Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series and plan on re-releasing it. Seasons 1 and 2 was re-released on May 1, 2012.