Dirty Sexy Money

Plot

The series revolves around Nick George, whose whole life has been lived in the shadow of the Darling family, but as an adult he's leading a simple life as an idealistic lawyer, until his father's suspicious death. The wealthy Darlings of New York have asked him to take over his father's job as their personal lawyer, but the money that will allow him the freedom to be an altruistic do-gooder is only part of the picture. That same money pulls him into the dubious doings of the Darling clan.

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.

American weekly ratings

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

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.

The show will be broadcast on Turner Network Television in Spain, Studio 23 in Philippines, Dizimax in Turkey and Nelonen in Finland. The series is being broadcast on the satellite/cable channel TNT in Spain since January 2008.

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.

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.

New Zealand's TV2 started airing the show Wednesday nights at 9:30 P.M., beginning February 6, 2008.

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 Ireland RTÉ One began airing the program on Friday, August 1, 2008 at 00:05.

In Latin America, the series began broadcasting on February 12, 2008 on the AXN channel, season 2 will begin broadcast on February 3, 2009.

In South Africa, the series began in December and the full series has been aired on the local satellite or analog channel M-Net. M-Net 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.

The first season premiered in Greece on Fox life on Wednesday December 3. All 10 episodes aired.

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 Norway, the show premiered on TV Norge on November 12, 2008.

In Estonia, the show premiered on TV3 in summer 2009.

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.

The show is broadcast on Fox Life in Bulgaria.

In Greece, the show premiered on cable FOX Life on February 2009 and season 2 premiered on October 2009. The show also will premiered on ANT1 on 2010.

In France, the show premiered on Canal+ pay TV in 2008 and the second season was aired from 2009 until Feb 11, 2010.

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.).

In Republic of Macedonia, the show aired Sundays at 12:00 P.M. in 2008 on A1 television, and later on Fox Life.

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

DVD releases

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 will be re-released on May 1, 2012.