http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|89525|1|,00.html(Friday, July 23 09:34 AM)
By Rick Porter
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) "The Sopranos" is up for 20 Emmy Awards this year, but it looks like it won\'t be in the competition at all in 2005.
HBO chairman Chris Albrecht told reporters at the TV Critics Association press tour Thursday (July 22) that the mob drama\'s earliest likely return date is the first quarter of 2006. On the plus side, it\'s possible that creator David Chase will deliver more than the previously announced 10 episodes for the show\'s final season.
Fans of the show are, by now, used to long delays between new seasons of "The Sopranos." They waited 16 months between the show\'s third and fourth seasons -- a delay that kept the series out of Emmy contention in 2002 -- and 15 months between the fourth and fifth.
The gap between season five, which ended in June, and season six will probably be between 18 and 21 months. "It\'s like the Harry Potter book," Albrecht says. "You\'ll wait for the sequel and be very happy to get it."
Albrecht also says that there\'s "an inside chance" Chase will come through with more than 10 episodes for the final season. "We\'ve talked to him about it. He hasn\'t said no," Albrecht says. "And with David, that\'s always a very good sign."
In the meantime, several other HBO dramas will fill the gap. "The Wire" is set to open its third season in December, while both "Carnivale" and "Deadwood" are expected back in the first half of 2005.