Unfortunately, Paramount doesn't have to consider only the Production costs of the show. I'm assuming that they are cancelling the show based on low viewership, which translates into low ad revenue. So, they could factor in the fact that if they run Enterprise, they can't run something else in that timeslot that might generate higher ad revenues, and then make up some arbitrary (might as well be, anyway) number as the difference between what they make in ad revenue off Enterprise and what they could make off of "Yet Another Reality Show", or whatever they would replace Enterprise with. Anyway, it all boils down to my feeling that they'll lean toward the high end of the scale, probably $50M or more.
Luckily, I believe the folks trying to save the show are considering that as well, since I read somewhere (probably here) that they're aiming for $60M in donations.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately, Paramount doesn't have to consider only the Production costs of the show. I'm assuming that they are cancelling the show based on low viewership, which translates into low ad revenue. So, they could factor in the fact that if they run Enterprise, they can't run something else in that timeslot that might generate higher ad revenues, and then make up some arbitrary (might as well be, anyway) number as the difference between what they make in ad revenue off Enterprise and what they could make off of "Yet Another Reality Show", or whatever they would replace Enterprise with. Anyway, it all boils down to my feeling that they'll lean toward the high end of the scale, probably $50M or more. Luckily, I believe the folks trying to save the show are considering that as well, since I read somewhere (probably here) that they're aiming for $60M in donations.