the world's fourth largest advertising agency. While the original format was 26 minutes, the American version consisted of a season of 82 episodes of two and a half minutes each (which was not part of the original contract, see below). 65 should be seen on television while 17 will be available for computers and cell phones. It aired on the TBS cable television network on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays sometime in the slot between 11:00 pm and midnight, and on Friday morning in the slot between 9:00 am and 10:00 am. Lovebites stars David Julian Hirsh (a native of Montreal, Quebec, seen in CSI: NY and Naked Josh) and Lauren Bittner (seen in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Third Watch). The characters, called Max and Katie, are about 25 years old, younger than the original Guy and Sylvie. Another notable difference with the original version is that the couple in Lovebites breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the camera. Lovebites was the first time a Québécer TV concept was adapted for an American audience (Louis 19, King of the Airwaves (Louis 19, le roi des ondes), a movie, had already been remade as EdTV). Reiser is said to have been captivated by the series when it was presented to him by Michel Rodrigue, president of Distraction Formats, the Montreal-based international distribution company for Un gars, une fille. Rodrigue said: "The selling process has been long and complicated. It has been a very long time that we have been working on it". Creator Guy A. Lepage said that he thought the chemistry worked well between the two main actors. Nevertheless, he has stated his disappointment with the finished product, giving it a "2 out of 10". In his opinion, the problem did not lie with the acting, but with the length of the show (two and a half minutes long, as mentioned above), the sponsor, the broadcasting and the assembling. He summed it up by saying: "It's media concentration to the power of 1,000, like a super big TVA". (TVA is part of Pierre Karl Péladeau's Quebecor media conglomerate.) Sunsilk, a shampoo brand of Unilever's, was the main sponsor of Lovebites. As of 2006, Canadian and American producers are still caught up in a legal dispute, notably about the aforementioned short length. The initial contract planned a guaranteed minimum of seven minutes per episode. Others The concept of