The folks at NBC's Channel 5 in Chicago, WMAQ, have revealed the release date for
The Office - Season 4 on DVD. The've probably done it without realizing that the title isn't actually announced by Universal Studios Home Entertainment yet; the release date is buried in their
contest rules for their "The Sierra Mist '
The Office' Sweepstakes. The contest started this past Monday (and runs through June 1st), and is apparently one of 6 such promotions held among various stations owned by NBC-Universal (New York, L.A., San Diego, Harford and Miami are also mentioned; each may have different rules).
One "National Grand Prize Winner," drawn from participants in all six contests, will get a walk-on role in an episode of
The Office. From the way the rules are worded, each contest may potentially have different first and second prizes for runner-up winners of their separate sweepstakes. The Chicago contest's 2nd Prize, though, is listed this way:
There will be one hundred (100) second prizes awarded in this Sweepstakes (collectively, "Second Prizes"), each consisting of the following: one (1) DVD copy of "The Office: The Complete Fourth Season" ("The Office: The Complete Fourth Season" DVD releases September 9, 2008). Approximate Retail Value ("ARV") of each Second Prize is sixty dollars ($60).
So the upshot is that
The Office - Season 4 will be available starting on
September 9th, and not just to second-prize winners of this contest but to purchase as well. Given that date, it's probably about a month or so before Universal formally announces the title, and provides all the normal details. The "$60" value of the prize sounds like it translates to a $59.98 list price, but that amount to a cost ten dollars higher than the 2nd and 3rd season sets, for a strike-shortened 4th season that only contains about two-thirds of the number of episodes. Hopefully the studio will do better with that pricing!
Stay tuned and we'll bring the official studio info to you once Universal makes it available. Our thanks to "Chris" for being the first of several readers to send us e-mails with this informaton...it's a very cool find!
