To produce that show must have been super cheap too, rent a track for a day ($5k ?) throw in a production crew ($5k ?) add camera equipment rentals ($3k ?) and post production costs ($5k ?) , add in some free "talent" who want to show off their cars and get a free track day. I bet the total production cost was less than $20k for a 10 episode series. Figure they can sell a half hour episode of commerical time for 50-100k (assuming 5-10k per 30 second commercial during prime time) for its first run and it is completely feasable to show a huge profit on this, especially for a 2nd rate basic cable station like speed.
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