Code Geass officially premiered on the Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) television network at 5:25 JST on October 5, 2006. Its satellite television premiere across Japan on Animax was on November 7, 2006. Upon the airing of the first 23 episodes, the series went on hiatus on March 29, 2007, and completed broadcast of the first series with a contiguous one-hour broadcast of episodes 24 and 25 at 6:25 JST on Saturday, July 28, 2007. The immense popularity of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion followed with the development of it's sequel, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, which was first announced on the March 2007 issue of Newtype and later confirmed by Sunrise producer Yoshitaka Kawaguchi on the series' official staff blog on March 9, 2007.