Q&A: Why is [Insert Favourite Show Here] on Hiatus?

Since pretty much everything but 24 and Lost seem to have disappeared from TV schedules, you might be wondering why it is that your favourite show is on hiatus, whether it be Grey’s Anatomy or CSI or Heroes. Well, I’m here to answer your question quite simply, as there are three main reasons:

TV Shows are time consuming, a year is just too bloody long, and Networks are Greedy bastards.

Yes, that’s really the answer here. For, you see, the most episodes a TV show could possibly produce in a year is maybe 25 (Some have 27, but that’s only when you’re a show like The O.C.’s first season where it started during the summer). Most shows, due to budgets and getting time off for the cast and all of this stuff, only produce 22 episodes every season.

Now, the TV Season runs from September to May due to long-standing tradition and, well, they need a break at some point. This means that there are 9 months in a TV season. This means that there are roughly 38 weeks during that period. And, as you’re probably realizing, 38 is bigger than 22. This would present a problem. If you’re programming a show, how do you work 22 episodes into 38 weeks.

As a result, there are two specific breaks in a show which premieres in early September that occur for pretty much all such programs. The first is over Christmas, usually starting in early December and extending into mid-January. This is about 5-6 weeks where people, for the most part, aren’t focused on TV anyways, and it gives shows a break over the Christmas holidays as well. The second is, coincidentally, right now; from the beginning of March to mid-April is another one of these times. These two bulks make up most of the necessary weeks, while small breaks here and there, special events, and premiering later in September/finishing earlier in May all make up the difference.

Now, the question is, how can shows avoid this? Well, there’s a few models which have been used to combat this setup.

1. The 24 Method
This involves holding back all of your episodes and airing them starting in early January. This requires airing an episode every week, in fact often having two-hour episodes in order to get through the episodes in the span of a season. It was technically also used by Alias in its 4th season starting in 2005, but 24 has continued to use the method since its own 4th season in the same year, and thus it becomes its namesake.

2. The Prison Break Method
This involves separating the season into two parts (12 and 10, 11 and 11, etc.) and having a long hiatus between November and February in between. This doesn’t make for perfect scheduling, mind you, but it works out to less repeats than most shows. Prison Break used this in its first season, having a “Fall Finale” before returning in mid-Spring to conclude by May. Jericho has used it this year, although to little success: Ratings are way down against American Idol on Wednesdays.

3. The Lost Method
The idea with Lost was to air 6 episodes in October/November, and then fill the timeslot with another show (Daybreak) and then return in February and run with consecutive episodes until May’s finale. It did not please fans, it did not please viewers, and likely few will use it again. Also, it didn’t help when Daybreak failed miserably, did it?

4. The Veronica Mars Method
This involves separating a show into three distinct blocks (In VM’s case: 9, 6, 5) which air as consecutive episodes with distinct breaks in between. This method hasn’t damaged the show too greatly this season (Not that the ratings were good to begin with) but the show is suited to it due to its mystery structure. Other shows can’t do this as easily, because writing cliffhangers to keep people interested is difficult.

Those are the four methods most commonly seen when dealing with this problem. Now, the next question is: Why do most shows not follow these?

It’s really an issue of ratings and network greed, when it comes down to it. ABC wants to have episodes of Grey’s Anatomy airing all throughout the year so they’re able to tout how awesome they’re doing in the weekly ratings hunt. CBS thinks the same thing with CSI, and makes sure they’re scheduled against one another in order to keep their network from appearing weak. Shows start in September because that’s when all shows start, and people are excited about new shows, and it’s much tougher for people to be excited about a new TV show in January; Heroes could have ended up like the Black Donnellys if it hadn’t had time to build over the year.

So, in the end, why is your favourite show on hiatus? It’s because it’s the way the TV industry works. They want to premiere in September, they want to be part of the Sweeps months (See my February Sweeps post for details on what these are) in November, February and May, and they want to end in May with everyone else to get the best ratings possible. If the networks could take out every other month of the TV season, I think they probably would, but the world doesn’t work that way.

They can’t make any more than 22-24 episodes, there’s too many weeks in the TV Season, and networks are greedy and want to be part of everything coming to them. These are all realities that will keep a new episode of Heroes from appearing on Monday. But, due to these new scheduling patterns popping up, you’ll have fresh episodes of Lost, Heroes, Prison Break, Jericho and others to watch and enjoy in the weeks ahead.