TiVo Community Forums Archives - Long hiatus for shows?

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Long hiatus for shows?
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Posted by: mitchb2

Is it normal for so many shows to be gone for SO LONG?

I know NYPD always takes a few months off mid-season, but this year it seems like EVERYTHING has been gone for ages.

Posted by: TiVaholic

No sweeps months. The networks save their best stuff for sweeps, when they find out how much they can charge for advertising by the amount of viewers watching. The last sweeps was November, IIRC, and they begin again around the start of February (Tomorrow?).

Posted by: jones07

Sometimes they can be to long. I have lost total interest in the Sopranos.

Posted by: lander215

Remember a few years back when NYPD didn't even start until January! Now that sucked!

Being gone for so long is a bad thing to me, because if it weren't for TiVo, I'd probably skip NYPD because I have so many other things to watch now.

Posted by: drew2k

I can think of two other shows that seem like they've been gone forever: Dead Like Me and Six Feet Under. The seasons for these shows are much too short.

Posted by: TivoZorro

They just announced at the end of last night's episode of Line of Fire that NYPD Blue will be returning in two weeks! And from the looks of the promos without giving away any spoilers it looks to be a fantastic episode!

I don't know whether Line of Fire is done for the year or whether it will be moved to another day and time slot?

Posted by: ewolfr

quote:
Originally posted by drew2k
I can think of two other shows that seem like they've been gone forever: Dead Like Me and Six Feet Under. The seasons for these shows are much too short.

I like it this way personally. Shows tend to run out of ideas during a 22 episode season, over in Britain a season for a show tends to be as few as six shows. I wish a lot of shows had few eps, it wouldn't force the writers to come up with as much filler during a season.

Posted by: Steveknj

This is one of the two major trends with the TV networks over the last 10 years or so that completely drives me nuts. I don't remember years ago, them showing 2 new episodes, then the show goes away for a month, then they show 3 weeks of repeats then maybe it goes away for a week or two and then FINALLY a few new episodes. I may be wrong, but I recall when I was younger that they'd show continuous weeks of new episodes with the exception of holidays, summer and December. So from the end of Sept to the beginning of December you'd get 10 new episodes in a row, and then from January to May, same thing. The other trend is them moving shows around constantly so you can't find your favorite shows, until it gets to the point that you forget about them, and stop watching.

And you wonder why network viewership is down so drastically. They can't build an audience with tactics like these. They should look in house and fix these problems. They are their own worst enemy!

Posted by: Crash331

The O.C. is like this. It started in what, Sept.? Then it ran like 3 episodes, went off for a few weeks for the world series, started back up in Nov. or so, and now it has another month off after last week's episode.

Posted by: jkindley

Does anyone remember when a series would start in the fall and run through to the end of the spring, with a small 3- 4 week break for Christmas. This trend in Hollywood to be lazey and rerun episodes rather than makeing new ones has been driving me crazy for a LONG time now. It seams like if the US post office or local high school takes a day off, then hollywood takes a week off.

On a good note I like that some networks run original programming in the summer now.

Jim

Posted by: Steveknj

quote:
Originally posted by jkindley
Does anyone remember when a series would start in the fall and run through to the end of the spring, with a small 3- 4 week break for Christmas. This trend in Hollywood to be lazey and rerun episodes rather than makeing new ones has been driving me crazy for a LONG time now. It seams like if the US post office or local high school takes a day off, then hollywood takes a week off.

On a good note I like that some networks run original programming in the summer now.

Jim

Exactly. And it's getting worse. If it weren't for my SPs, I would probably forego most of these series because it's just too much of a pain to schedule my time to watch them. It's worse when they do this stuff with series like 24 that have multi-episode plots. I tend to forget what the shows are about. Is this anyway to build an audience? I've started watching more than one show for a few weeks, then it disappears for awhile and I foget about it, and start watching something else, and all of a sudden it's back, and I'm already into the other show.

And what's the deal with the Apprentice? Is it's regluar night Wed or Thurs? I'm really confused!! NBC is by FAR the worst network for these types of stunts. I think they are getting desperate since they started losing viewership on Thursday nights to CBS (Survivor and CSI)

Posted by: Rcrew

I've mentioned this in other threads recently.

I'm also trying to decide if being a TiVo type show watcher has heightened my awareness of this problem.

I am disappointed with the availability of new episodes on every single show I have an SP for.

Posted by: Marco

I kinda like the HBO model myself: Run a new episode each week until you're out of them, then stop. Come back with more new eps when they're ready instead of on an arbitrary calendar.

If everybody did this, I'd see more new shows than I do now, and more good ones would survive.

Posted by: allan

I'm really tired of all these reruns. Last night, I noticed that Enterprise was a rerun. It seems to me that we have more reruns than we do fresh episodes.

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

Actually, 24 is one of the LEAST offenders--they tend to go straight through unless something makes them skip a week or two (like holidays or State of the Union addresses).

Posted by: allan

quote:
Originally posted by Medieval Guy
Actually, 24 is one of the LEAST offenders--they tend to go straight through unless something makes them skip a week or two (like holidays or State of the Union addresses).

24 and Boston Public don't rerun, but they do have gaps. It seemed like a long time between shows.

Posted by: dilorc

quote:
Originally posted by lander215
Remember a few years back when NYPD didn't even start until January! Now that sucked!

Being gone for so long is a bad thing to me, because if it weren't for TiVo, I'd probably skip NYPD because I have so many other things to watch now.

I would actually prefer if NYPD Blue had started in Jan. At least when it started in Jan, it ran straight through until the end of the season. This 3 month hiatus they've been on sucks. I can't remember at all what was going on before the break.

Posted by: lordargent

Hiatus, pronounced hate_us

Posted by: Rcrew

quote:
Originally posted by dilorc
I can't remember at all what was going on before the break.

It's for that very reason we've resorted to keeping some shows around to rewatch once a new episode gets scheduled or recorded. Often there's enough of subtle interest it helps keep personal continuity when there's a big gap in episodes. Alias is a great example of this.

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

quote:
Originally posted by allan
24 and Boston Public don't rerun, but they do have gaps. It seemed like a long time between shows.

24 missed two weeks at Christmas, and one for the SotU (which was on a Tuesday). That's it. It'll miss a couple of weeks in March because of the sports tournaments, but I bet that'll be it for the rest of the season.

Other shows, yes, big annoying gaps, but they're VERY good about not doing it for 24 (they start it late in the season and end it early for that exact reason).

Posted by: MacThor

NYPD Spoilers:

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
Andy & Connie got married, Connie is pregnant, they caught the serial killer. The last episode before hiatus had the scam artist who wrote the "Never Pay Income Tax" book and the retired cop who was victim of a home invasion. Andy & Connie went to see their new neighbor play in a chamber music concert. The Lieutenant got passed over for Captain.

Posted by: Cathy/Vik

quote:
Originally posted by jones07
Sometimes they can be to long. I have lost total interest in the Sopranos.

Same thing's happening w/me for ER...

Posted by: drumorgan

Where did Stan Hooper go? Is that on hiaitus, or cancelled completely?

Posted by: cwoody222

While this does sorta suck let's not blow it out of proportion.

The OC is not gone for a month. It will be off for TWO WEEKS. It was on Jan 21 and returns Feb 11.

NYPD Blue has not been gone for 3 months. Line of Fire replaced it for 8 weeks. Line of Fire was a scheduled limited-run series. It may or may not be back...but if it does it won't be until next Fall.

NYPD Blue did this in the past...that's how they launched The Practice.

Personally I think there are some advantages for the "HBO method"...also the "BBC method". While the gaps between seasons can be too long, I like to know that I will have x CONSECUTIVE weeks of a show. Be it Line of Fire, Six Feet Under, or The Office.

It's much more cost productive for networks now to produce a few fewer number of episodes per season. So...if they start doing that (18 or 13 instead of 22) then they should really begin to air them consecutively instead of stretching them out for a full season.

Posted by: lander215

quote:
Originally posted by cwoody222
While this does sorta suck let's not blow it out of proportion.
...
NYPD Blue has not been gone for 3 months. Line of Fire replaced it for 8 weeks. Line of Fire was a scheduled limited-run series. It may or may not be back...but if it does it won't be until next Fall.

Guess we'd better split the difference, as NYPD will have missed ten weeks by the time it returns on February 10th. After all, dilorc appeared to be speaking in terms of calendar, not episodes, so while there might have been 8 episodes of Line of Fire, NYPD hasn't been on for ten weeks when it finally returns.

Posted by: cwoody222

I stand corrected. Even moreso...Line of Fire ran for 9 weeks. With 1 interruption on State of the Union night. That's 10 weeks.

Posted by: MacThor

There are definitely some advantages for the "HBO method"... at least as far as the Golden Globes were concerned.

"The Office" wins best comedy for a SIX episode season.

"24" while actually longer than a typical season (by two episodes), runs consecutively, except for special event preemption (SOTU), and wins best drama.

Posted by: Steveknj

Has 22 episodes ALWAYS been the norm for a full season of shows? For instance, were there 22 MASH episodes or 22 I Love Lucys?

Posted by: cwoody222

Almost. I think it's been slightly reduced as time goes on. www.epguides.com shows I Love Lucy had 26-31 per season (Oct - May). MASH had 24 per season.

I think 22-25 was more the norm in the late 80's and 90's and it's been slowly getting smaller and smaller.