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By Dee-Dum
Edited by shrrshrr
We really have to get past the concept of a “TV season” and move on to the reality of cable scheduling in the 21st century. The days when all three networks debuted their new shows on the same week in September are deader than Joan of Arcadia.
The networks used to order enough episodes of a series to run continuously, more or less, from September to May, with maybe a couple of missing weeks around Christmas. For example, in 1957 39 episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel were produced, leaving only 13 weeks for reruns. In the 1960’s the number of original episodes for series generally fell to around 30, still allowing a show to premiere in September and run with minimal interruptions through May.
Today most series have a maximum commitment of 22 episodes (24 for the series 24, obviously). If you put on four episodes per month in the sweeps months of November, February and May, that’s half your commitment. A show that isn’t immediately cancelled will usually be allowed to air at least three times after its debut, which makes for a total of 16 episodes. That leaves only 6 episodes left for December, January, March and April. No wonder reruns seem epidemic.
Networks are beginning to resort to alternate ways of running out their shows, especially those that are serial in nature. Last season 24 and Alias both experimented with debuting in January and running to the end of the season without interruption. This season Prison Break will have a “Fall Finale” and will then return in late March.
FOX has had a problem the past few years with its commitment to post-season baseball interfering with it rolling out new shows in September. It has started unveiling shows in August, or waiting until the “second season” starts in January. Networks have begun to recognize that the log jam of new shows in September confuses viewers, and many recent hit shows made their debuts in January (for example, Malcolm in the Middle debuted on January 9, 2000).
Summer is also proving to be less of a dead spot than previously feared. FOX unleashed the inexplicable hit Dancing with the Stars over the summer, and its success guarantees that a winter edition won’t be far behind. (Seriously, who watched this show? Ballroom dancing? Obscure, no name “stars”? John O’Hurley???). Ratings are still lower during the summer, but in the competitive world of television there is no reason to write off the three months of June, July and August.
Cable stations have generally chosen not to compete head-to-head with the big network’s new shows, releasing their series whenever they feel like it. USA Network’s Monk has “split seasons” running 7-9 episodes at a time, once in the summer and again in the winter.
The era when three networks debuted all their new shows in mid-September is long gone. One artifact of all the networks debuting their shows all at the same time was that “pilot season” in Hollywood was a frenetic period when every potential series had to produce a pilot simultaneously. The result was that often pilots were poorly cast as actors were hurriedly cast into other pilots. If the pilot season were spread out more there would be just as much work but better casting of supporting roles.
Following a quality TV series in an era of 200-channel-satellite-and-cable offerings is far more daunting than when there were three networks, all shows started in September, and most lasted at least 13 episodes before cancellation. TV shows now start when they start and may be gone two weeks later. TV Guide really needs to find something to put on its cover for September 15th other than “The New Fall Television Season!” |
