gutsdozer
03-26-2006, 01:46 PM
I know a little bit about TV production and ratings sweeps, but I also know a bit about demographics. That said, I've never seen a show catch on like this before, so of course when you're stuck in repeats, people naturally complain until they're blue in the face about it. I'm sure you can't control exactly how ABC schedules your episodes, but you can probably influence them with some ideas.
For your next season, I would suggest presenting the ABC network with the following:
Divide your season up into three blocks. 24 episodes, 8 episodes per block. This way, instead of having one week off, two weeks on, two off, two on, etc...you'd instead have everyone used to when everything was going to air, and have your season neatly separated into thirds, while still being able to hit November, February, and May sweeps.
Let's say we're doing this for the 2006/2007 third season of the show:
BLOCK 1:
-Season premiere, last week of September (27th)
-Runs all through October
-3 weeks in November (sweeps #1).
BREAK 1:
-No new episode Thanksgiving week, or the week after.
-All of December.
-Break runs until January.
BLOCK 2:
-Starts the 2nd week of January (10th).
-Runs through the rest of January, and all of February (sweeps #2).
BREAK 2:
-All of March.
BLOCK 3:
-Starts 1st week of April (4th).
-Runs through all of April and most of May (sweeps #3).
-Ends on 4th week of May (23rd), with a 2 hour season finale.
In case anything changed and ABC needed to shuffle something around, each of these blocks would be sufficient room to change something around if needed, for an awards show, or an emergency, or any kind of rearrangement, but that's only a "what if" scenario. I think under this format, everyone could live with it, and things would be a lot more consistent.
I'd personally rather have this than an 8 month break like "24" has. While a nonstop season is nice, "24" doesn't really have cliffhangers between seasons. Lost does, and I don't think I'd have wanted to wait until January to find out what was in the hatch. I can't really speak for anyone else here, but it's a thought, and I think it would cut down on a lot of the incessant kvetching.
For your next season, I would suggest presenting the ABC network with the following:
Divide your season up into three blocks. 24 episodes, 8 episodes per block. This way, instead of having one week off, two weeks on, two off, two on, etc...you'd instead have everyone used to when everything was going to air, and have your season neatly separated into thirds, while still being able to hit November, February, and May sweeps.
Let's say we're doing this for the 2006/2007 third season of the show:
BLOCK 1:
-Season premiere, last week of September (27th)
-Runs all through October
-3 weeks in November (sweeps #1).
BREAK 1:
-No new episode Thanksgiving week, or the week after.
-All of December.
-Break runs until January.
BLOCK 2:
-Starts the 2nd week of January (10th).
-Runs through the rest of January, and all of February (sweeps #2).
BREAK 2:
-All of March.
BLOCK 3:
-Starts 1st week of April (4th).
-Runs through all of April and most of May (sweeps #3).
-Ends on 4th week of May (23rd), with a 2 hour season finale.
In case anything changed and ABC needed to shuffle something around, each of these blocks would be sufficient room to change something around if needed, for an awards show, or an emergency, or any kind of rearrangement, but that's only a "what if" scenario. I think under this format, everyone could live with it, and things would be a lot more consistent.
I'd personally rather have this than an 8 month break like "24" has. While a nonstop season is nice, "24" doesn't really have cliffhangers between seasons. Lost does, and I don't think I'd have wanted to wait until January to find out what was in the hatch. I can't really speak for anyone else here, but it's a thought, and I think it would cut down on a lot of the incessant kvetching.