Emma
12-04-2006, 09:40 PM
<img src="http://www.fanbolt.com/forums/images/avatars/heroes/101806heroes20.jpg" width="85" height="85" vspace="5" hspace="5" align="right" border="0" alt="Heroes, NBC"> NBC's Heroes bids farewell tonight as it takes a seven-week break in the latest example of TV's "fall finale" phenomenon.
Most shows air repeats during Christmas and New Year's weeks, but several serialized dramas last week started much longer winter vacations: Prison Break, like Heroes, won't return until Jan. 22; Veronica Mars is vacationing until Jan. 23; Lost is off the island until Feb. 7; and Jericho's next new episode airs Feb. 21.
The reason? These shows perform poorly in repeats, yet networks need to stretch out the usual 22 episodes over a 35-week season. So rather than stop and start series, they're opting just to take them off altogether.
"This is just what we found to be the optimal way," says CBS and CW scheduling chief Kelly Kahl. "People don't want to watch repeats of these shows. I have to give props to Fox and 24," which airs from January to May with non-stop new episodes. "That's a great way to run a show."
But most can't afford to sit out fall entirely.
Instead, CBS' Jericho split its season into 11-episode halves and will resume after a recap show Feb. 14. ABC's Lost is resting, replaced by low-rated Day Break, in order to air all originals, 24-style, from February to May. Veronica Mars wrapped up the first of two multi-episode mysteries last week and will take another break in March, says CW president Dawn Ostroff, with four stand-alone episodes likely for May.
Other producers are responding to the scheduling shifts by crafting story lines around them. Lost's six fall episodes were designed as a self-contained look at the mysterious Others inhabiting the island. And tonight's episode of Heroes (9 ET/PT) marks the end of the drama's "Save the cheerleader, save the world" plotline. Seven consecutive episodes that start in January — and five more due in late April — will explore two more story arcs.
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-12-03-fall-finales_x.htm" target="_blank">Click here for more!</a>
Most shows air repeats during Christmas and New Year's weeks, but several serialized dramas last week started much longer winter vacations: Prison Break, like Heroes, won't return until Jan. 22; Veronica Mars is vacationing until Jan. 23; Lost is off the island until Feb. 7; and Jericho's next new episode airs Feb. 21.
The reason? These shows perform poorly in repeats, yet networks need to stretch out the usual 22 episodes over a 35-week season. So rather than stop and start series, they're opting just to take them off altogether.
"This is just what we found to be the optimal way," says CBS and CW scheduling chief Kelly Kahl. "People don't want to watch repeats of these shows. I have to give props to Fox and 24," which airs from January to May with non-stop new episodes. "That's a great way to run a show."
But most can't afford to sit out fall entirely.
Instead, CBS' Jericho split its season into 11-episode halves and will resume after a recap show Feb. 14. ABC's Lost is resting, replaced by low-rated Day Break, in order to air all originals, 24-style, from February to May. Veronica Mars wrapped up the first of two multi-episode mysteries last week and will take another break in March, says CW president Dawn Ostroff, with four stand-alone episodes likely for May.
Other producers are responding to the scheduling shifts by crafting story lines around them. Lost's six fall episodes were designed as a self-contained look at the mysterious Others inhabiting the island. And tonight's episode of Heroes (9 ET/PT) marks the end of the drama's "Save the cheerleader, save the world" plotline. Seven consecutive episodes that start in January — and five more due in late April — will explore two more story arcs.
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-12-03-fall-finales_x.htm" target="_blank">Click here for more!</a>