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revjor t1_j0kcmgw wrote

Reply to comment by Mahbigjohnson in [Super Curious] 🫠Why is British TV series short like every season holds up for 6 episodes max? by aparnasesha

The old US 22-23 episode season was structured the way it was to revolve around the school year and a midseason break during the Holiday season. Then when Summer rolled around TV went into reruns.

Our tv schedule was designed to fit the exact amount of episodes to fill the schedule and have a full rerun minus holidays. All in order to maximize advertising potential.

22 episodes is entirely utilitarian.

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jemull t1_j0lb89w wrote

The problem with having seasons this long with scripted dramas though is the plot often grinds to a halt because the writers have so many hours to fill.

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JamesMercerIII t1_j0pzq0d wrote

Good example of this is the TV show Lost, which had the same hype and popularity around it as what is now considered a prestige show, but was on network TV (ABC) and had 20+ episodes per season. The quality of each episode varied highly, and the writers went to extraordinary lengths to keep the mysteries going throughout the season.

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jemull t1_j0qenxs wrote

This was one of the shows that came to mind. Another one was Prison Break, where the first season became a frustrating "one step forward, two steps back" slog.

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revjor t1_j0m5rlo wrote

The opposite side of this is they save a ton of money only having to build sets for one show, cast one show, etc.

If your show was popular it saves the studio a ton of money in production costs.

Also, the Primetime, 22 episode, season long story arc wasn't a thing until way later down the line so it's effect on writing wasn't even considered since each episode you'd be doing was standalone.

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abarrelofmankeys t1_j0lnxa4 wrote

This never made sense to me, hey, you know when more people have free time to watch tv? Yeah let’s have all the shows be in reruns then.

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revjor t1_j0m1zes wrote

That's because they use that free time for other things in the Summer.

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throwawaythrow0000 t1_j0mj99q wrote

Believe it or not summer was always the time when viewership was lower because people didn't stay home due to weather, school nights, etc. So it makes perfect sense.

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ZandrickEllison t1_j0nx12l wrote

Back in the old old days (like I Love Lucy) shows did like 40 episodes a year. The answer as always is about money. US TV makes more with syndication which is why they wanted to go 100+ episodes.

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revjor t1_j0o4kxs wrote

They did 39-40 in the earliest days of TV because that was a hold over from they scheduled radio shows.

It wasn’t til a bit after that when they started to dial in the best schedule for TV broadcasting.

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ZandrickEllison t1_j0o4zd7 wrote

Yes but again it all had to do with money and advertising . The summer wasn’t big money so they took that off.

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