Question about December Break

just had a general question, hopefully its ok that i post it here;

anyway i was just wondering why lots of shows (especially popular ones) aka
lost, go on "hiatus" or take a "break" for december to late jan, or whatever
interval of time? im a university student and during the latter half of december
after finals, i have all the time in the world to watch all my favorite tv shows
right on the tube itself, as opposed to having to 50/50 live tv and download
because of my work. most of the people i know have more time to dedicate to
entertaining themselves during holidays, why do these shows take a break during
this time? would there really be less people tuning in? if so, what makes it
less likely to tune in during december then november?

sorry if its a dumbass question, just was always curious and could not find info
on it on wikipedia (did read about may sweeps though)

not surprisingly, it's all about ratings. the big reason is that, by splitting
a show in this way, networks are able to hit the big two sweeps periods with one
show. if they were to continue straight through then they would not be able to
have their big season finales in may sweeps, and that could be disastrous for a
network's income.

for those who don't know what sweeps are... google it. 😉

but in brief it's a short period during which the ratings figures are expanded
by the distribution of log books to many thousands more households. these
sweeps figures are what the network (and affiliates) use to sell advertising, so
they are hugely important to the revenue of a network.

in the uk we don't have a need for this as sky has a viewers panel who have
signed up to let sky download from the box. what they have been watching every
week. it dails a freephone number to do this.

the bbc has another device which is usaly installed in houses with out sky. to
calculate the viewing figures.

yes, the us has nielsen boxes as well that monitor every week. but they can't
afford to put out all that many of them, so they only provide good figures for
the major cities.

sweeps is when they collect a lot of extra data, particularly from smaller
communities - which is why it is extremely important in particular for the
smaller affiliate networks.

well, its not surpirsing that it all comes down to cash, but to be honest,
most us shows have very long seasons anyway, i just look at it as 2 seasons,
plus if they need that revenue to keep the shows quality up then good luck to
them. of course 24 doesnt seem to have that problem, and lost seems to have a
3 month break every month. wonder why?

alot of people complain that this new break all the shows are taking
during the holiday season is pissing them off... but lets not forget the fact
that this is not new in any way..... a break during the holidays
is how the tv season has always been done..

yes, the break is a few weeks longer this year for most shows.. but the networks
are just testing out a new strategy, as more people were complaining about the
sporadic one-week breaks filled-in by a repeat, sprinkled in throughout the
season... so they decided on one longer break to see if people relate to that
better...

but people are going to complain either way... right !?
personally... i prefer the new one longer break concept.

we know you want an episode every single week.. 52 weeks a year... but that is
not logically possible... each episode takes longer than a week to produce..
if you got 52 episodes a year, production values would fall through the floor,
and you would have the filming quality equal to most daily soap operas...

so... until somebody comes along with a better plan about how to get a 22
episode series, to hit all the "sweeps" periods in november, february, and may..
and also have that competing premiere during september... i think we are stuck
for a little longer, until this internet thing kicks in better and everything
goes on-demand.

out of interest krypto, how does 24 avoid this problem?

yes, 24 breaks the mold... they are a 'diamond in the rough'.... but they did
originally follow the usual schedule system..

24 just built up enough sway that they can do whatever the fuck they want now..
which fits in perfectly with my closing statement before of "we are stuck
for a little longer, until......"

i think 24 breaks the mould because the show is so unique - fox feels that
leaving a 3 month gap in the middle of a series running in 'real time' would do
too much damage to their audience numbers for the second half.

there always have been shows that only start airing mid-season, i.e. january.
24 did move their start to january in order to bring a new ep to viewers every
week. come on, a repeat ep of 24, totally out of order...that would never work.
well, this season lost tried to do the same a bit by breaking it into 2 blocks.
show new eps every week, because people were complaining to much about all those
random repeats. of course now they complain about the long hiatus...