Why have American series started having 'mid-season breaks'?

[Bomper]

It's driving me crazy!! Am missing Chuck and The Event. I won't remember what's happened by the time they come back. Harumph!!

The Event is back Feb 28th. It is showing a catch up show before it resumes fully :)

Phew!! Thanks

I think they always had the break but we just get them earlier now. I'm missing the Mentalist and Vampire Diaries.

Me too.

My ex H showed me a website where I can watch things for free before they come to the UK. The only reason I've only watched one thing on there I've missed so far, was due to the fact I'll have nothing to watch when Five starts playing them again, but it is irritating. I didn't even remember them saying The Mentalist was taking a break before Christmas for example. Grrrr

Oh cripes, I'm not even sure my post made sense, I think adding "if I do" may have helped

I first noticed this with Flashforward.

The buggers kept us waiting in suspense and then didn't recommision it so we had a rush finish!

They always had the break. Shows like 24 actually broke the habit by starting later in the year but running the 24 episodes in succession.
I remember one year Lost had a 2 month break much to the disgust of the fans.

What I don't get is that we had Fringe only a few days after the States but now have to wait till practically the end of Feb when it's already resumed in the States. Now that's frustrating.

I thought Flashforward was starting again in the Autumn

They had a writers strike some time ago which had a knock-on effect. I pretty sure that was why Lost had a break anyway.

Really I hope so!! We watched series one and then there was loads of reports that it wasn't to be recommisioned.
If it comes back we will be happy bunnies in our house.

( off to find out more - hope my hopes aren't going to be dashed!!)

I was watching Grey's Anatomy at the weekend on iTunes and 'overnight' everyone's hair changed, people had lost weight, it was all very surreal. Do they have the break so networks can test out pilot stuff for the following season? Or so actors etc can go off and do other projects? I guess they have to film over quite a lot of the summer to be ready for the autumn season.

Wish my job came with a mid-winter break, I'd love it if I could hibernate through the worst of Dec and January. Or errr, go off and make glamorous films as I'm sure would be my fate if I wasn't a f-t employee

Re Flashforward from Wikipedia

On May 13, 2010, it was reported that FlashForward would not be renewed for a second season.[10] Season 1, part 1 of the series was released on DVD on February 23, 2010. This DVD has the first 10 episodes plus bonus material. The full series was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 31, 2010 (including more bonus material).[11] The first 2 discs of the 5-disc full series set are the same as the 2-disc set of episodes 1-10.

Im missing Desperate Housewives :(

I'm missing Big Bang and CSI.

I know a year or 2 ago was the writers strike but I want my fix nooooooooow!!

and when is House coming back?

upahill I've read that twice and still do not understand Does that mean the rest of series one is not being shown in Autumn that it's just stopped. End of?

House is back on Sky Starting Thursday 10th.

They've always had breaks.

The UK channels used to wait until the American shows were half way through or even finished for the season before they started showing them which meant they could show an episode a week religiously. With internet downloads etc, no one can be arsed to wait so UK companies like Sky are negotiating to be able to show the episodes within a few days of them ebing shown in the US.

But because we get them so quickly it also means the random breaks for Christmas/superbowl/everything else get passed on too.

Flashforward is over as far as I know, and there won't be any more.

Most things are restarting in the US now, so should start up here again soon.

Sorry upahill after reading the Five website I now understand. Episode 22 was the final episode of series 1 and ABC cancelled series 2. Gutted comes to mind... Sorry I'd got suitably confused, you're right they did rush the last bit of the first series and there are so many lose ends still

They have always had breaks indeed, we just didnt notice them.

But there does seem to be more of a trend towards a "mid-season finale" so when something exciting happens in the middle of a season or there is a sudden cliffhanger, that'd be just before the hiatus.

A lot of US shows have frequent breaks for one/two/three weeks during the season as well. Must be very annoying way to watch it but at least we are saved most of that. A 22 episode season can show 7 months in the States. I think we are going to be seeing more of that type of scheduling here.

There's also the complication of "sweeps months", which is when there's the most focus on ratings (which determines advertising revenue). These months are November/February/May/July. Often there are few episodes shown in December/January so there's a full set of episodes during February, and the same might happen in April. That can also affect storylines as networks want dramatic stories/cliffhangers during sweeps months to keep viewers watching.

There's a website that aims to assess which shows are likely to be renewed/cancelled, or are "on the bubble". I don't know how accurate their assumptions are, but it makes for some interesting reading:

tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/01/23/bubble-watch-please-welcome-fringe-harrys-law-the-cape-and-outsourced-to-the-bubble/79860

The other thing that freaks me out is how you don't know at the outset of a series how many episodes there will be. So you can have a basic story arc but might have to wildly pad (12 eps to 22), slightly pad (20 to 22) or unpad (like the lamented Firefly did by not showing episodes already filmed). Must be very unsettling.