December 4th 2007
Why a hiatus is a bad idea
It is my humble and personal opinion that the executive producer who has come up with the idea of a TV shows hiatus should be shot. No, I’m sorry, I keep forgetting I am a pacifist by nature. He or she should not be shot, but some method of torture would suffice (my appropriate method of punishment would be to watch some of CW’s reality programming on endless loop).
Hiatus is a bad word and it should be banished from the English language. In theory executive producers should be in tune with the viewers, demographic, call it what you will. They are the ones that should give the viewers what they want. But in my opinion they are failing miserably. But I am getting ahead of myself.
First lets take a look at the 3 types of hiatuses that have afflicted one and/or more of my favorite shows over the past few years.
Short term hiatus – think Lost 2nd season where we would get one or two episodes and then break of 2 – 4 weeks depending.
Long term hiatus – think 3rd season of Lost or Jericho, think Battlestar Galatica. Anything from 5 weeks to 2 or 3 months.
Permanent hiatus – producer talk for we-have-canceled-the-show or a load of bollocks if you will. Think Veronica Mars.
We can make allowances for the logistics of programming, but hiatus without fail in general is a bad idea. Why is that so?
Short breaks are not good, especially during the winter period. For crying out loud, there is nothing, nothing whatsoever to watch and I can only watch Charlton Heston as Moses shouting “Let my people go” so many times. I’d bet you if they air lets say Jericho during the winter period the ratings would sky-rocket.
In general we as the viewers suffer from a mild to moderate case of ADD. It is the disease of the modern age – we lose the plot, we lose interest and we might tune in but if you plan to give us a break of 2 to 3 months you better make it damn interesting to get our attention again.
I shudder to think what will happen with Lost (scheduled time February next year) or Battlestar Galatica (air time April of next year). I do hope Lost producers will not follow the same formula from last season – any given number of crappy episodes as a warm up and then wham bam thank you ma’am – I am pretty sure I will not stick around. And I consider myself a fan.
And did we not lose plenty of good shows that way already?
