TV Shows Go into Winter Hibernation; Plus, “V” and “FlashForward” Return in March

Desperate Housewives
I got a call from a viewer the other day that asked why Sunday’s episode of “Desperate Housewives” did not feature previews of the next episode.
Unfortunately, I had to deliver the bad news…”Desperate Housewives” will not be back with a new episode until next year!
Don’t worry, it sounds worse than it actually is.
“Housewives,” like most other TV series will return with new episodes - in January.
It’s the TV series winter hiberation period. You’ll notice when a show produces and airs a “Christmas” or holiday episode, that’s a sure sign the show is going into re-runs, or the less offensive “encore episode” mode. (In “Housewives” case, a big disaster/cliffhanger usually proceeds a break.)
Because of the staggeringly high cost of producing TV shows (millions of dollars for a single episode!) the TV networks generally only produce about 22 episodes, sometimes only 18 eps of some shows, per year. These episodes are then spread out to air from late September through late May.
New episodes will run in the four weeks of Nielsen “Sweep” periods when Nielsen monitors who’s watching what shows. Those “sweeps” air in November, February and May.
So when you do the math you can figure out pretty quickly that you need to schedule the shows with repeats built in.
And since TV viewing is affected by holiday schedules and vacations, it seems pretty logical to schedule blocks of repeats throughout the month of December.
So if you have a bunch of shows saved on your Tivo, the holiday season will be a great time to catch up!
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The cast of "V"
I also heard some groans when ABC aired teasers for “V” and ”FlashForward” announcing the final episodes of the year. Same deal. Except these two terrific shows will not return in January but in March.
By waiting until March to bring back new episodes of “FlashForward” and “V,” it will allow for both shows to air uninterrupted through the end of the season. ”FlashForward” will return on Thursday, March 4, 2010 (8:00-9:00 p.m), and “V” on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 (10:00-11:00 p.m., moving to its new timeslot following “Lost” (which debuts in early February!!!)
That’s good news. I was wondering if ABC was going to subject “V” to the American Idol juggernaut at 8pm on Tuesdays. That’s good. Replacement programming for the current time periods will be announced shortly.
BTW, “Glee” on FOX will be taking an extended break. I understand that it will not return until APRIL!
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A new job for Cuomo?
Following up on the ABC News post I did earlier this week, apparently ABC NEWS will make JuJu Chang the newsreader on Good Morning, America.
It’s reported that Chris Cuomo is moving up to co-anchor “20/20″ with Elizabeth Vargus on Friday nights.
That’s a good gig for Cuomo as “20/20″ has grown into the #1 show in the Friday at 10pm time period.
Part of the reason for the news magazine’s success? Jay Leno’s failure.
Jay Leno is driving viewers away from NBC.
Ouch!












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