Hiatus (television)
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In United States
network television Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...
programming, a hiatus is a break of several weeks, months or years in the normal broadcast programming of a television series. Such a break can occur part-way through the season of a series, in which case it is also called a mid-season break, or between distinct
television season A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed bet ...
s (usually starting in June and ending in September, when shooting starts for the next season). In the Northern Hemisphere, the breaks between late November and early February are also referred to as winter breaks or, in the Christian cultural sphere, Christmas breaks. Until the late 1990s, summer breaks were sometimes replaced by summer replacement series.


Planned hiatus

Most broadcast network television series are scheduled for a season of 22 episodes in a time span running 36 weeks from September to May, so networks usually arrange the 22 episodes to air in blocks. Television stations often implement a hiatus for their programs to split up a season for storyline purposes. Some programs also go on hiatus so that their television networks can reserve episodes for airing during the three major ratings sweeps periods, wherein networks compute their
television advertising A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
fees based on their programs' ratings during that period. Programs return from a hiatus in time for the sweeps period so as to generate high ratings, and as such usually include special content in programming such as guest stars, controversial and unexpected plots or topics, extended episodes, and finales. Television programs tend to have a hiatus for the late-November, throughout December and early January holidays or the summer if the season does not end before, resuming at some point after, most often early February in the case of Christmas and
New Year New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system to ...
, and September in the case of the summer. In the United States, hiatuses may also be common during major sporting events - currently
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
in October for Fox, the
Olympic Winter Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were he ...
in February quadrennially on NBC, and the
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...
in March for CBS, and for Sunday programs, throughout the winter
awards season Film awards season is an annual time period between November and February every year, in the United States, where a majority of significant film award events take place. In October ballots are sent out to voters, to collect nominations for the first ...
. The American mid-season break usually starts at Thanksgiving in late-November, sometimes ending with a Thanksgiving or Christmas episode, and lasts until the Super Bowl the first Sunday in February. The final episode airing before the Christmas break is usually referred to as the
midseason finale A season finale (British English: last in the series; Australian English: season final) is the final episode of a season of a television program. This is often the final episode to be produced for a few months or longer, and, as such, will try to ...
, or in the northern hemisphere, "winter finale". At this time, other TV series may be launched, often a filler short series between seasons to ensure the 22-episode run will conclude in May.


Cancellation

A network may put a show on hiatus before canceling it. This may be to evaluate the series' quality, warn the television producers in an effort to push them to produce a more profitable product, fill its timeslot with another program to compare ratings, or warn viewers that the show is not pulling its weight in ratings to see how the show performs in reruns before deciding whether or not it deserves another season. In some cases, this is due to creative differences.
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
dealt with such a situation in the mid-1980s with their Tuesday night dramedy ''
Moonlighting Moonlighting may refer to: * Side job A side job, also informally called a side hustle or side gig, is an additional job that a person takes in addition to their primary job in order to supplement their income. Side jobs may be done out of nec ...
'' on three fronts, including actor
Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero a ...
's growing disinterest in the series due to his budding film career,
Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd (born February 18, 1950) is an American actress and former model. Her film debut and breakthrough role came as Jacy Farrow in Peter Bogdanovich's coming-of-age drama ''The Last Picture Show'' (1971) alongside Jeff Bridges. ...
unable to handle the overwhelming workload of the series, and overlong scripts and overbearing production demands from series creator/writer/showrunner
Glenn Gordon Caron Glenn Gordon Caron (born April 3, 1954), sometimes credited as Glenn Caron, is an American writer, director, and producer, best known for the television series ''Moonlighting (TV series), Moonlighting'' in the 1980s and ''Medium (TV series), Mediu ...
. The series was never able to fulfill a full series run in its five seasons and had multiple production hiatuses, to the network's constant consternation.


Other reasons

A series may be put on hiatus for other reasons. The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike forced several television series (including ''
Pushing Daisies ''Pushing Daisies'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bryan Fuller that aired on ABC from October 3, 2007, to June 13, 2009. The series stars Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to life ...
'', ''
Eli Stone ''Eli Stone'' is an American legal comedy-drama television series, named for its title character. The series was created by Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, who also served as executive producers alongside Ken Olin who directed the pilot, wit ...
'', ''
Chuck Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer * C ...
'', ''
The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on C ...
'', and ''
Heroes Heroes or Héroes may refer to: * Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good Film * ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama * ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film Gaming * ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...
'') to go into un-planned hiatus and deferred the scheduled returns of other series such as '' 24'' for an extended period. A show may go on hiatus in reaction to its content: The ''Pokémon'' anime was put on hiatus in Japan from December 17, 1997 until April 16, 1998 after the airing of an episode which caused 685 viewers to have seizures. A show may also be put on hiatus due to personal issues with a cast member, or an illness or death: examples are the death of '' 8 Simple Rules'' actor
John Ritter Johnathan Southworth Ritter (September 17, 1948 – September 11, 2003) was an American actor. Ritter was a son of the singing cowboy star Tex Ritter and the father of actors Jason and Tyler Ritter. He is known for playing Jack Tripper on the ...
; ''
The Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...
'' being retooled after the death of Redd Foxx; and ''
Sonny with a Chance ''Sonny with a Chance'' is an American teen sitcom created by Steve Marmel that aired on Disney Channel for two seasons between February 2009 and January 2011. The series centers on Sonny Munroe (portrayed by Demi Lovato), a teenage comedian ...
'' actress
Demi Lovato Demetria Devonne Lovato ( ; born August 20, 1992), known as Demi Lovato, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. After appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), Lovato rose to prominence for pl ...
departing
Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...
to deal with personal issues, leading to that show's retooling around the show within a show ''
So Random! ''So Random!'' is an American Disney Channel sketch comedy series that premiered on June 5, 2011. It was announced as an independent series after Demi Lovato left the parent series, ''Sonny with a Chance''. The series features the actors who a ...
''. In 2020, that year's
coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
had an inordinate and worldwide impact on the entirety of the television industry, effectively forcing a number of programs across all genres to go on hiatus or end their seasons early due to public health concerns and public gathering prohibitions.


See also

*
Hiatus (production) The holiday production hiatus, or "hiatus", is a common practice in Los Angeles, California, British Columbia, and other places that regularly produce television and movie content. This is concurrent with the hiatus in programming between halves o ...
: the annual halt-of-production of most television series and movies.


References


External links

{{portalbar, television
Current US Shows on Hiatus or Discontinued (updates regularly)
Television terminology