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Lost is Hurting Itself Badly with these Constant Breaks in Episodes

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    Lost is Hurting Itself Badly with these Constant Breaks in Episodes

    Before I get this off my chest I just want to state that I love Lost, it's the best television show in a long long time, well written and very intelligent, a mainstream show that actually treats its viewers with respect. I also apologise if this has been mentioned before but I don't have time to check through all the posts and I want to see if it’s only me that this is bothering.

    After watching Maternity Leave last night I was once again bemused to see the next new episode is in three weeks time on the 22nd March. It is getting really aggravating with constant breaks, but this is plain ridiculous, we have just come off a short break and now there is another. It is totally disrupting the continuity of watching the show. Lost is very involved and these gaps are making it very difficult to keep up with the flow of events especially as Lost has been around for two years yet only 2 months have passed.

    I listen to the podcast and I understand there reasons for these breaks, it is a difficult show to make and they don't want long gaps between seasons but I would prefer that over the current one week on, one week off it is becoming now. Damon L. has even apologised for these gaps more than once on the podcast.

    I live in England and when series a shown on tv here they are pretty much uninterrupted for the whole season, it makes much better viewing. I don't know if this is commonplace on USA television or Lost is the exception. I believe 24 (how awesome is the latest series?) is shown without any breaks.

    As I said I love Lost, but its hurting itself badly with these constant breaks. The season has been excellent but its really difficult to get into due to the stupidly slow pace they are showing the episodes, Lost will suffer in the long run if they keep doing this.

    #2
    I thought it was the Network that chooses when to air episodes, not the guys who work on the show. So it's ABC that's hurting Lost, in an attempt to drag each season out as long as possible.

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      #3
      Difficult show or not this is a bad way to do it. It makes me almost respect SG1/Atlantis's mid season multi-month long break.
      "For now, you are in need of food and rest, and I am in need of armor"

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        #4
        Its good to know others agree with me. Stargate & Atlantis are written with mid-season breaks in mind so I have no problem there. We have managed 15 episodes of Lost since 21st September 2005, over 24 weeks ago - grim!! We should be enjoying the season finale by know.

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          #5
          I too agree. These 'mini-breaks' where they show repeats and then a new episode the week after is very annoying. I am not too happy with this 3 week break either. Breaking the continuity of the show and having to remember what happend prior to the cut off is very frustrating. They figure that showing the last episode an hour before might help, but it doesn't help sometimes.
          Don't make me zat you

          It took us 15 years and 3 super computers to MacGyver a system for the gate on Earth.

          Dial=> http://www.pathcom.com/~kcheung for days remaining until the Vancouver con!

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            #6
            Itcould be any number of things, here in the UK it hasnt started yet (Season 2) I have seen it by "other" methods, but I have to wait until the episodes are available. Dont forget that while shows like SG are made months in advance, Lost is filmed 3 weeks in advance of showing, so if there is a problem, it means that they have to delay. I do agree, it will affect the show long term, IMO that is the reasoning for its sudden loss of about 2 million viewers, people just dont know when the frak its on.
            Equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women. And the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who is confronted with it.
            - Joss Whedon - Equality Now

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              #7
              This is pretty common practice for network TV. Has been for years. Sitcoms, dramas, whatever, usually during the middle portion of the season they start showing only a couple new episodes every months. As we near the end of the season, we'll likely get a straight run of new episodes again.


              a time to mourn

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                #8
                I appreciate the reasons why this is occuring and only making epsiodes three weeks in advance must be difficult (if this is done to stop spoilers, it doesn't seem to work - Shannon for example) but I agree that it is the network that is hurting the program more than the makers. You cannot actually find set episode release dates until the end of the season, you can go about three ahead but these are tentative. I sometimes feel they are just showing them when they feel like it or taking episodes off when other popular shows are on.

                Lost has had reduced viewing figures in America, interesting, I wasn't aware of that. I'm sure it would have good viewing figures in the UK, if only Channel 4 would show it, no wonder we are the highest downloaders of TV episodes.

                One piece of good news, just listened to the latest podcast again and Damon Lindelhof said that the final set of season 2 episodes will be run together, yay!

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                  #9
                  Lost is no different than any network show. They all have the spotty breaks during the spring. Networks have sweeps periods in November, February and May to determine ad rates. The networks don't make any more than 22 eps per season when they used to make about 30. So--22 new eps have to stretch between the fall premiere and May. That means multiple reruns. It's not just Lost. Supernatural is doing that. Every network show does that. Invasion is getting a break this month so ABC can try out a new series. It's annoying but it's not unique to Lost.

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                    #10
                    It has nothing to do with the show, it has to do with the way networks are run. That's because the typical and historical TV season ran from Sept to May. 3 times of the year they have what's called sweeps month, November, Feburary and May. Sweeps are used by networks to determine next year's ad prices.

                    So typically a tv show will have new episodes from Sept to Nov and then break for the holidays. New episodes pick up in January, usually 2nd or 3rd week and then run to the end of Feburary. Then they break for March, this is typically the time when networks will air brand new shows to see if any get a good reaction to from the audience. One example that went over real well would be Grey's Anatomy, which was a mid-season replacement that started last march and replaced the show that was on the mid-season break because the audience liked Grey's so much. So then as usual in April, new episodes will start to air, usually until mid may.

                    This is the way the networks have done it for as long as I can remember it, which granted is only about 20 years but its mostly due to the outdated concepts that networks use. Most cable networks and it sounds like British networks do the same thing, they run episodes from start to finish all the way through, like 22 episodes from sept to dec and then start a brand new show from Jan-May. Fox for instance has done this with 24, shows the episodes from start to finish Jan to May. I would agree that part of the reason that typical networks, ABC, NBC and CBS are losing viewers is that they break up the season so much.

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                      #11
                      The problem is they did a bunch of new eps, then a 3 week break, then like 2 episodes, then a break, then an ep, then they run the pilot, then an ep, then a 3 week break. They'll lose any casual watchers (granted the show isn't good for casual watchers) who can't figure out when its on.
                      "For now, you are in need of food and rest, and I am in need of armor"

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                        #12
                        Exactly. Once upon a time, people regarded cable series as being of lesser quality, but that's no longer the case. The three best shows in terms of overall quality on television today are all cable: The Shield, Deadwood, and Battlestar Galactica. Much as I like Lost and Supernatural, those three are better in terms of overall quality--lack of network interference and scheduling? I wish Supernatural were a cable based series. They could push the envelope more. Lost and SN are the only network series I give a care about.

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                          #13
                          I hear and appreciate what you are saying, being from the sleepy little backwater that is the uk, I was unaware that this is how the networks in the USA operate, but it is damn annoying. I suppose a lot of the problem is that Lost is one of the first shows to be cult and mainstream all in one but I still think though that it is the scheduling of the breaks that is causing the problems, this week being the biggest example, the season is gathering pace and oh, its gone again! If the viewing figures fall beacuse of this i'm sure the networks will blame the show not the scheduling.

                          In America is 24 shown on a major network or a cable company? Fox is part of Sky in the UK which is our biggest satellite/cable broadcaster.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Oblivion147
                            I hear and appreciate what you are saying, being from the sleepy little backwater that is the uk, I was unaware that this is how the networks in the USA operate, but it is damn annoying. I suppose a lot of the problem is that Lost is one of the first shows to be cult and mainstream all in one but I still think though that it is the scheduling of the breaks that is causing the problems, this week being the biggest example, the season is gathering pace and oh, its gone again! If the viewing figures fall beacuse of this i'm sure the networks will blame the show not the scheduling.

                            In America is 24 shown on a major network or a cable company? Fox is part of Sky in the UK which is our biggest satellite/cable broadcaster.
                            Believe me I actually perfer the way the UK does it and cable channels do it because I don't have to wait for things. In the US we have 5 soon to be 4 major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB and UPN. By Sept, WB and UPN are going to merge and form the CW network, those are really the networks the run how we watch TV in american. If any of those networks got a ceo with some brains and balls, they would change the format to run shows from sept to dec and then new shows from jan to may and then have a summer season as well but that won't happen becasue the 9 month tv season is too steeped in tradition.

                            Fox is a broadcast network, meaning they have stations around the country were people can still recieve it over the air.

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                              #15
                              It stand like you need someone from britain to start a revolution over their.

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