- Hiatus (television)
In
television scheduling , a hiatus refers to a break of at least several weeks in the normal schedule of a television program. It can occur during a season of a television program, or can be betweentelevision season s (usually starting in June and ending in August when shooting starts for the next season). In recent years, some television shows have been placed "on hiatus" by their networks for long periods of up to several years, effectively canceling them while leaving viewers and producers with the possible hope of the shows' eventual return.Usage of the term Hiatus
The term Hiatus generally refers to a "
break " or "halt " in something. [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hiatus] When a series is generally placed on "hiatus" it is generally assumed to be a temporary, the term was used.Planned Hiatus
Many times television stations will implement a hiatus for their programs for the sheer purpose of splitting up a season, just so it will run for longer until the next season is completed. An example of this is
NBC 's show "Heroes", which was taking a 2 month hiatus that started in February 2007, and returned at the end of April 2007. Another reason why programs go on hiatus is so that networks can reserve some episodes for airing during ratings sweeps, wherein networks compute their advertising fees based on their programs' ratings during that period. Programs "return from hiatus" in time for the sweeps period so as to generate high ratings, and as such usually include special content in programming such asguest stars , controversial and unexpected plots or topics, extended episodes and finales.Cancellation
At times, a network may put a show on hiatus before canceling it. This is done for several reasons. The first reason being an honest questioning of the quality of a series, the second being an effort to push the produces and writers to produce a better product. The third and final reason for putting a series on hiatus is to replace its
timeslot with another program, to see what performs better in the ratings.References
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