calhoun07

It's just something I've always been curious about. On average, a season for a TV series in the UK is only 6 episodes, no matter how successful the series is. I know there may be exceptions, but on average, this seems to be the norm. And in America it's usually 13 or 24 or so episodes per season. Why are their seasons so short for shows?

El-Kabong

I've never been able to figure out the English TV system. Years ago, seasons used to last damn near all year long (The early Doctor Who ran for 45 or so episodes a season).

I've also never been able to figure out why they start their show times at 5 and 15 past the hour. Very odd indeed.

renaldow

I've heard different things to explain the shortness of the seasons. Take them with a grain of salt.

- The BBC only gives so much money to fund a series, so producers can't afford to do more than 6 episodes a season.

- They believe in quality over quantity. While you only get 6 shows, production time is much longer than it takes to create 6 US shows.

- Short seasons for shows means room for more shows, greatly increasing the variety of programming offered on TV.

Perhaps some combination of all 3? I do know that the BBC can be very tight with cash and new TV programs. For example, The Young Ones had bands and puppets in it because the BBC gave bigger budgets to variety shows than it did to sitcoms.

Jason

Perhaps the question should be why are our TV series seasons so long?

Too much money is thrown at successful series (anyone see how much each "Friend" is getting this year?). Seasons are padded in order to make syndication packages, not to provide entertainment quality, and American TV is not interested in variety of programming, only high ratings (Who Wants to be a Millionaire was on endlessly when it got high ratings).

calhoun07

Does anybody know how other countries do their seasons for TV shows?

El-Kabong

Well, I cant speak for live action Japanese TV - but I know that a great deal of anime series run for either 24 or 26 episodes. Old school series like Robotech and Star Blazers all the way up to more recient shows like Princess 9 and Dai-Guard.

Kudama

I think that there’s a correlation between English TV shows and English comic books.

Compare Spiderman, Fantastic Four and Batman (4 ex.) to V for Vendetta, Marvel Man (AKA Miracle Man) and Nemesis The Warlock. While those comics (in England) did go on (excluding “V), it was with a sense of lackluster. I think Judge Dredd is the only one that I’m aware of that survived intact for as long as so many American comics.

Could it be a cultural difference in the need for change and/or certainty? (Just asking.)

Jason

I don't know about prime time TV, but the live action sentai (power ranger) programs run for an entire year (usually 48-52 episodes), and each year a whole new cast and motiff basically repeat the same storyline over and over.

B5Erik

Actually, dramatic series used to have 26-28 episodes per year back in the 60's, and half hour comedies had more.

So at 22 or so episodes per year American TV season length has been greatly scaled back over the last 2 decades.

22 is about right. I hate watching re-runs, and I would hate to have to wait 8 months for new episodes of series that I really like.