So..

Out of about the 14-16 season finales i've seen, EIGHT of them have been two episodes run one after the other. Granted, the majority of the second eps shown continued the storyline from the first..but does that mean we're being "shorted" an ep..?

Do you think this'll be a new trend among the networks..?

Will they increase the episode orders to reflect this..?

I'm not sure what you mean by being shorted an episode? If the season finale is twice as long as a normal episode, it counts as two episodes in the season. You're still seeing the same amount of the show.

Agreed.

Just means that instead of seeing 26 episodes in 26 weeks, you see 26 episodes in 25 weeks.

It's my belief [and I could be wrong...waiting for das to correct me] that an extended episode is counted as ONE.

F'rexample..the pilot episode of Dark Angel was 90 minutes long [two hours with commercials]..and counted as one not two..

Well like Law and Order last night it was two shows not just one.

Actually, it's pretty common to count those two hour episodes as two separate episodes.

For example, look at the pilot for Enterprise. It aired as a two-hour pilot, but "counts" as 2 episodes:

http://www.epguides.com/enterprise/

Also, the pilot and final episodes of Star Trek Voyager were also broadcast as two-hour shows, but count as 2 episodes.

http://www.epguides.com/startrekvoyager/

The Dark Angel pilot seems to be an exception to this:

http://www.epguides.com/darkangel/

Well, Alias is serialized so, of course the second ep was going to pick up threads from the first.

L&O:CI were thinly linked by the "anthrax" subplot.

L&O [surprisingly] were linked by a day that seemed like it would never end for the detectives.

L&O: SVU weren't linked at all..and neither were the Simpsons or King Of the Hill. So, basically, they were two separate eps just shown one after the other..

I wonder if part of this is because everything was thrown off due to the war and other world events that kept pre-empting television

Simpsons, Malcom both did this. it sucks because in the 26 week cycle we watch only 25 weeks of new stuff while the rest is repeats.

It makes sense for shows like Law & Order and The Simpsons. These shows will probably be aired a dozen or more times in repeats and syndication. By splitting a long season finale into 2 separate episodes, it fits more easily into the schedule.