I wanted to respond to ...
Question: I wanted to respond to Laura's
comment regarding
Lost. As a big
Lost fan, I find it hard to believe that everyone wants a consecutive 22-episode season. A seven-eight-seven schedule makes no sense. One problem ABC has is that its execs cannot find shows to come in when
Lost goes on hiatus. What would they do when the show only goes on a small break? I'm in favor of what
Prison Break does on Fox: 11 episodes, one month break, 11 episodes. But once again, the problem for ABC is finding a show that can replace
Lost while on hiatus. Obviously,
Day Break went terribly wrong this year. If they wanted to bring in a monthlong special, ABC hasn't been able to find anything good in a while. There really isn't anything for ABC to fall back on while
Lost is gone. So, maybe a consecutive 22-episode season is the only thing that can work?
Answer: There's no way to please every master, either the demanding
Lost fan or the corporate demands of the network. The
Prison Break plan may be the way to go, since it mainly involves taking December and part of January off, not exactly high-profile months. Or maybe the
Jericho plan is even better, keeping the show off the air from late November until mid-February, to help extend the show's run until later in the spring, through to May sweeps. It still creates the problem of what to air when
Lost is taking a breather. There are huge risks, as
Day Break discovered, in scheduling a short-run, high-concept series in the interim. It would help if ABC had some procedural hits like CBS does that are infinitely recyclable. But it doesn't, so it's a problem. And given the degree of difficulty in producing the show, upping the episode order significantly isn't really an option. Which is why I find myself still coming back to a January-to-May run, like
24. It's just that kind of show.
