I think it would be cool if there was a status for shows that go on mid-season break. We don't really have this issue in the UK, but I'm working on a US guide at the moment were the show last aired a new episode over the past weekend and won't continue airing new episodes of the same season until July, it just seems like a shame that we don't have anywhere to note this, like we do for when shows are returning or premiering.
How big a break is a break worth noting?
For instance, Flash has gone on a... three-week break. Would that be noted?
I wouldn't mind a "returning" tag for when we know a new season is coming, but no return date have been set.
But then you'd have to explain somewhere that "Returning" means "Returning Next Season." Because in the example above, Flash is returning, too, in three weeks. If it's on its first season, would it be listed as Returning now?
So when does a new series become "Returning"? When it's announced that it's got a second season? After the first season ends? Not until the second season begins? Flash had a hiatus back at the beginning of December (as most U.S. "regular" shows do). But it hadn't been confirmed for renewal yet.
So there's a certain value in simplicity. Presumably News and Comments for the show (if they were available) would be the place to put that kind of info.
I'd use it whenever we know there's confirmed there is more coming, but there is no details on the next ep, whether it's one of those long winter breaks, or summer or w/e.
I'd agree there needs to be something denoting the fall break; it's becoming a common feature of TV television schedules. As to the question when it is a break, that can be fairly obvious, some examples from just this season:
Arrow
Episode 9 Dark Waters aired Dec 9
Episode 10 Blood Debts aired Jan 20
The Blacklist
Episode 8 Kings of the Highway aired Nov 19
Episode 9 The Director aired Jan 7
Gotham
Episode 11 Rise of the Villains: Worse Than A Crime aired Nov 30
Episode 12 Wrath of the Villains: Mr. Freeze aired Feb 29
This is a different scenario from the two-three weeks break made for production purposes or the couple week break something like Hawai'i Five-0 takes for NCAA basketball (grrr! :) ) The above shows are all from different networks and all of them follow a similar pattern of several months off the air instead a few weeks.
Hi Tom,
Your proposal sounds good, but is it a necessity? No to be honest. Dates of a season to continue are usually given by that network when the latest episode before that break has aired, therefore you could simply find it in your calendar. It requires less clicks and it is easier to spot from my point of view.
Some cable networks have started to really favor splitting seasons over two seasons (part 1 fall 2015 and part 2 fall 2016, as an example). Having a Midseason break-status would be beneficial for those.
Dragen wrote:
Some cable networks have started to really favor splitting seasons over two seasons (part 1 fall 2015 and part 2 fall 2016, as an example). Having a Midseason break-status would be beneficial for those.
Exactly, for example the second part of season 5 Hell on Wheels will be release this summer, but the episodes aren't listed and the show is tagged 'ended', which it is and isn't on the same time.
Cecile wrote:
Exactly, for example the second part of season 5 Hell on Wheels will be release this summer, but the episodes aren't listed and the show is tagged 'ended', which it is and isn't on the same time.
Ended was my mistake it is set to running again :)
It's not really wrong, it was decided 2 years ago that season 5 would be the last one and be split between 2015 and 2016 :)
This probably won't happen in the way you describe; it's currently purposely left out.
As Gadfly noted, it would be pretty ambiguous: when exactly would a break warrant a change in show status? After one week? Two weeks? 3 week Christmas break?
As soon as the return date is known, it can be added as an episode :)
david wrote:
This probably won't happen in the way you describe; it's currently purposely left out.
As Gadfly noted, it would be pretty ambiguous: when exactly would a break warrant a change in show status? After one week? Two weeks? 3 week Christmas break?
As soon as the return date is known, it can be added as an episode :)
I think the point is that shows that are clearly not on for quite some weeks/months due to whatever reason just have the status 'returning' - but it'd be better if that was more clearly defined. How and when is it returning. Is it returning in the same season, or a new season 6 months later.
The idea is that the season's "episode order" property can be used for this.
If there are 22 episodes ordered in a season, but only 11 episodes have aired thus far, you can derive that 11 more episodes will air in the current season.
We could perhaps use this data to display something in the show page's UI in case there is no next episode added yet. :)
david wrote:
The idea is that the season's "episode order" property can be used for this.
If there are 22 episodes ordered in a season, but only 11 episodes have aired thus far, you can derive that 11 more episodes will air in the current season.
We could perhaps use this data to display something in the show page's UI in case there is no next episode added yet. :)
But some shows might not ever announce the episode order for a season either :).
TomSouthwell wrote:
I think the point is that shows that are clearly not on for quite some weeks/months due to whatever reason just have the status 'returning' - but it'd be better if that was more clearly defined. How and when is it returning. Is it returning in the same season, or a new season 6 months later.
If it's a new season, then you add the year (and month if known) to the season. If you do that, it will get displayed on the show's page;
Take Prison Break for example...
Status: Running; returning 2016
Though there's no way to know this through the API as it doesn't list the year or month on the seasons endpoint
gazza911 wrote:
If it's a new season, then you add the year (and month if known) to the season. If you do that, it will get displayed on the show's page;
Take Prison Break for example...
Status: Running; returning 2016
Though there's no way to know this through the API as it doesn't list the year or month on the seasons endpoint
But im saying what if this information isn't available
TomSouthwell wrote:
But im saying what if this information isn't available
The way I see it:
If say there's 2 seasons in a show, season 1 has finished (as determined by episode order = number of last aired episode), season 2 (confirmed) starts at some point in the future.
Status: Running, returning for Season 2
gazza911 wrote:
The way I see it:
If say there's 2 seasons in a show, season 1 has finished (as determined by episode order = number of last aired episode), season 2 (confirmed) starts at some point in the future.
Status: Running, returning for Season 2
But thats not what I'm saying at all. Everyone else above seems to get it. I'm saying season x goes on a break for 7 months, so the last episode of season x aired in January, the next episode doesn't air until August (so not a typical 8 week break) but is still classed as a new episode of season x. Status: Mid-season break, returning August 2016 is better then saying the show is running when it isn't airing new episodes for 7 months is it not?
gazza911 wrote:
The way I see it:
If say there's 2 seasons in a show, season 1 has finished (as determined by episode order = number of last aired episode), season 2 (confirmed) starts at some point in the future.
Status: Running, returning for Season 2
Tom isn't talking about a new season, but a split season. So you have something like the following:
Lady Shelley's Grand Adventure is announced as a new program starting in the fall of 2016.
We get a new show listing for Lady Shelley's Grand Adventure with a status of In Development
Some time in the late summer, a premier date and a list of the first five episodes is released to the press and come some time in September, the first episode airs.
Now we have a listing for Lady Shelley's Grand Adventure and the status is Running
Things go along and the first chunk of eipsodes air, though there's a week off here or there for various reasons.
In the first part of November, the series is picked up for a full season, however, after the last two episodes currently air, there won't be any new episodes until "Spring". So now we have Lady Shelley's Grand Adventure with 10 episodes listed as aired, but it's not coming back until some time in "Spring" (remember this is middle/late November). The status is still showing as Running even though there are no new episodes to air, and there won't be for several months. We don't have a return date, we don't have any new episode listings. The show isn't canceled; it's just not going to air for an indeterminate amount of time.
What Tom is asking* for is some sort of additional note be made that the program is still on it's current season, however it's off the schedule for the next couple of months. This is very different from running repeats for a couple of weeks for production to catch up, or something taking over the schedule for a couple of weeks, like the NCAA basketball tourney (or Eurovision for the Brits in the group)
*Tom if I've got your POV completely wrong feel free to throw something at me. :)
