Mid-season network change

I would use the New channel then.

JuanArango wrote:
I would use the New channel then.

It seems like a logical choice, since the upcoming episodes will be correctly displayed in the schedule. However it's ruining historical information and somehow does not go well with the policy. I assume it's some new weird shit, invented by the networks to make our life more fun it a wrong way :D

tnt wrote:
It seems like a logical choice, since the upcoming episodes will be correctly displayed in the schedule. However it's ruining historical information and somehow does not go well with the policy. I assume it's some new weird shit, invented by the networks to make our life more fun it a wrong way :D

It's a pain, but there's not really a lot we can do about it.

A "Fix" would be to split the season into 2 (Shame we can't have 1a, 1b) & then each could have the network they air but, again, it would be incorrect as the current network says it is all one season.

Gotta love schedulers, hehe

Just a thought ... I don't know how the back-end works but assume the Network is tied to all the episodes within a season for various other functions.

Again, don't know if it's a minor tweak or major rewrite but what if there was an option to change the Network attachment to episodes within a season rather than just the season itself. For example, Show X is on Network Y but jumps to Network Z after 6 episodes. There is a new field/drop down box Episodes that defaults to "All" but could be activated to allow a specific episodes numbers, in this case 1-6. Activating the box also activates other new fields/boxes for the new Network Z and number of episodes. Code this function so there is no limit and you could, theoretically, have a 22 episode season air on 22 different networks.

I'd limit the access to the very high-ups since it's not too common and therefore not a ton of extra work. That would eliminate goof ups and vandalism.

SilverSurfer wrote:
Just a thought ... I don't know how the back-end works but assume the Network is tied to all the episodes within a season for various other functions.

Again, don't know if it's a minor tweak or major rewrite but what if there was an option to change the Network attachment to episodes within a season rather than just the season itself. For example, Show X is on Network Y but jumps to Network Z after 6 episodes. There is a new field/drop down box Episodes that defaults to "All" but could be activated to allow a specific episodes numbers, in this case 1-6. Activating the box also activates other new fields/boxes for the new Network Z and number of episodes. Code this function so there is no limit and you could, theoretically, have a 22 episode season air on 22 different networks.

I'd limit the access to the very high-ups since it's not too common and therefore not a ton of extra work. That would eliminate goof ups and vandalism.

It's a nice idea, but I'm afraid it would require to re-write a huge chunk of code, 'cause it's too different from what we have now.

I'm thinking that maybe pending "multiple premiere airdates" feature could help somehow in such cases, so it could be rigged to serve different purposes.

According to the policy you use the network and airdates of the network that premieres the most episodes for that season. Use only airdates and episode ordering for that network, not for the other network. If the show switches networks mid-season and the new network premieres more episodes than the old, then that means re-ordering the episodes to the order and airdates they aired on the new network.

That means that you leave the airdate blank if the episodes did not air on that network. You can use the original ordering for unaired epsidoes.

I don't recommend splitting the seasons into parts a and b unless the network itself split the season that way.

dpratt wrote:
According to the policy you use the network and airdates of the network that premieres the most episodes for that season. Use only airdates and episode ordering for that network, not for the other network. If the show switches networks mid-season and the new network premieres more episodes than the old, then that means re-ordering the episodes to the order and airdates they aired on the new network.

That means that you leave the airdate blank if the episodes did not air on that network. You can use the original ordering for unaired epsidoes.

I don't recommend splitting the seasons into parts a and b unless the network itself split the season that way.

To me, that policy sounds like it applies more for when a show is from, let's say the UK but then it airs in the US on Netflix, but if Netflix premieres the most episodes first then Netflix would be the main network. That's what happened with Outcast, it is an American show but season 2 aired last year in the UK while the US is still waiting for it to air, so the UK airdates were used and the network was changed to reflect that.

It gets much more complicated when you are talking about shows involving Disney, Disney Junior and Disney XD though, because Disney treats them all as basically three branches of one network and not three separate networks and there are instances where an episode will air on one network and not on the other at all, and then the next week it'll go back to the original. Puppy Dog Pals, for example, was created for Disney Jr but there have been times where they premiere episodes on Disney Channel during the Disney Jr programming block and then those episodes never air on Disney Jr... but the episodes DID air, they aren't in a situation like Outcast and they aren't episodes that have aired in other countries after it was cancelled but but never aired in the US which forces us to use the network-with-most-premiered logic. And on top of that, it would be nonsensical to number things 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 but then for example leave 3 and 4 unaired but still as number 3 and 4 because the 'main' network not legitimately airing them would mean they are not actually 3 and 4 because in that case, episode 5 would actually be episode 3.

I think there may be similar cases involved HGTV and DIY too, where it's full seasons always shifting or individual episode.

Per the policy: In cases where premieres within a season are almost evenly split over different sources (Mythbusters would be a notorious example of this), a ruling must be made specifically for that show. Please consult the show's edit wiki when it exists, or open a thread in the Data forums otherwise.

So if there's no single network that premieres the majority of episodes within a season, open a thread about that specific case so we can choose the best way to handle it and store it in the show's edit wiki.

The policy is not very clear in this case for the people not familiar with the Mythbusters situation. Did they run simultaneously on several channels (as it often happens with Discovery or Scripps Networks), or did they premiere different episodes on different channels exclusively?

dpratt wrote:
According to the policy you use the network and airdates of the network that premieres the most episodes for that season. Use only airdates and episode ordering for that network, not for the other network. If the show switches networks mid-season and the new network premieres more episodes than the old, then that means re-ordering the episodes to the order and airdates they aired on the new network.

That means that you leave the airdate blank if the episodes did not air on that network. You can use the original ordering for unaired epsidoes.

I don't recommend splitting the seasons into parts a and b unless the network itself split the season that way.

If initial season order is unknown it is impossible to say, which network premiered most of the episodes, until the end of the season. Adding new episodes with blank airdate is somehow useless, because they'll be missing from the schedule (which is way more important for the upcoming episodes than for already aired ones).

Sadly, I think the issue is the policy was created before networks decided to get cute. It works for things like a show gets cancelled but the syndication network picked up the unaired episodes and aired those, too. (Think Firefly or The Magnificent Seven.) Where it fall apart are in situations like Disney, ESPN, Nat Geo, that have several different channels, but still consider them all under one umbrella network (even when the channels are called different things). We may have to consider either adapting the current policy for these situations or add something to deal with cable channels that scatter their programming.

Deleting known data (air date, episode number, airing Network, etc) of a show in order to shoehorn it to fit policy means, IMHO, you need a policy rewrite. This can not become a Newspeak blackwhite, or undata, situation.

david wrote:
Per the policy: In cases where premieres within a season are almost evenly split over different sources (Mythbusters would be a notorious example of this), a ruling must be made specifically for that show. Please consult the show's edit wiki when it exists, or open a thread in the Data forums otherwise.

So if there's no single network that premieres the majority of episodes within a season, open a thread about that specific case so we can choose the best way to handle it and store it in the show's edit wiki.

+1

SilverSurfer wrote:
Deleting known data (air date, episode number, airing Network, etc) of a show in order to shoehorn it to fit policy means, IMHO, you need a policy rewrite. This can not become a Newspeak blackwhite, or undata, situation.

Also +1