Policy regarding interrupted episodes

I strongly suspect that most people use this site to track the shows and episodes they want to/have watched rather than see exactly when an episode "aired".

Since the site already makes compromises around airtime like how Disney/Hulu/Netflix shows are often available before they pop up on your watchlist because the site is defaulting to like 9am pacific time, splitting an episode into two doesn't really make sense.

But for those who really care about the schedule, why not list the the part after the interruption as a special?  Those don't have episode numbers, so it wouldn't affect how shows are numbered vs what most people will consider official?  This could also be a good compromise for Shrinking where that's generated quite a few complaints.  You would still be able to track the separate information, but not throw the numbers off vs what the studios themselves use.

What are we going to do with segmented animation if we change this policy? 

Also I don't know if this is new territory for US television but if a UK show gets split into two, or three or whatever it may be thats how we've always listed it because thats what the schedule shows 

It's not new territory for US shows. The problem is, we don't have that historical information. Shows are listed as one episode. All kinds of things have had break-ins for presidents or other national events, but since no one was tracking this in, say, 1972, we still list the episodes as one. I agree the Survivor and Masked Singer episodes should be listed as one episode.  That's how they were intended. 

As for how I use the site, I use it to keep track of shows I want to watch on the calendar. I rarely, if ever, look at the schedule page. I tried to use it for my PLEX system, but the segmented animation frankly sank that. 

As for Shrinking, that should be two episodes. There were no extenuating circumstances that prevented it from airing in one piece. It clearly has two sets of credits and two parts

That is a completely different scenario from a standing episode being interrupted unexpectedly. 

Totally agree with LadyShelley on this. An unplanned break for a news special should not split a planned one episode into 2 parts.

@LadyShelley wrote:
As for Shrinking, that should be two episodes. There were no extenuating circumstances that prevented it from airing in one piece. It clearly has two sets of credits and two parts

That is a completely different scenario from a standing episode being interrupted unexpectedly. 

Different scenario, sure, but also extremely divisive and does cause problems for people trying to track the episodes they watch. Marking the second part as a special makes people like you happy because the second set of credits still can be recorded separately and it makes everyone else happy because the numbering matches up with the streamer. 

As far as episodes interupted for special events i do think the correct way is to also list them as separate episodes to show that on the schedule, however it's not something i feel THAT strongly about so i will go with whatever the majority decides. Now the Shrinking thing is a whole other matter and i agree with Shelley that those should be listed separately, changing that would open a whole other can of worms with loads of other shows and cartoon segments etc. I think the only way to solve this in a way that would make both sides happy would be (and i dont even know if this is technically possible) to be able to list an episode as episode 2A and episode 2B.

Unfortunately, with the current setting, if you fix on one side you break on the other. I don't love the idea of marking as specials but not totally opposed to. Maybe we could add a new episode tipe called like "Split" that works exactly like the significat specials? Still not great, but could be a decent compromise

@TomSouthwell wrote:
What are we going to do with segmented animation if we change this policy? 

Also I don't know if this is new territory for US television but if a UK show gets split into two, or three or whatever it may be thats how we've always listed it because thats what the schedule shows 

Segmented cartoons stay segmented, they are not segmented because of an interruption and they also have two titles and credits.

@LadyShelley wrote:
As for Shrinking, that should be two episodes. There were no extenuating circumstances that prevented it from airing in one piece. It clearly has two sets of credits and two parts

That is a completely different scenario from a standing episode being interrupted unexpectedly. 

+1

I don't think a policy change is needed. Instead we can list things "both ways" using the alternate listing called "verbatim order "that seems to be created exactly for scenarios like this.

Getting some added functionality to the site where we can easier view episode listings sorted by alternate lists and/or set it as default view type for the schedule/calendar/watchlist would be welcomed, though.

First off, regarding any suggestion(s) of not splitting/keeping listed as one episode despite the interruption, I feel it is important to note the site we are on here: TVmaze. Even if not originally intended, the original airings of said episodes were indeed split due to what was aired, and just ignoring the interruption entirely and not putting any sort of note or information to indicate it occurred feels like completely ignoring a major aspect of this website, even if we are in a more streamer-heavy time than past years.

The biggest reason for this discussion occurring at all, for those who might be unaware, is due to the 'Scheduling conflicts' that will pop-up on the schedule page when at least two programs on the same channel have an overlapping of time/date, two examples seen here.

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I have several thoughts regarding all this in my head, and probably some other(s) that I'll forget as I'm typing this, or literally haven't thought of yet, but I'll throw a few out for now for some ideas, maybe others will have comments/suggestions based off of them.

1. Keep split, but rework for some different type of numbering/labelling for the '2' episodes

I believe what MTQueenie and NathanDrake83 were somewhat describing in above comments, but having some sort of split labelling, whether through some sort of added 'A'/'B' feature (what I think would work better for this), or something involving the significant specials feature.

2. Use 'Late Episode Changes' note to explain what occurred, remove any sort of previously unplanned breaking news/interruptions

Honestly not quite sure regarding this, because it would just put the episodes back to using a single episode, but would be using the originally intended airtimes, for example, reverting The Masked Singer's airtimes here back to 120 minutes from 20:00 (8pm) to 22:00 (10pm), but I'm not the biggest fan with doing that since that is clearly not what ended up happening (The Masked Singer ended in actuality around 10:24pm ET).

Regarding the note itself, highlight the main information/changes of what occurred (Ex: "Due to coverage of a Presidential Address to the Nation, the episode was paused at 9pm for 22 minutes, and resumed at 9:22pm.")

Through this idea, any sort of previously unplanned breaking news coverage/interruptions (maybe any changes within the last 24-48 hours) would be deleted (such as last-minute Presidential Address to the Nation), but any programming already planned (some big primetime interview, Election Night coverage, Inauguration coverage, Debates, whatever else) would remain.

3. Major rework for the Schedule page

I think no matter what, this option should occur anyways. One of the main things would either be to remove the 'Scheduling conflicts' all together, or make them visible only to staff. There are already dozens of these scheduling conflicts on years past, a major reason being from shows that changed networks at some point. One good example of this is Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which aired seasons 1-5 on FOX, and seasons 6-8 on NBC. For the schedule, the data used is whatever network is currently used on the show's main page, instead of using what network is labelled for each specific season. To explain more clearly, basically it means that despite season 1 airing on FOX, NBC is currently listed as the main network of the show, so the schedule is displaying the season 1 episodes' airdates on the schedule as airing on NBC, creating schedule conflicts via that. For the pilot episode on September 17, 2013, that Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode is currently listed under the 'Scheduling conflicts' area, as NBC aired The Million Second Quiz and America's Got Talent that night.

4. Some sort of Schedule splitting that directs to the same episode?

Honestly not sure how feasible this would be, but I've honestly just thought of it in my head, and will try to describe it the best I can, so apologies if anything sounds weird here.

Basically, some sort of option (a check box or something?) while in the editing menu, and if you check it, new fields will pop-up to enter relevant information regarding the second/split out part (airdate, airtime, whatever else). Then, after whatever data needed is added, the episodes will appear on the Schedule page for the respective airdates/times/runtimes, but no matter which 'part' you click, they will both direct you to the same single episode. 

If this is somehow manageable, I think this might work out the best, as it can then keep it listed under a single episode, but will have the correct schedule data displayed on the Schedule page. I'm just not quite sure how/where the split information (date, time, runtime, etc.) would appear on the episode page itself...- maybe a new box below the 'Episode Info' box?...

I think the idea with an episode note, that this episode was interrupted due to a presidental speech would be a good thing to do.

I am against the A/B labelling. That isn't correct in any shape or form. We have a notes feature that seems to get ignored, which would solve this from a listing standpoint, but it rarely gets used. 

In my mind, the question is what the site is used for. Do we have stats on how/when/if the scheduling page is used? This argument seems to boil down to the schedule page vs the historical listing. So is it more important that the schedule is accurate at the moment, or that the historical information after that hour/day has the best data? 

For the first, I think there would need to be a teardown of the current code for the schedule page to accommodate some of this. Not sure that's something Jan and/or David are interested in doing. If the historical data is the most important, then using the note feature solves the problem. Make a note that The Masked Singer was interrupted for 20 minutes for a presidential speech. Done. Keep in mind the speech itself wasn't listed on the schedule at all. 

@LadyShelley wrote:
I am against the A/B labelling. That isn't correct in any shape or form. We have a notes feature that seems to get ignored, which would solve this from a listing standpoint, but it rarely gets used. 

Agreed

In my mind, the question is what the site is used for. Do we have stats on how/when/if the scheduling page is used? This argument seems to boil down to the schedule page vs the historical listing. So is it more important that the schedule is accurate at the moment, or that the historical information after that hour/day has the best data? 

I believe the Schedule page isn't used much. I remember there being a discussion about removing it as the Calendar have a lot of the same functionality and the thing that "saved" it was staff using it to detect timeslot conflicts.

For the first, I think there would need to be a teardown of the current code for the schedule page to accommodate some of this. Not sure that's something Jan and/or David are interested in doing. If the historical data is the most important, then using the note feature solves the problem. Make a note that The Masked Singer was interrupted for 20 minutes for a presidential speech. Done. Keep in mind the speech itself wasn't listed on the schedule at all. 

Agreed. If an episode have a single set of credits and no mention of multiple parts we should threat it for what it is,  a single episode. If there's any broadcast issues or interruptions worth mentioning, add it in a note :)

@Aidan wrote:
Agreed

I believe the Schedule page isn't used much. I remember there being a discussion about removing it as the Calendar have a lot of the same functionality and the thing that "saved" it was staff using it to detect timeslot conflicts.

Agreed. If an episode have a single set of credits and no mention of multiple parts we should threat it for what it is,  a single episode. If there's any broadcast issues or interruptions worth mentioning, add it in a note :)

+1

Everything still needs to be added to the database though because if not wed have to go through years of UK schedules to remove those episodes? 

@TomSouthwell wrote:
Everything still needs to be added to the database though because if not wed have to go through years of UK schedules to remove those episodes? 

Maybe, maybe not. Being a government network, the BBC may have scheduled the programming to fit the interruptions. US networks don't do that. If some official-type wants to break into programming, they do. Often with little if any advance notice. And this is only linear networks. These announcements are not made through cable or streaming outlets. (one of the reasons there is some severe pushback against sports moving to streaming. If there are no linear networks, there is no way for the government to make these emergency announcements)

But f.e. when the queen fell ill and then died me and @TonyMayhew painstakingly kept everything up to date. That wasn't announced?