What the hells up with the american networks

what the hells up with all the breaks the american tv networks insist on
putting in all the great shows why are we now waiting four or five weeks to
see conlusions of are favourite shows.
did they learn nothing from the drop in viewers lost has recieved due to
stupid breaks.

just dont get it

it's all to do with the timing cycles of the us advertising markets.
(never forget - the advertisers *own* the broadcast tv world - the rest of the
participants follow their whims or die)

certain periods of the year are designated as "sweeps" (usually november,
february, may and july) and ratings figures during these times are minutely
monitored as they are used to set the prices for advertising timeslots in the
next parts of the cycle.

for various production/costing/timing reasons a show season has come to
average out at 22 or so episodes as a `standard`. the broadcasters major
period, however, runs from september-ish to may-ish, averaging out at 30 or so
weeks.

therefore there are on average 8 weeks worth of breaks, padding, fillers and
repeats so that maximum focus on budget/marketing/high-profile guest
stars/etc. can be thrown at the critical sweeps episodes, to bump up ratings
numbers and therefore future advertising dollars. the "dead" weeks generally
get nailed onto the end of a sweeps period.

it's all faintly retarded, and deeply cynical, but *shrug* that's the way the
market has panned out with commercial advertising.

i think fox are the only network that care abouts sweeps nowadays, though.

oh, that'll be why every major network have scheduled repeat blocks of most of
their shows between now and the end of april then. they all care about sweeps.