Are there any breaks in the US broadcast schedule this season?

[chrisspringob]

Season 5 is supposed to feature 17 episodes (or at least, "17 hours"....the season finale in past seasons has always been 2 hours long....whether you count the two hours as separate episodes is up to you).

If you do the math, and assume they air one episode each week, that puts the season finale at May 6th, just one week into May sweeps. If you assume that 5x16 and 5x17 will air in a two hour block as the season finale, which would be keeping with Lost tradition, then that puts it as early as April 29th.

Both options seem a bit unlikely. So do we know there'll be a hiatus of one or two weeks at some point?

 

[Starbreaker]

It's supposed to be uninterrupted... but ABC is a terrible network, so I don't know.

 

[chrisspringob]

Well, as I said, it would be awfully strange for the season to end that early in the calendar.....which is why I think we'll probably have a week off in April or something.

 

[Nate]

According to TV.com, the dates so far are:

Ep 7 2/25/09
Ep 8 3/4/09
Ep 9 3/18/09
Ep 10 3/25/09
Ep 11 4/1/09
Ep 12 4/8/09
Ep 13 4/15/09
Ep 14 4/22/09

So it looks like that's skipping one week so far (March 11th)

Another site shows Ep 9 airing on March 11th though, so who knows ? LOL

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The logical thing to do if they want a break is to have the recap episode one week.

Either way, it'll end long before sweeps week, so it probably doesn't make much sense to ABC to wait a week.

 

[Starbreaker]

Sweeps are already messed up anyway. If you notice, there was basically no February sweeps.

 

[Capn Flukie]

According to DarkUFO there is a break on March 11th.

http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com/2009/02/so-there-is-break.html

 

[blockaderunner]

Wait! I thought the whole point of starting the season in mid/late January was that it wouldn't be interrupted (ala 24). Remember all the people complaining about the breaks during the first three seasons? Now we have a late start and it still might be interrupted??? WTF?? Why not just start it in April and air weekly two hour installments? Or skip the network entirely and issue episodes on demand or online?

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ Maybe they wanted to strike a reasonable balance between getting back to the show as quickly as possible, having few or no interruptions and airing some episodes in May. Starting up in January with a break or two would accomplish that.

 

[DeafPoet]

I'd prefer it to air uninterrupted too.

But, given the disaster that was the Season 2 schedule and the strike in Season 4, I'll take my one week break and like it!

 

[blockaderunner]

^^^Well then push the premiere to mid February. Anything to make sure it's uninterrupted. And as for getting back quickly as possible, the audience is already there. I don't know about anyone else, But I'm willing to wait for as long as it takes to get new season of Lost as long as there's no breaks. The concept of sweeps is as antiquated as the ratings system and it's not like the show will get new viewers this far in its run, so they should just run it unbroken for the floyal anbase and worry about making money off the useless shows like (Not so) Ugly Betty and Desperate Seahags.

 

[Top41]

A one week break isn't the end of the world. I do enjoy getting it all at once, though it's a really long wait from May to January or February with no new Lost.

 

[chrisspringob]

I'm almost certainly a freak on this issue, but I actually prefer having some short breaks within the seasons, so that the wait *between* seasons isn't quite so interminably long.

 

[chrisspringob]

This was posted on the IMDb board:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RrObyQ3Xz...tyc/-0NKnQPygss/s1600-h/SS-20090302160109.jpg

Assuming it's legit, it would indicate that, in order to stretch the season deep into May sweeps (ending on May 20th), they're doing another break on April 22, and not having a 2 hour season premiere as they normally do. So 5x16 and 5x17 are just one hour each, airing on successive weeks.

 

[Mr Light]

IMDB says consecutive new episodes through April 8th (it only goes that far). And the April 8th episode has the best title EVER if it's legit: "Some Like It Hoth"

 

[sidious618]

They better have a two hour finale or I'll be pissed.

 

[DeafPoet]

^

I'd bank on it. They haven't failed to deliver one yet!

 

[chrisspringob]

IMDB says consecutive new episodes through April 8th (it only goes that far). And the April 8th episode has the best title EVER if it's legit: "Some Like It Hoth"

IMDb is wrong. ABC has already issued their press release for 5x09:

http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com/2009/03/episode-509-namaste-press-release.html

and it says the episode airs on March 18th, not March 11th, so there's definitely a break on March 11th.

 

[chrisspringob]

So, I believe it's already been confirmed that there's another break next week, so no Lost on April 22. Don't be alarmed when, at the end of next week's ep, the promo says the next episode will be in two weeks.