Why are there only 13/14 Episodes per season?
SA) Because it’s British LA) It’s all to do with the different ways UK and North American TV works. Thirteen episodes is quite normal for a UK series, BUT, in the UK the entire series is made far enough in advance such that there are no breaks in Transmission. When the series starts transmitting, almost the entire season is “in the can”. Season 3 of new Doctor Who started production in about June 2006 (with The Runaway Bride then straight onto the rest), and will not start transmission until 31st of March 2007. On US TV a series will start not too long after production has begun, with tranmission eventually catching up, so the series goes to reruns for a while until production gets ahead again. This approach doesn’t go down too well in the UK, us Brits don’t like getting repeats in the middle of new stuff, every time it’s tried is either greeted with complaints, or people stop watching assuming it new series is over and viewing figures drop.
SA) Because it’s British LA) It’s all to do with the different ways UK and North American TV works. Thirteen episodes is quite normal for a UK series, BUT, in the UK the entire series is made far enough in advance such that there are no breaks in Transmission. When the series starts transmitting, almost the entire season is “in the can”. Season 3 of new Doctor Who started production in about June 2006 (with The Runaway Bride then straight onto the rest), and will not start transmission until 31st of March 2007. On US TV a series will start not too long after production has begun, with tranmission eventually catching up, so the series goes to reruns for a while until production gets ahead again. This approach doesn’t go down too well in the UK, us Brits don’t like getting repeats in the middle of new stuff, every time it’s tried is either greeted with complaints, or people stop watching assuming it new series is over and viewing figures drop. The American approach has the advantage that
