In American the TV seasons seem to be set in stone (September - April; is that right?). Two questions to ask - when was this decided, who decided and why and - secondly if the summer season is the non-ratings period because it's off season then how to networks determine how much to charge for advertising during shows that run during summer? Or is the idea of a non-ratings period more a label than an actual fact.
Two main reasons, and they go hand in hand. Summer ratings in the U.S. are the lowest of the year because the weather is good, it stays light later, and really, who wants to watch television when you can do anything else? But come September the nights gets colder, the kinder are back in school, you're broke after taking the family to one Yankee game, and all of a sudden the ol' flickering magic box looks pretty good to you. TV draws its largest audience of the year in the fall.
By September they had us whipped up into a complete frenzy. Think of the crazed anticipation fanboys have for the new Dark Knight movie opening this summer. Now multiply it by a thousand. That was us over the new Corvair '62 and the premiere of PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES.
Advertisers pay networks based on the size of the audience. So rates are adjusted accordingly.
One difference between now and the early days of TV -- the fall schedule is now locked in in early May. It used to get set in February for a late September start. But that was also when shows delivered 39 episodes a year and not, at the very most, 24. Producers needed that lead time. Of course, back then networks didn't yank shows after only two airings. On the other hand, they never made shows as bad as WORK IT.
Sorry - that was like five questions. I'm curious though because here in Australia we start playing all the high rating shows in early February (rule of thumb says they all premiere the week after the Australian Open (Tennis) finishes) and they run to about June. Then we enter a non-ratings few weeks... but it includes some very high rating sport events, before a second season of shows that weren't played in the first half of the year (generally the CSI's are played in the 2nd half of the year) runs run like July - November. December and January are completely dead TV wise. Hence I am writing this instead of watching Ice Road Truckers :)
But that makes sense because your February begins your Fall. You're pretty much on the same cycle as we are just flipped. So you can expect WORK IT around July. Enjoy! Meanwhile, I'm bringing THONG CHALLENGE back to the U.S.
