(06/07/2010 01:30 PM)ProperBritish Wrote:  

(06/07/2010 11:43 AM)joshman99 Wrote:  

(06/07/2010 11:01 AM)S7* Wrote:  Thank god something possibly good enough to replace Durarara as the favorite weekly show.

Very excited to see this story play out. (It surely couldn't last more than 13 episode though could it..)

mmm.. and kinda off topic, but why are so many series 13 episodes? google wouldnt yeild answers for me

one "season" (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) lasts 12 weeks for a normal series, but there's like a grey zone between when one season finishes and another starts. Some series don't get 13th episodes, only 12, and some shows last for 2 seasons and can have as many as 24 or 26 episodes

That just explains why it's something like 12 or 13 as opposed to 11 or 15.  Doesn't explain why there are far more 13 episode shows compared to lets say 26 episode shows.




I believe the reason why there's a lot of short shows is because they're less risky.  If the show doesn't work out, you don't loose as much (only 13 episodes worth of production costs and more importantly, opportunity costs, as opposed to 26).  On the other hand, if the show works out great, you can always make second seasons to extend the length.

So reducing potential losses without much of a penalty on potential gains = good thing for companies.  Which is also why sometimes continuous shows are split into multiple seasons, in case they don't work out, the company can cut it's losses and drop the second season.

(This post was last modified: 06/07/2010 09:07 PM by Assassinator.)