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Why do so many broadcasters show back-to-back episodes of programmes at Christmas?
stu76wales
Posts: 405 Forum Member
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I don't know about anyone else, but although it may probably be cheaper for the broadcasters to show so many episodes of the same show, but I don't think these broadcasters are offering a good service to the viewers by doing that.
I don't want to be recording or sat watching the same show for over 2 hours, never mind for 4, 6 or even 8 hours or more of the same show.
It's just crazy and these broadcasters should be offering more shows but less episodes devoted to them.
Here are a lot of examples of shows that have already aired or are being aired over the christmas period:
CSI
CSI:NY
CSI:Miami
NCIS
Criminal Minds
It's Me Or The Dog
Friends
Meet The Parents
Law & Order:Special Victims Unit
DIY:SOS
Top Gear
The Hotel Inspector
Men Behaving Badly
UK Border Force
Malcolm In The Middle
Futurama
Cold Case
24
Lost
QI XL
Extreme Makeover
Castle
Stargate Universe
Don't Forget The Lyrics
The Inbetweeners
It's mainly channels such as Sky2, Sky3, E4, Quest, Yesterday, Five USA, Living, Universal, Dave, Watch, Alibi and Home that are to blame for all these back-to-back episodes of these shows.
It's so annoying as it does not give the viewer any choice of different programmes to watch as they may want to watch some of these shows going out on 2 or more channels at the same time so there is no way you would ever be able to watch, record or ever catch up with them all.
It's about time these broadcasters cared less about their profits and cared more about what their viewers really want to want to watch and how long they are willing to watch their favourite shows for.
What do others think? Are you sick of these broadcasters churning out the same old rubbish for hours on end like this at Christmas, Easter and over times of the year like this?
I don't want to be recording or sat watching the same show for over 2 hours, never mind for 4, 6 or even 8 hours or more of the same show.
It's just crazy and these broadcasters should be offering more shows but less episodes devoted to them.
Here are a lot of examples of shows that have already aired or are being aired over the christmas period:
CSI
CSI:NY
CSI:Miami
NCIS
Criminal Minds
It's Me Or The Dog
Friends
Meet The Parents
Law & Order:Special Victims Unit
DIY:SOS
Top Gear
The Hotel Inspector
Men Behaving Badly
UK Border Force
Malcolm In The Middle
Futurama
Cold Case
24
Lost
QI XL
Extreme Makeover
Castle
Stargate Universe
Don't Forget The Lyrics
The Inbetweeners
It's mainly channels such as Sky2, Sky3, E4, Quest, Yesterday, Five USA, Living, Universal, Dave, Watch, Alibi and Home that are to blame for all these back-to-back episodes of these shows.
It's so annoying as it does not give the viewer any choice of different programmes to watch as they may want to watch some of these shows going out on 2 or more channels at the same time so there is no way you would ever be able to watch, record or ever catch up with them all.
It's about time these broadcasters cared less about their profits and cared more about what their viewers really want to want to watch and how long they are willing to watch their favourite shows for.
What do others think? Are you sick of these broadcasters churning out the same old rubbish for hours on end like this at Christmas, Easter and over times of the year like this?
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Comments
Does anyone know if US broadcasters air lots of episodes of their shows back-to-back like that?
I can't imagine that the UK started this phenomenon, it's surely got to be a US thing?
Anyway, if anyone could give me their views and opinion on this, I would be interested in reading them.
Thanks.
Traditionally, though less so these days, viewers would gravitate towards watching the BBC at Christmas so ITV would not really try to compete as the advertiser revenue was much lower. Sky and others will do the same these days and, I assume, repeats of US programmes are relatively cheap to show.
Back-to-back episodes of CSI and NCIS are the norm anytime of the year over here on the main French tv channels.
You're right about CSI. It does seem to be shown a lot all year round. I've never watched it or it's spin-offs so I don't see the appeal in it.
It seems to be showing on Five, Five USA, Living and Universal here in the UK.
I wonder how many were filled with the Xmas spirit and thoughts of joyfulness enough to spend today watching Yesterdays extremely festive back to back run on the Auschwitz death camp.
Slightly less merry than their Xmas Day jolly spending 12 hours on Nazi Collaborators.
Their schedulers were clearly taking the piss when they drew their Xmas lineup out.
They'd have a 'series catch up' on iplayer when waterloo road series ended and start showing it the next week. Odd. Could've not bothered.
Either so people can catch up, or to fill the schedule where wr used to be.
You have to remember that Satelitte/Cable channels don't have loads of archive shows from the past like BBC/ITV & 4 do. They only have what they are currently airing, as it's pretty much all bought in from the US.
At Xmas people will more than likely watch movies on the terrestrial channels anyway, but yes airing the same shows back to back is done a lot on US cable channels & some smaller local broadcast channels.
When i was in Los Angeles about 7 years ago, FOX 11 aired hours of I Love Lucy back to back.
Not so long ago one of those UKTV channels with the silly names aired Michael Palins Pole to Pole back to back. They showed the entire series 3 times in 24 hours.
Step forth the Sky defender in chief!;)
They did this before, I recorded them all intending to watch one at a time. But believe it or not much more interesting than you would have thought.
I don't defend everything on the SKY Platform.
As a system & a service, i think it's great & i get a lot out of it, others may not.
I admit the series will be of interest but to schedule it and similar series back to back on Xmas and Boxing Day does demonstrate a rather black sense of humour
Spain has been doing this too since 1994. When Tele5 started showing the X Files on Monday nights, ratings were so high that when they began season 2, they started to air a season 2 episode followed by a season 1 repeat. They did that for a few years, taking it to one new episode followed by three repeats. Nowadays the slot is taken by the CSI powerhorse, and Tele5 airs five episodes every Monday night, one original followed by four random reruns from any of the CSIs. They alternate the three series's new episodes with one series taking over from each other that way stretching the series out as opposed to airing three new epiosdes one from each each week.
Since, all Spanish channels air US shows in blocks of two or three episodes, mostly following the same pattern of one new and two reruns.
The worst is on Public Holidays when the entire afternoon on most channel are taken up by US / European Mini series airing ALL their episodes back to back and mostly running from 330 - 9pm.
Christmas TV in the U.S. doesn't really exist as it does in the UK. There are little to no Christmas advertisements and most channels don't recognise Christmas at all.
Can't disagree more, after all many of these are just box sets which do sell well so there is a market for them.
Whilst some of the programmes you've mentioned might be complete dross, I've finally got round to watching something that I always said "I'd get round to it".
E4 = The Inbetweeners, series one yesterday, series two tonight.
And by not watching E4, I can avoid The Inbetweeners
The only Complaint I have is I just wish that if they doing, this that they would show all episodes in stead of say 4 episodes in morning and repeating those four episodes all day.
TW
Also if they think they might lose the rights to a series then it can be a spoiler because people will be able to record the whole series on their PVR which might make it less attractive to other broadcasters.