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Why are most episodes 45 minutes long and not an hour?
Kapellmeister
Posts: 41,322 Forum Member
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Anyone know?
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Kapellmeister
Posts: 41,322 Kapellmeister
Posts: 41,322 Kapellmeister
Posts: 41,322 Kapellmeister
Posts: 41,322
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Other shows like QI have 45 min versions and remember BBC Worldwide shows Doctor Who in other countries that they have channels with advertising on like BBC America.
I don't know the official reason.
Back in the days of Classic Who, episodes were around half an hour but every story was spread over multiple episodes. The current format is around 45 minute episodes that usually come as single parts.
I think it's because of the belief that current viewing styles have changed distinctly between then and now - it's considered a risk to spread a single story out for many weeks because if people don't like episode one they're unlikely to tune in again until a new story starts.
Classic Who had some 45 min episodes from the 80s season 22 of Colin Baker's for example were all 45 min and some others like Resurrection of the Daleks 2 parter both 45 min long.
I guess these were a trial run and they even made 25 min versions of all of them too by splitting them in about half (the 25 min versions being the ones they have shown on Horror channel).
They wernt specials ether like the 5 Doctors thats 90min long.
Even though Doctor Who is made ostensibly for the BBC, they have to have an eye on international sales to commercial stations via BBC Worldwide. BBC America is a commercial channel.
Back in the day, say in the 1960s, when original Star Trek was on air, first run, prime time US TV shows on US networks had about 50 minutes of air time. Story time has shrunk as commercial demands have grown. When these shows are rerun and syndicated it's not unknown for them to be edited down still further to fit an hour timeslot on local stations which need even more time for advertisements.
How come the Horror Channel isn't showing the 45 minutes versions?
Apart from the Dvd releases, those particular episodes have never been reshown in their original broadcast format, only the 25 minutes edit.
I never liked the 45 minute format in the Classic series and much preferred the 25 min format. However, I detest how the Horror Channel and other channels where I have seen it done, turn them into 25 minute episodes. The cliffhangers are always awful, a bit like when they serialised the Five Doctors.
Even way back in the 1970s and 80s many BBC drama series were made in nominally 50 minute episodes for overseas sales to commercial broadcasters.
It's dropped to 45 minutes now because there are more commercials per hour than there used to be!
It's not as simple as that. The BBC has to sell the show to foreign markets, it's a business strategy. Commercial channels pretty much anywhere are not going to be as interested in a drama show that runs for 60 minutes an episode, and so they simply won't buy into it. The BBC would be losing a massive profit, not to mention the loss of merchandise sales which expand when the show becomes a success in a new territory.
Even with the foreign commercial channels that do purchase broadcasting rights for the show, they have the right to cut the length of the episodes to suit their commercial needs, a horribly redacted episode is put out, and then viewers elsewhere struggle to maintain interest in clearly cut-down episodes, often missing out important sub-plots, and generally offering a second-rate product. Most of the time, these channels stop showing cut-down shows after a couple of years and it's all-round bad press for the BBC who are, by default, the ones criticised for lower quality output.
On top of that the sci-fi/fantasy genre is still surprisingly niche in many countries - including in the west. The Beeb need to take advantage of any asset they have in order to make the show as appealing as possible overseas, and that includes maintaining that 40-50 minute runtime I'm afraid. Admittedly I believe that episodes of that length can truly work - but only when the wider series structure is solid. Thirteen 45 minute standalone stories (a.k.a. Series 7) is a horrendous idea that removes all sense of grounding, pacing and memorablity to the episodes. There does need to be 2-part stories to break up the pace a little.
It's really annoying though. At the end of the day the BBC isn't reliant on adverts. A TV licence is paid, yet we still get screwed by commercial TV channels and lose 15 minutes on each episode. Some things work well as 45 minutes (I'm thinking 'Buffy' especially, whose episodes were usually paced to perfection) but so many times on 'Doctor Who' the pacing seems massively off.
Besides, longer episodes would mean shorter series.
its a shame then that they don't have 7 two part stories with each part 40 min then, that might about suit everyone.
of course a 60-70 min Christmas special on top is a good idea too, oh and combining two 40min episodes can turn out at 75 min due to 1 less set of titles and credits and no cliff hanger and reprise.
So all in all 14 40 min episodes with all stories over two episodes, with maybe the first two joined to form one episode and the last two joined into one, meaning 2 75 min and 10 40 min plus 1 60-75min Christmas special would be perfect.
Also there should be a contract made that a foreign broadcaster can only cut episodes down in exceptional circumstances, like age ratings in their country, or religious or political beliefs, but never for time constraints.
Also a messages red out or shown on screen, to say that the respective broadcaster has cut scenes and for what reason they have cut them.
Then the cuts could never be blamed on the makers of the program!
I'm sure now though, that any attempt to extend episodes to, say, 60 minutes, would probably be met with resistance from BBC Worldwide, unless episodes were then to be chopped down to the standard 42 minutes to fit an hour slot with advertisements. A lot of episodes in recent years have gone on to, say, 50 minutes, no doubt getting trimmed for ad slots.
Because without foreign earnings, the show wouldn't be made at all. When people are paying for a product, you give them what they want. He who pays the piper, and all that...
BIB: Then they probably wouldn't buy it at all...
I can believe that actually as I see of a lot of Buffy's influence during RTD's Era, right down to sneakily copying a few storylines as well!
However, I agree with above posts that 45 minutes is geared towards commercial tv but I'm sure there is a budgetary factor as well, making an extra 15 minutes over 13 weeks practically amounts to the equivalent of another 3 or 4 episodes.
And anyway, people should be grateful they even get 45 minutes. Back in the Classic Who days, Season 22 aside, it was only 25 minutes, and always went too fast.
The series isn't made in 25mins anymore because primetime TV drama isn't made in 25min episodes anymore. The soaps are 30mins, and they're the nearest comparison. Even back in the 70s/80s, DW was a bit of an anomaly having that length of episode. This made it a bit tricky to schedule, as it would usually end up starting five minutes after something else or ending five minutes before something else. 45 or 60 minute productions are much easier to schedule.
The commercial broadcasts are already cut when episodes are longer than 45 mins, such as The Big Bang for example.
All in all, an extra 33% running time does not necessarily mean the cost has gone up by 33% as well.
It's the sales to foreign commercial channels that control the running time.
When the 25 min format was used there was 26 episodes so there was an extra 65 min over the series but that would have been taken up with double the credits and titles and double the cliffhangers and reprises.
So there may have been more episodes and 65min extra time but not extra story time!
to 60 minutes per episode, overseas TV networks would be far less willing to buy the broadcast rights
from BBC Worldwide. Therefore the production would end up being made on a much lower budget.
The TV Licence is paid for our enjoyment of the episodes here in the UK, and does not in any way
fund or subsidise overseas viewership of Doctor Who.
Be thankful BBC Worldwide exists, otherwise the TV Licence could cost 2-3 times as much as it is now.
Buffy is (or was) an American TV production, and especially made for broadcast on commercial channels
that have around 15 minutes of advertisements each hour. I disagree that pacing "seems massively off"
on Doctor Who, just because episodes are made to a length of under 45 minutes each. Some might
feel a bit rushed to squeeze a standalone story into that timeslot, but most cases, it's fine to me