North American usage
The term "series", in North American usage, refers to a connected set of television program episodes that run under the same title, possibly spanning many seasons.
The term "series finale" can lead to confusion outside of North America. A series finale is the last show of the series before the show is no longer produced. (In the UK, it means the end of a season.)
In North America the term "television season" is used inconsistently. A "full season" on a broadcast network typically runs from September through May for at least 22 episodes. [12] A full season is sometimes split into two separate units with a hiatus around the end of the calendar year,.
UK and Australia usage
In the United Kingdom and other countries, these sets of episodes are referred to as a "series". In Australia, the broadcasting may be different to North American usage, however, the terms "series" and "season" are the same. For example, Battlestar Galactica has an original series as well as a remake, both are considered different series with their own number of individual seasons. It helps to avoid much confusion when talking about a TV Series.
British shows have tended toward shorter series in recent years. For example, the first series of long-running science fiction show Doctor Who in 1963 featured forty-two 25-minute episodes, which had been reduced gradually to fourteen 25-minute episodes in 1989. The revival of Doctor Who has comprised thirteen 45-minute installments. However, there are some series in the UK that have a larger number of episodes, for example Waterloo Road started with 8–12 episodes but from series three onward, it increased to 20 episodes, and series seven will contain 30 episodes. Recently, American non-cable networks have also begun to experiment with shorter series for some programs, particularly reality shows such as Survivor. However, they often air two series per year, resulting in roughly the same number of episodes per year as a drama.
This is a reduction from the 1950s, in which many American shows (e.g., The Twilight Zone) had between 29 and 39 episodes per season. Actual storytelling time within a commercial television hour has also gradually reduced over the years, from 50 minutes out of every 60 to the current 44 (and even less on some networks), beginning in the early 21st century.
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