It probably is a coincidence and much more likely because cable channels just don’t have as much money to spend per year as the broadcast networks. Plenty of garbage cable shows also have “british” style seasons too.
American TV used to have plenty of mini-series which were generally 3-6 episodes broadcast in a short time window, (“Roots.” “Shogun.” “Rich Man, Poor Man.” “The Thorn Birds.” “North and South.” for example). Costs of this big event style of programming are all up front, a regular series only needs upfront money for a pilot and a few episodes to test the waters (leaving open the option of mid-series cancellation).
US networks currently make money with repeat watchers who will continue to tune into their favourite show during sweeps months, and syndication $, both require long on-going series, so they have adopted a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” model.
It will be interesting to see if the US network model flounders in the new environment of stream on-demand, shorter self-contained seasons work great for binge watching on Netflix or equivalent.
Britain’s seasons are metric.
My nonexpert understanding: American network TV has always been driven by the desire to get as many viewers as possible, especially viewers of desired demographics. And they believe the best way to do this is to keep running the same shows that people have grown to know and like, so that they will stay in the habit of tuning in every week. The BBC has never been ratings-driven in the same way.
Two that I can think of were The Gordon Peters Show and Bernard Falk’s Sin on Saturday (not a sit-com). I am sure there have been others, but not many.
Well, the BBC isn’t the only TV provider in the UK, you know – the other (commercial) channels are just as reliant on attracting viewers as the US networks. And even the BBC are very interested in their ratings: they need to justify their funding.
I think the differences between the two countries is more down to different approaches to solving the same problem of attracting viewers. The US networks have adopted a sort of “fast food” strategy: find something that a large audience will consume, and provide it in large quantities on a consistent basis. British television is more like a constantly-changing buffet: smaller amounts, but there’s probably something for everyone – and if you can’t find anything you like, come back later when there’s something new.
The Archers have been running on Radio 4 since 1745 with most of the same cast.
♫♬ tum te tum te tum te tum, tum te tum te tummmm te, tum te tum te tum te tum, tum te tumpety tum.♪ ♫♪
Some of the cast are surprisingly sprightly considering they’re the best part of 300 years old.
There is no concept of ‘syndicated reruns’ here and until recently contractual agreements with the various acting and broadcasting unions imposed strict limits on the number of times a show could be rerun, and the time limit within which this was possible (so as to generate a continuing stream of new work for their members). Only with the multi-channel digital revolution did this start to change.
I picked two British non-comedy, non-soap opera shows off the top of my head: “The Bill” and “Dixon of Dock Green”
The Bill had 2400 (!) episodes over 26 seasons.
Dixon of Dock Green had 432 episodes over 22 seasons.
Did I just pick two freakish examples? Because those seem like reasonably long seasons to me.
*The Bill *started out as a police procedural and turned into a soap opera, obsessed with the characters’ sex lives. At one time it turned into a two-half-hour episodes a week format, though the 30 minute slot (less with commercials) allowed no time for anything but the most perfunctory plotlines.
Dixon of Dock Green started in the 1950s. The first five season lengths were 6, 12, 13 and 29 and 27 according to the IMDB. The show was very popular, at a time when there were only two TV channels, and the BBC clearly knew they had a winner. Later seasons tended to settle down to about 16 episodes, running from fall to Christmas. By the end of its run it was looking increasingly old-fashioned and took a rather uncritical everything-is-under-control view of the British police, also it’s star, Jack Warner, was over 80 and looked increasingly implausible.
I don’t know about Dixon of Dock Green, but The Bill changed format a few times over the years - it ran for many years as a multiple times a week cop-based “soap opera”.
Out of curiosity, what was the show?
Normally I’d assume it was a typo, but for most people in the UK, the Archers has always been running… Who can say when it began.
It is a typo. I meant to say 1475.
RobDog It’s the country air oo er.
That’s better. Otherwise you’d be omitting important episodes such as #3, Chaucer’s “Ye Grundys’ Tail”.
By the way, a quick Wiki check tells me that 7 November 2006 saw the transmission of episode… 15,000!
I wonder if they’re all available on BBC iPlayer?
Episode 15,000, a retrospective where very special guest Simon de Montfort came on to reminisce with Tamsin Grieg about his favourite plotlines.
Nitpick: Guiding Light started airing in January 1937.