This season of Lost, while being pretty darned good, feels like it started around the time when Galway liberated from Indians. I fail to recall a US show having so many gaps in its airings as this year of Lost. There have been only a handful of episodes since Christmas, spaced out by weeks of extended repeat breaks. It is frustrating to say the least.
Breaking the trend is this season of 24 on FOX. Beginning in January, the show runs non-stop until its completion. While this season lasts for about half the time of Lost’s, it maintains a fantastic level of tension and pace. After three weeks of Lost, however, I have almost stopped caring about Locke, Kate and the others.
And its not just me. Recent weeks of Lost have shown ratings of HALF the season premiere. While still huge, the fall-off has been immense. And these weeks of reruns certainly don’t seem to help the situation.
Perhaps Sci-Fi Channel is the worst, although its a cable channel and not network. A Stargate season starts in JULY, and finishes around MARCH of the following year. That’s 36 weeks for 20 episodes. In other words, 16 weeks of reruns.
So why run them at all? Maybe its money reasons for advertisements (quite probably), but networks must realise they are running their own shows into the ground with greedy and non-sensical scheduling.
Thank FOX for showing some sense with 24.