TV animation seasons ...

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So annomus

New member
Hi, I have a question about TV seasons for animation. I was looking at the episode list for several series (like The Batman, and X:Men Evolution) and I noticed that new episodes would appear like this: a couple in Sept, one or two in Oct, a full Nov (1 new ep. every week) - then skip Dec and Jan - a full Feb, then a couple scattered through March, April, May (usually only 1 new ep per month.)

Why is this?

My first thought is the fall schedule is likely driven by Christmas. Sept episodes gets kids talking at school. A full November drives interest while parents are buying gifts. Skipping Dec. and Jan. then because toys and gifts have already been bought.

I have no theory for the concentration in February of new shows, though.

So, is this roughly the pattern that TV cartoon seasons follow? I saw that some seasons started showed new episodes in the summer, but most followed the Sept-May format, with a packed Nov. and Feb. and and empty Dec. and Jan.

And if this is a semi-standard season -- why?

thanks.
 
Cartoon schedules have always bugged me. I've always wished the weekly series could just air like live-action series without so many gaps between new episodes.

I also hate when a season is air pretty well, then the network decides to hold back the last handful of episodes and air them several months later just before the start of the next season, like Fox did with the 2003 TMNT during it's first season. That move completely threw me off, and I never even got to see the rest of the season.
 
Do you mean Sweeps months? According to Wikipedia, the 2007 Sweeps months were November, May, and July. No idea if that's always been the case.

So I'm still puzzled why February tends to be a full month. And why May tends to get only 1 new episode.
 
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