Hiatus (television)

In United States network television programming, a hiatus is a break of several weeks, months or years in the normal broadcast programming of a television series. Such a break can occur part-way through the season of a series, in which case it is also called a mid-season break, or between distinct television seasons (usually starting in June and ending in September, when shooting starts for the next season). In the Northern Hemisphere, the breaks between late November and early February are also referred to as winter breaks or, in the Christian cultural sphere, Christmas breaks.

Until the late 1990s, summer breaks were sometimes replaced by summer replacement series.

Planned hiatus

Most scripted television series on the major U.S. television networks are scheduled for a season of 22 episodes, airing in a time span running 36 weeks from September to May; planned hiatuses are incorporated into a network's schedule in order to allow time for production to catch up with broadcasting, prevent episodes from airing during time periods where lower ratings are anticipated, and to allow networks to reserve major episodes (often including special guest stars, major storylines, or other similar "stunts") to air during the traditional "sweeps" months in November, February, and May—whose ratings are traditionally used as a benchmark for determining the cost of advertising.

The Christmas and holiday season between late-November and January is generally observed as a hiatus by broadcasters; this hiatus—often known as the "winter break" or "Christmas break"—typically concludes with the start of the "mid-season" in the new year. The final episode of the year may be promoted as a "fall finale" or "winter finale", and include a major plot development or cliffhanger that will be resolved when the season resumes. It is not uncommon for a fall finale to be a holiday-themed episode. Production of television programs is similarly paused during the peak of the holiday season in order to provide a break for their cast and crew.

Some broadcasters—particularly cable television channels and streaming services—have intentionally scheduled premieres of new series during the winter break in order to take advantage of reduced competition from first-run programming, including TNT and USA Network's December premieres of The Librarians and Ascension respectively, and Hallmark Channel's focus on Christmas-themed movies throughout the holiday season.