At least three shows this year are airing their finales in April, rather than running through May sweeps: Star Trek Discovery, The Orville, and Gotham. And there are still several days left in April, so it could become more.

Is this an anomaly or the start of a trend? What are the consequences of "missing" a sweeps period? Is there some cost they expect to save by making the TV season more compact? October to April instead of the original September to May, that will offset the loss of sweeps-driven advertising revenue in May?

None of the three shows you mentioned are major players. Star Trek: Discovery is on CBS' streaming site, not their regular network. The overload of streaming sites play by different rules than actual TV networks. Gotham is a shadow of its former ratings and is going out with a whimper, and while The Orville could pull out a renewal it is nowhere near hit level and not a priority for FOX. The major players for the networks such as The Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, American Idol, The Simpsons, NCIS, One Chicago, etc. still end in May sweeps.

This is a handy May calendar coming from TV Line listing several May finales. If I counted right, season and series primetime finales on CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, and the CW come to 59 total from May 1 to May 22, the last day of May sweeps. Plus the late night season finale of Saturday Night Live. So May sweeps are hardly being abandoned by the broadcast networks, and there are other typical sweeps stunts like ABC's All in the Family and The Jeffersons recreation.

https://pmctvline2.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/tv-schedule-may-finales-2019-calendar-r3-.jpg

None of the three shows you mentioned are major players. Star Trek: Discovery is on CBS' streaming site, not their regular network. The overload of streaming sites play by different rules than actual TV networks. Gotham is a shadow of its former ratings and is going out with a whimper, and while The Orville could pull out a renewal it is nowhere near hit level and not a priority for FOX. The major players for the networks such as The Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, American Idol, The Simpsons, NCIS, One Chicago, etc. still end in May sweeps.

Maybe I'm wrong but I always thought Gotham was planned to go only 5 or maybe 6 seasons. Not that it hasn't had it's problems but I thought it started out pretty well in the first couple of seasons. But I quit watching because I thought it was becoming much too dark and violent.

Ed.

This raises one question: How come a growing number of regular-broadcast TV shows started airing their season finales before the May Sweeps period even begins? A few examples of shows that had full-season orders which finished during April:

Mom (seasons 1 and 2)
Scorpion (seasons 1, 2 and 4)
Madam Secretary (season 5)
2 Broke Girls (season 6)
The Crazy Ones (first and only season)

At least three shows this year are airing their finales in April, rather than running through May sweeps: Star Trek Discovery, The Orville, and Gotham. And there are still several days left in April, so it could become more.

Is this an anomaly or the start of a trend? What are the consequences of "missing" a sweeps period? Is there some cost they expect to save by making the TV season more compact? October to April instead of the original September to May, that will offset the loss of sweeps-driven advertising revenue in May?



Although none of the shows you mentioned would qualify as "major players" the concept is the same: the traditional broadcast networks ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and The CW have essentially abandoned promoting sweeps periods. Although they still exist they aren't programmed with the same vigor or important as they once were.

The days of stunt programming and big mini-series airing in Feb, May and November are over for the most part. Networks aren't promoting sweeps anymore.

This is due to a myriad of factors including increased viewing being done online and on DVR or on-demand. Less people watching shows live as they air and many people not even watching shows on the network they air but instead watching on Netflix or Hulu.


There just isn't a incentive for the networks to promote sweeps anymore because it doesn't do anything for their bottom line.