What is this 52 episode rule?

[Cyclops1]

Can anyone explain to me what this 52 episode rule?

 

[Sage Shinigami]

What 52 episode rule? There's a rule about action cartoons that says most of them only run 65 episodes before, high ratings or not, they are canceled and put into syndication, but I know of no 52 episode rule.

 

[ShadowDemon]

Long and short of it is this: Production company execs seem to think that there is an optimum number of episodes for any project (the exact number varies according to who you ask, but generally is about 4 seasons' worth). It is important to remember that most projects only run once a week in "first run", but are often "stripped" in blocks of 5 or 7 eps and run daily in syndication.

This number is big enough for the project to look good in the syndication market, but if it's TOO big, then it may not get picked up because the buyers don't want to make that big a committment to a show that may or may not get them the ratings they want.

 

[Cyclops1]

marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo .Here it is written that X-Men:Evoltuion fell to the notorious 52 episode rule.

 

[Stu]

Kids WB and Cartoon Network often cancel most of thier shows at the 52 episode number mark, because that's the 'perfect' number for syndication. It basically means that even popular shows rarely last longer than 52 episodes.

 

[Hypestyle]

there should be a '100 episode rule'.. if i were a network exec, that's what I'd order from Marvel & DC..

anime' stuff typically goes far and beyond 52 eps on a regular basis..

 

[Stu]

there should be a '100 episode rule'.. if i were a network exec, that's what I'd order from Marvel & DC..

anime' stuff typically goes far and beyond 52 eps on a regular basis..

American networks don't have to produce anime. They just have to buy the rights to the series, and everything is already there for them, to my knowledge, making it a hell of a lot cheaper than funding your own series.

 

[Spider-Man]

there should be a '100 episode rule'.. if i were a network exec, that's what I'd order from Marvel & DC...anime' stuff typically goes far and beyond 52 eps on a regular basis..

But remember that while the show may remain popular with core fans for years it doesn't remain as popular for casual or little kids. Ratings do go down year after year in most cases but it's more than ratings. Plus I recall that while Static Shock was high rated it didn't have a merchandise line to help really make a profit for the show which resulted in that show being canned. We love these shows and wish they'd continue forever but that's rarely a luxury we're given. Alot of factors play in to keeping a show on the air.

 

[Boyd Kirkland]

Kids WB and Cartoon Network often cancel most of thier shows at the 52 episode number mark, because that's the 'perfect' number for syndication. It basically means that even popular shows rarely last longer than 52 episodes.

Originally, the magic number for a series to reach to allow for syndication was 65 episodes. That number was derived this way: Most syndicated shows are rerun 5 days a week, so if you had 65 eps., your reruns would last 13 weeks before being recycled again. That means each episode would run 4 times in a year (52 weeks divided by 13). The assumption was that most kids would watch the same thing 4 times a year without tiring of it. Later, to save money (and by presumably testing kids in the target demographic), it was decided that kids wouldn't mind watching the same thing 5 times a year, so they only needed 52 episodes for syndication (52 eps divided by 5 days a week = 10.4 weeks; 52 weeks/year divided by 10.4 weeks = 5 reruns per year). This same thinking affects how many episodes are normally ordered for a weekly show (like those running on Saturday mornings). The networks used to order 26 episodes so that they would only be rerun twice a year, but later changed that to 13, believing that kids will watch the same thing 4 times a year. (Is this all sounding too much like a math lesson?) Of course, once the magic number of 52 is reached, there's nothing to prevent them from making more, so long as the show is profitable. Animation is so expensive to make, however, that they are usually deficit financed, and companies hesitate to to go too far into debt before seeing a return on their investment. Thus, if merchandising and other revenue streams are not making up the cost of production, they will stop at 52 and hope to recoup their investment in syndication and video releases.

 

[Mini Wolfsbane]

I just thought of something interesting;Since I'm guessing were talking about XME,what would have happened had we actually gotten a fifth season ?

Like it was said,there are a lot of factors invovled as to what makes and breaks a show,but there are also people's circumstances to consider.
Say we didn't get the VA's for Rogue and Kitty back due to the actresses
scheduals conflicting with production.
I'd think that would make quite a few people ticked off.
Even worse if more then four VA's couldn't make it and had to be replaced.
(two is bad,but 4 + is worse,obviously.)The quality of the show would suffer greatly.So,on the very bright side,this didn't happen and we were left with a
great ending.(As opposed to Teen Titans,which I re-watched recently and it left me feeling very sad at the end.)

I'm just thinking of how a very similar thing happened with a popular show I used to watch.It left many cringing in it's wake.

 

[Spider-Man]

I just thought of something interesting;Since I'm guessing were talking about XME,what would have happened had we actually gotten a fifth season ?

I'm pretty sure Mr. Kirkland has said elsewhere that there were no real plans set up for the fifth season. There may have been some ideas but nothing really hammered down because of how the network always approved the series for 13 new episodes so late in the year.

I'm just thinking of how a very similar thing happened with a popular show I used to watch.It left many cringing in it's wake.

I wouldn't say that. I opened our eyes a little bit more to the corporate end of how cartoons are made.

 

[Mini Wolfsbane]

I'm pretty sure Mr. Kirkland has said elsewhere that there were no real plans set up for the fifth season. There may have been some ideas but nothing really hammered down because of how the network always approved the series for 13 new episodes so late in the year.


I wouldn't say that. I opened our eyes a little bit more to the corporate end of how cartoons are made.

I'm aware of that.I was just speaking hypothetically.Hence my saying that
we should be grateful for what we did get instead of what could have been
the alternative.


heh.I didn't mean it like that at all.I meant some of the voice actors they picked for
that cartoon were nails-on-a-chalkboard horrible.So,I think everyone was literally cringing over it.It is nice to know about the corporate stuff though,for future reference.