In lieu of wasting a Five for Friday post on nothing I've decided that it would be much more entertaining to capitalize off the madness of Scandal fans who can't understand why their favorite show in the whole wide world (for now) has to go on a 3 week break (I wrote about this topic a year ago if you care to read that as well). I'm personally not a fan of breaks and it's one of the reasons why I gave up watching TV shows completely but while cable networks don't have to take breaks (they choose to for various reasons), broadcast networks (which Scandal airs on) do need them. Here's 5 reasons why.

1. The broadcast season is 36 weeks long and most broadcast shows (the ones ordered for a full season) are only given 22-24 episodes. Scandal has 22 episodes this season so I'm not great at math but that means there are 14 weeks in the season where the show can't air a new episode.

2. Broadcast networks that air shows at 10pm are bound by sweeps periods. Shows airing at 10pm (or 9 if you live in the Midwest) are almost always followed by the local news. Those local news execs are the ones who care most about sweeps ratings and if they don't get them they aren't happy so Broadcast networks are forced to air their best performing shows (yes after a whole year Scandal is finally one of those shows) during sweeps which occurs in November, February and May. That's 12 weeks that can't be shifted elsewhere and 12 weeks is half (or more than half in this case) of a season.

3. The broadcast networks can't order more episodes. I know that seems like the easiest solution but they can't. Say they ordered 30 episodes of Scandal but only 24 of Grey's Anatomy. That means Scandal will see anywhere from 14-20 weeks where Grey's Anatomy isn't on in front of it. Since ABC's dramas all have horrible repeat ratings then that means Scandal would see lower ratings as a result. Simply put, ABC would have to order more episodes of every show and that costs money (approximately 2-3 million per episode, per show). They can't play favorites with one show.

4. All episodes aren't produced before the season starts. It's not like cable where practically the entire season is ready to go from when the first episode airs. ABC generally films on a schedule where they film 4 episodes ahead of the episode that aired on TV (This is mostly to reduce the possibility of spoilers. If the actors don't know what's going to happen then they can't accidentally spill a major plot point when they do their generic talk show interviews).

5. Airing a show straight through with no breaks is not possible, not smart and fans would still be unhappy. Ok so say the 4 points above are not an issue at all and ABC gives Scandal a 24 episode season (which by the way they are likely going to do for season 3 because the show needs 5 seasons and not 4 like most others to be eligible for syndication), If they started the season in late September and aired 24 straight episodes that means an episode would air on Thanksgiving (holidays = terrible ratings), there's the possibility that 2 episodes could air on, the day before before or the day after Christmas and New Years and the show would be over by late March. Since fans act like they are going to die with a 3 week break how do you think some people would act with a 6 month break when it seemed like other shows were on longer? Get it? Now that little 3 week break doesn't sound so bad huh?