I Timed Tonights Show Without Commercials And...

[Karafan1]

From the opening scene and to when the screen goes black and it says Executive Producers Alfren Gough, Miles Millar was only 39 minutes and 17 seconds without the commercials. Now I could be a little off, but if I am, it's not by much and 39-40 minutes isn't much for a show in a 1 hour time period..Your thoughts??

[Servayne]

I was feeling (although I hadn't timed it) that Smallville appeared to have more commercials than Supernatural or other shows that I watched...maybe it just feels that way.

[Karafan1]

The first 2 commercial breaks(not counting the commercials after the opening credits) during smallville seem pretty long for every episode but tonight the 3rd break seemed longer than usual

[daniel2744]

i don't think its just you. i record every smallville on my archos 605. anyway...they are around like 39 minutes. it seems like the shows are getting shorter. i remember smallville being longer in the earlier seasons.

[Runestone]

I'm pretty sure they used to run about 45 minutes. I can't believe I watched over 20 minutes of commercials!

[AngelaV]

I've noticed how short episodes of ALL one hour shows are getting. I'm watching season 2 of The Pretender. 44-45 mins. JAG close to 46. This is late 90s. Now we are lucky to get 41 minutes squeezed in for our shows!

[TheANIMAL (marcus)]

On theee good old BBC; when they say an hour, they bloody mean it, thats the Brittish way.

[LexLuv180]

Yeah they used to be 43-44 minutes in earlier seasons. :(

[maryjanewatson]

I timed it too, I got 38-39 minutes. I don't include the main titles, though.

either way, we have been getting jipped this season. I timed another episode this season at 37 minutes. thats freaking ridiculous.

[Smallville_Angel]

Smallville generally runs between 38 - 39 minutes, as MJ states (this can be easily tracked when watching the DVDs of the later seasons). The early seasons were usually betwen 42 - 45 minutes per episode. And legally, at least here in Australia, there should be 4 - 5 commercial breaks, each at roughly 3 - 4 minutes, which adds to a total of 15 - 20 minutes maximum, and then if you take out the minute worth of credits... I'd go about 21 - 22 at the outside. Talk about crazy... then again, nowadays half hour shows only truly last about 16 - 18 minutes, when commercials are taken into account! Jip is an understatement given these numbers MJ.

[Humdinger]

I didn't time anything but it sure was a short show. Maybe because there was no show? This was a real piece of fluff. Did you see the Stride gum on the table in the night club? I think you should deduct 30 seconds for an in-show commercial!

[Smallville_Angel]

I didn't time anything but it sure was a short show. Maybe because there was no show? This was a real piece of fluff. Did you see the Stride gum on the table in the night club? I think you should deduct 30 seconds for an in-show commercial!

That being show, most programmes an hour in duration become about 30 minutes... talk about stupid!:eek:

[Smallvillebabe08]

There were too many commercials! It gets really annoying.

[DARK ANDY]

This episode sucked.

[X-Terminator]

I noticed that the episodes are becomming shorter as well. So I did some calculations:

Episode lengths:

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5233/svepsqb2.th.png (http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5233/svepsqb2.png)

Average episode length per season (including credits):


Season 1: 44:02
Season 2: 43:09
Season 3: 42:58
Season 4: 42:24
Season 5: 41:21
Season 6: 41:43
Season 7: 40:47


Anyone else see a disturbing trend towards shorter and shorter episodes? :(

[Karafan1]

I didn't time anything but it sure was a short show. Maybe because there was no show? This was a real piece of fluff. Did you see the Stride gum on the table in the night club? I think you should deduct 30 seconds for an in-show
commercial!

They also had a stride gum stand in the cafe where Kara was working in "Fracture". You can see it for a few seconds when Clark walks through that door of Lex's mind

[TW1977]

I noticed that the episodes are becoming shorter as well. So I did some calculations:

Episode lengths:

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/738/episodesce3.th.png (http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/738/episodesce3.png)

Average episode length per season (including credits):


Season 1: 44:02
Season 2: 43:09
Season 3: 42:58
Season 4: 42:24
Season 5: ?
Season 6: 41:43
Season 7: 40:47


(I don't have the Season 5 data available at the moment)

Anyone else see a disturbing trend towards shorter and shorter episodes? :(

Pretty neat graph you got there!

Yeah very disturbing trend. We wait all week sometimes more for only 40min and the commercials are annoyingly loud compared to the show that I have to increase the volume for. Not I just let it record and FF through the annoying long a$$ ads.
I know it's revenue but C'mon! :mad:

[oberyn]

I wish there was a way they could have made "Sleeper" even shorter.

[clana4everfan2]

Between the storyline in this week's episode and the number of commericals no wonder why the episode was called Sleeper.. haha LOL! :D

[Twitch]

Under 40 minutes man that blows.



Between the storyline in this week's episode and the number of commericals no wonder why the episode was called Sleeper.. haha LOL! :D
:lol:

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry during this episode, so I did both, I laughed while I cried.

[Rimmer66]

Do any of you realize where the salaries of MR & TW come from ? and all of the cast ? I'll give you one guess - someone's gotta pay AM/AG for a terrific show :D

Normal run time for a 1 hour show excluding commercials is around 42~45 minutes, so it's true that episodes are getting shorter, expect it to be 25 minutes for season 8 :D

But all kidding aside, yeah it's a long way from 45 to 39 minutes, that is 6 minutes, the ads are longer that's all and in the industry every minute counts ;)