Do hiatuses lure viewers--or lose them?

Like an inmate in lockdown, Fox's Prison Break was barred from seeing the light of day for four months. But unlike the prisoners in the poky, the show didn't actually engage in any bad (audience) behavior. In fact, before it went on its mid-year break--hiatus in TV parlance--it was well on its way to becoming Fox's biggest scripted hit in years.

So why send it to the hiatus hole?

No one's quite sure, but lately, it's become almost the norm for broadcasters to banish hit shows from their schedules without warning and for long stretches of time. Witness: ABC, The WB and even pay-TV service HBO.

When Prison Break--initially designed as a placeholder for Fox real-time favorite 24--became a breakout hit, the network just simply had nowhere to put it. And rather than do damage to the rest of its schedule, the net opted to exile the series for four months, hoping that its November cliffhanger finale would be enough to draw viewers back in the spring.

It seems that Prison Break's brief interruption actually did little to spoil its relationship with fans. When the show returned in March, its first episode averaged 10.3 million viewers--a dip from the November 28 finale's 12.2 million, but an 11 percent bump from the series' average.

"It's always a worry when you interrupt a season," said Fox's Marion Edwards, "but as evidenced with Prison Break's successful return, with the right marketing and promotions you can bring back an audience. The combination of a compelling story line, a couple of catch-up specials, and promotion are often enough to remind viewers about the show."

And Fox isn't the only network engaging in this dangerous 'will-absence-make-the-viewer's-heart-grow-fonder?' game. ABC's Commander in Chief appeared this past fall and then quickly disappeared from the small screen. The WB's Everwood took a forced four-month break. And on the pay-TV side, The Sopranos was all but whacked from HBO's line-up for more than a year.

In an industry where ratings are king, why would networks and cablers risk angering fans by playing fast and loose with the schedule?

Well, for starters, they don't do it intentionally, according to ABC spokesperson Hope Hartman. "No matter what you do, someone is always going to be unhappy. It's really just a matter of figuring out how to use what you have. There are only so many episodes of a series that are produced. We always try to find a balance between what works for the business model and what works for the viewer."

Sometimes, the strategy backfires. When The Sopranos returned to HBO in March, the world was a very different place from when the show last aired in June 2004. Back then, Sunday night was a barren television wasteland that needed the mob drama to infuse a little life. These days, however, Desperate Housewives reigns supreme in the same 9 p.m. timeslot on Sunday nights.

Although 12.14 million viewers tuned in to watch The Sopranos' season five finale, just 9.18 million watched the sea son six-premiere. The show's been averaging nine million viewers per episode thus far this season--okay for cable, bad for the show.

Some attribute this to the Desperate Housewives effect; some to the viewer-polarizing soap-operatic plotlines this season; and still others to the fact that many know they can watch Tony Soprano and his family On Demand at any time. Others feel that the lengthy hiatus, which was necessary due to staggering production costs and HBO's decision to add another season--which necessitated some plot shifting and rewriting--was to blame. But when all is said and done. no one knows for sure.

But while HBO was rightfully fairly confident in The Sopranos'loyal following, ABC might've been a little premature with newbie series Commander in Chief. When the series, about the first female United States president, debuted at the start of the 2006/07 season, it quickly rose to the top of the charts. And just as quickly, the turmoil began. Creator Rod Lurie was fired in October and promptly replaced by producer extraordinaire Steven Bochco, who retooled the show and added some cast members--only to be replaced himself after a few episodes by Dee Johnson, who'd been with Commander since its inception. In February, the series disappeared from the schedule completely to make way for ABC's new comedy, Sons & Daughters.

It carne back on April 13--but the damage was already done, the show had lost its heat. With little publicity, few even knew the series was returning. The show averaged a dismal 8.2 million viewers, and was last among adults 18-49.

Some soy it was the network's fault for failing to give the series time to grow an audience. But ABC's Hartman disagrees:

"Other things have gone on with Commander in Chiefl," she said referencing the behind-the-scenes shenanigans. "Other things came into play with that situation. The scheduling there was unavoidable." In fact, at the beginning of this month, it was announced that Commander would not return to the U.S. airwaves for the rest of the season.

Perhaps ABC could stand to learn something from a little show called 24.

"24 was off the air from June to January," said Fox's Edwards, "and it's actually up in its fifth season." The reason? "The show runs every week without preemptions or repeats for the entire second half of the season." This allows the plotlines to stay fresh in viewers' minds and allows those viewers to become connected to the characters.

In fact, fellow broadcast networks CBS and NBC seem to most often opt for this method, and let their shows air continuously until they've built up respectable audiences. In recent months they've had to put some shows on hiatus--most notably Joey on the Peacock network, which many don't expect to see again--but both nets do it far less often than their counterparts.

So whether it's on-set in-fighting, high production costs, a dearth of new episodes or an unexpected hit that just doesn't fit on the schedule, there are no hard and fast rules about what to do to whet viewers' appetite for more. A hiatus might help--but it might hurt more. You just have to have faith that the audience will be there when you return.

"It's a terrifying time to be a television executive," said Fox's Edwards. "Of course you'd rather not interrupt a season, but you have to work with the pieces you are given."