As TiVo and even VCR users know, the phrase “hour-long drama” doesn’t mean what it used to in the television universe. All season long, fans of several hit ABC dramas — Lost and Desperate Housewives in particular — have complained that because their favorite shows have been known to end at a minute or two past the hour, they’ve missed crucial information, or at least crucial closing credit sequences. At ABC’s Television Critics Association press tour sessions over the weekend, it became clear that there are myriad reasons behind those minor overages which cause such frustration for so many. “You know, sometimes it’s based on creative and sometimes it’s based on strategic,” says ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson. “Sometimes the shows just run longer and it’s hard to edit them down and we give the producers a minute or two. Sometimes it’s to bridge… the commercial gap there and be a little more strategic with our schedule. [W]e don’t do it on every show, there are opportunities where we think it makes sense.”
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