[BrodyP]

Mostly it’s a math problem- like one of those seventh grade “word problems” that you thought would never matter. In July of last year we began filming HEROES. It takes eight days to complete filming of every episode (actually it takes much longer - more like ten to twelve days - but any episode which shoots over eight days we complete with simultaneous units – meaning, most of the time, we have two complete film crews shooting at the same time.)

Now that means eight “working days” so depending on how the weekends fall it takes 10 to 12 calendar days to complete filming of an episode. It also takes a minimum of 4 weeks to complete post production of each episode – including picture editing, visual effects, music, sound mixing and color timing.

On September 25th we aired the first episode. At that time we already had 5 and a half episodes in the can. But from that point on, every 7 days a new episode airs. The math of 7 days between airings and twelve days between completing episodes catches up to us pretty quickly. By November we were in a situation where we couldn’t get any more episodes on the air.

Combine that with the fact that, from a network point of view, December is a slow TV-watching month. We design in a hiatus in December. Because the cast and crew take a two week break around Christmas (so we don’t die of exhaustion) the same phenomenon happens now, in early March.