it's a big cycle.

1.network arbitrarily pulls plugs on shows, prematurely, many times leaving plot lines wide open. and it's become commonplace to not order a full season for a new show, instead ordering 8 episodes, or 12, or whatever instead of 20-25. The network also makes changes to the show based on an episode by episode basis if viewership drops at all.

2.viewer sees 1. as a trend, and cautiously watches new shows. they have been burned in the past by getting into a new show that has the plug pulled. so they check out the first couple episodes, but before they totally commit, they stop watching until they see a second half of the season ordered, or a second season ordered, to be sure the show isn't going to disappear.

3.the network sees the drop in viewership from 2. and waits until the last second to decide to order new episodes, exacerbating the problem further, causing a steeper decline in viewership.

4.The viewer continues to wait on the network to make a decision before committing.

5.Either the show is cancelled at this point, or it continues, because the viewer is so many episodes detached from being up to date, that they don't care to pick it up at this point. So it makes it through the new episodes ordered and gets cancelled...

6.The ever changing schedule and new shows on each week that you haven't heard of at all leads to people just watching tv less in general.

The only thing the networks have to do to fix this is order 20 episodes of something new to start, give it time to build an audience, and make a decision after the first half of the season airs to determine if a second season airs.

Worst case scenario, you can at least sell a full season on DVD, intead of 5 shows that comprise an entire series.

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