ABC’s V Gets Split

It looks like “V” is quickly becoming the Jan Brady of ABC’s trio of complex, shows. Going into it’s final season, the elder “Lost” is sure to be receive plenty of attention and, after its blockbuster premiere, “FlashForward” seems assured the same treatment. “V,” however, will have its freshman season interrupted by a three month hiatus. Hit the jump to find out why the resistance will be televised…eventually.

Variety reports that ABC executives want to split the show into 2 “pods,” a four episode set starting November 3 and a concluding nine episode set to begin in March 2010. Ostensibly this move will make for better ratings by avoiding the Winter Olympics as well as the latest edition of American Idol. That questionable logic aside, I think it is a large gamble to bet that casual fans from November will remember or, more importantly, want to remember all the ins and outs of the first four episodes.

A big turnoff with shows that have a very detailed mythology is that casual viewers can very easily lose their connection to the show because they did not see or remember certain events from previous episodes. By making the pods, ABC is increasing the risk of that happening. It is also signaling that it does not have much faith in the show, something which is rather puzzling considering that “V” has already garnered a lot of positive attention from critics, fans and even Collider. Hopefully everything works out and history does not repeat itself-the original television series was cancelled without notice after one season.