Commercial Breaks Per Hour

Better to think in terms of acts rather than commerical breaks.

A one hour US drama will have a teaser/cold open and four acts. Commericals usually come after the end of the teaser and each act break giving you a total of five commerical breaks. Very roughly the page count for act breaks tend to be around...

Teaser - page 1-5
Act one - page 6-20
Act two - page 21 - 33
Act three - page 34 - 50
Act four - page 51 - 60

Like I said, those are not rigid and they refer to page count, not minute count. Just because act one is 14 pages, doesn't mean it'll translate to 14 minutes of sceen time. Total running time is usually around 43 minutes but scripts tend to run around the 60-70 page mark.

You should think in terms of acts as well because it'll help you design and implement a tighter writing structure. Remember that act breaks should hinge on mini-cliffhangers in which interesting plot development or surprises are revealed.

I've always heard 7 act breaks for a standard hour; however, that's not set in stone. I think the majority are following what Chris posted above...though I'll be damned if it feels like five commercials during an episode..*sigh* Gotta love DVR.

MOW's are the only TV form which routinely has seven acts. Approx. 93 minutes of running time. That's seven acts for a two hour programming slot.

Hour long dramas typically have four acts plus teaser and/or tag. There's been a movement towards five acts in some shows.


http://www.finaldraft.com/writers-resources/tips-and-articles/larry-brody-16.php


http://www.finaldraft.com/writers-resources/tips-and-articles/larry-brody-19.php


Best thing to do is read scripts from a bunch of shows in your chosen genre. See how they do their act breaks. Find the structure that works best for your show, assuming you're writing a pilot. If you're speccing an existing show, you just copy the pre existing act structure precisely.

odocoileus said:

MOW's are the only TV form which routinely has seven acts. Approx. 93 minutes of running time. That's seven acts for a two hour programming slot.

Hour long dramas typically have four acts plus teaser and/or tag. There's been a movement towards five acts in some shows.

Click to expand...

Ah, that's where the difference is...I stand corrected. Not a television writer, so I wasn't sure, but I'm glad to have that clarified!

odocoileus said:

MOW's are the only TV form which routinely has seven acts. Approx. 93 minutes of running time. That's seven acts for a two hour programming slot.

Hour long dramas typically have four acts plus teaser and/or tag. There's been a movement towards five acts in some shows.


http://www.finaldraft.com/writers-resources/tips-and-articles/larry-brody-16.php


http://www.finaldraft.com/writers-resources/tips-and-articles/larry-brody-19.php


Best thing to do is read scripts from a bunch of shows in your chosen genre. See how they do their act breaks. Find the structure that works best for your show, assuming you're writing a pilot. If you're speccing an existing show, you just copy the pre existing act structure precisely.

Click to expand...

I've been working on a spec pilot at the behest of the TV agent from my agency and I asked him to send me some current pilot scripts just so that I could get a sense of things like how the acts break out these days -- and, apart from some pilots for cable shows that didn't have any act breaks, he sent my pilots for Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, and Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas.


Act Breaks:


Title: Teas/Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 Act 5 Act 6 Total:

Capt. Cook 1 20 26 34 39 50 59

Wonderfll 1 12 28 44 55

Pushing Dsy 1 19 27 37 44 53 57


So -- take your pick. There just doesn't seem to be anything like a standard act length or even a standard number of acts.

NMS