Last updated: February 1, 2004. This version: 8.00
Answer: Many fans of a TV show become panic-stricken when they hear that a network has put a show on "hiatus". Many equate "hiatus" with "cancellation". In fact, though, they are not the same thing: one can be temporary, the other is almost certainly permanent.
When a TV show is put "on hiatus", it is removed from the schedule for later use. It does not necessarily mean that a particular TV show will never return to the network's schedule. Often, when a TV show is put on "hiatus", it will be "retooled" or "reworked" by the network. In this case, a TV show will often return to the network's schedule at a later date, in an altered format (examples of this over the past couple of years are "The Mommies", "The Bonnie Hunt Show" and "Central Park West"). In any case, "hiatus" is by no means an automatic death sentence for a show, as many shows have returned from hiatus and thrived (e.g. "Wings" and "Seinfeld"). Still, not all shows that are put on "hiatus" do return; most do move from "hiatus" to official "cancellation".
"Cancellation" for a TV show is almost always fatal in the near term, and it is always fatal in the long term (of course!). When a show is "cancelled" it is officially pulled from the network's schedule and will not return. Few shows have come back from cancellation. Some have been "uncancelled" and returned to a network's schedule for a season or so (e.g. "Cagney & Lacey", "Quantum Leap"). Others have jumped to another network after the original network has cancelled them (e.g. "Clueless", from ABC to UPN; "JAG" from NBC to CBS; "Sister, Sister" from ABC to WBN, etc.). And a few have jumped from network TV to direct syndication and thrived there (e.g. "Baywatch", which was cancelled by NBC, and then syndicated). But when a show is cancelled, 99 times out of 100, it isn't coming back as a first-run show.
(A list of shows from this season on hiatus or cancelled can be found on the "TV Shows Status Page".)
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