Talk:The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth

To display or not to display an "empty" table.

Reason given for not showing the table is that "the table is pretty empty, it should be hidden until more info is available from reliable source ie episode titles."

Why should it be hidden until "more info" is available? It already contains information which could be useful to someone, i.e. the dates of upcoming broadcasts. It's fairly standard on Wiki to extend lists of TV episodes when any information on upcoming episodes is available. (See for example the current list of American Dad! episodes, which has two entries where only the titles are known but no broadcast date is listed).

ETA: In any case, the episode titles for The Circus are unlikely to be revealed until very shortly before the show airs.

Barry Wom (talk) 11:44, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

The Episode table on here is only filled with one entry leaving the rest of the table. Hence, the phrase "one entry". — YoungForever^(talk) 15:51, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't know what you mean. The table has four fields for each episode and only one field - the episode title - is missing. I don't think it's necessary to wait for the episode title to be announced before listing the episodes here.

Barry Wom (talk) 15:56, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

The whole column is displaying TBA. Making the whole Episode table pretty much empty. — YoungForever^(talk) 16:08, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

Yes, the "Title" column is displaying TBA. The other three columns are filled. That's hardly "pretty much empty".

To repeat, the episode transmission dates constitute useful information - more useful, I'd argue, than the episode titles.

Barry Wom (talk) 16:20, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

You are missing point here. Displaying TBA on a whole column is pretty empty as the whole column is empty. — YoungForever^(talk) 17:24, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

Are you saying it's a problem that the Title column is mostly filled with TBA?

Barry Wom (talk) 09:20, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

It is common practice on Wikipedia on TV series to not leave a majority of the Episode table empty. When majority of the Episode table is empty, it is hidden. Take Netflix series where there is only a date, overall number, and/or season number, but no episode titles nor writers and directors - the whole columns are TBA, most veteran editors revert this and claim not enough info for the Episode table yet. — YoungForever^(talk) 20:29, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

Can you provide an example? The majority of Netflix series are released in one batch on the same date, so I'm not convinced the comparison here is valid.

"When majority of the Episode table is empty, it is hidden." At the risk of repeating myself, the majority of the episode table in this case is not empty, it is three quarters filled.

Barry Wom (talk) 11:34, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

Please view the history of The Break with Michelle Wolf, House of Cards (season 6), and a Hulu series: Runaways (TV series) (specifically the history of season 1). — YoungForever^(talk) 16:51, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

the majority of the episode table in this case is not empty, it is three quarters filled. - No it is not. Quite simply, we don't add rows to episode tables until there is something other than "TBA". Dates alone are insufficient as they can and do change, quite often. To add them without episode titles is pretty much WP:CRYSTAL. With only the episode title and dates (we don't count the numbering) the table is essentially empty, except for the first row. Only the first row should be visible at this point in time. --AussieLegend (✉) 17:45, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

@AussieLegend: This is exactly my point. — YoungForever^(talk) 17:56, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

Example from House of Cards season 6, although as I've said I'm not convinced that Netflix series which all land on the same date provide a decent comparison.

"Dates alone are insufficient as they can and do change, quite often." Not in the case of The Circus, an ongoing current affairs production. Barring some extraordinary event, these broadcast dates are pretty much cast in stone. Besides, as I've already said, the broadcast dates are pretty much the only useful information in the table - the episode titles are taken from a throwaway line in the introductory segment and hence of little interest. The broadcast dates are the only reason I've got the page on my watch list.

Anyhoo, I'm not going to argue the toss any longer and it seems we've got a 2-1 consensus on hiding the "empty" rows.

Barry Wom (talk) 11:22, 31 January 2020 (UTC)