Episode numbering

There is an official Shortland Street Youtube channel set up by South Pacific Pictures Ltd. This the production company. They've uploaded episodes 001 to 780 (so far) covering 1992, 1993, 1994, and currently 1995. Each episode upload in the information box contains air date, episode number e.g Season 4 #105/Overall Episode #780 (this is the latest episode they have uploaded. https://www.youtube.com/@shortlandst/videos.

@rich975- Thank you for the link and the extra information! We'll review these episodes and once we have further information, we'll post it below.

Thank you.

Any updates?

@rich975- We're still reviewing these episodes. We'll post when we have further updates.

The issue is ongoing. I've updated crew credits for a number of episodes aired in 1994 which is Season 3. So, 1.481 listed on IMDB, is 3.61. I corrected this but someone again has changed the episode number, it now says 3.481. There were not 481 episodes of the series made or transmitted in 1994. It's a complete mess.

Any progress with this?

@rich975- This is still in-progress.

Is anything happening with this? I've just looked and there are now 200 episodes of Season 3 episodes incorrectly numbered. The latest being the episode dated Fri Oct 7th 1994. This should be S3.Episode 200, but instead says S3.Episode 620. Again there are not 620 episodes in S3, 620 is the total number of episodes made and aired since S1.Episode 1 in 1992. Why is this being allowed to happen? I raised this issue almost a month ago. Whoever is doing this is either messing around or just doesn't understand how the episode numbering works.

Another issue with this has come to light. When I began adding credits for cast and crew from the beginning onwards, 3 people were listed as being creators of the show. None of the people were credited for the 800 episodes I have seen on-screen credits for, so as I went along I deleted these credits. These edits were accepted by IMDB. This morning I see that all these edits for the 3 people have all been re-instated. What is going on???

I've checked again - not all of the edits have been re-instated but of the 800 x3 I deleted it I'd say at least three quarters have been re-instated.

Checking again all 3 creators have been added to over four and a half thousand episodes of the series Is anyone actually looking into the issues I've raised???

@rich975- Our team is working to investigate and resolve this issue (Ref Ticket #V1909419368). We'll update this thread once we receive further information.

Looking through later years, the mis-numbering of episodes goes on For example the first episode of Season 19 airs on January the 18th 2010. The Episode number should be 19.1 but is instead 19.4401. This is obviously wrong. Someone is wrecking the listings for this show.

Ok, thanks for the reply

The misnumbering of the episodes and the 3 persons to all the episodes as creator (when they are not listed on the credits as being so) goes on. I reported this over a month ago and the problem is getting worse and worse.

Now the entire Season 2 has been incorrectly re-numbered.

I've also added individual credits for writers of each episode up to #810 with the title of written by (as it is onscreen(. I can now see that someone has worked through these and changed it to a 'writer' credit. It feels like somone is deliberately messing around with this. What's the point of contributing accurate info if someone can just mess it all up?

No Shortland Street doesn't use an overall numbering system. On the YT uploads In the information box underneath the viewer it clearly states: For example Season No3 /Episode No123. Overall Episode Number 522. So, they do refer to seperate seasons.

Also, I think the Shortland Street uploads from 1992-1994 (so far) are offical uploads.

In the details it does but the episode titles are listed as Season 3 (522), Season 3 (523), Season 3 (524) etc. If you search on YT for Season 3 Episode 230 it doesn’t find it but if you search for either Season 3 Episode 646 or just Shortland Street 646 it goes straight there.

Yes, I know that. I don't think they are episode titles, just numbering like that makes it easier for viewers to find them on YT. But the information in the details is also accurate, otherwise why include it?

Unfortunately those details aren’t always accurate, the episodes numbers don’t always follow through and the episode descriptions have mistakes. For example Gina is sometimes referred to as Jenna. But really, if the episode titles are numbered that way to make it easier for YT viewers then it would also make it easier for users here especially anyone looking for these listings based on the YT title they’ve been watching.

Do you have an example of where the episode number is wrong on YT?

Episode 561 has details of Season 3 Episode 141 Overall Episode 561, then Episode 562 has details of Season 3 Episode 143 Overall Episode 562, which suggests that Episode 142 is missing but it isn’t (the original air dates follow on). So Overall Episode 562 is wrongly labelled as 143, and each episode afterwards is 1 out of step because of it.

Well, it's obviously a mistake and easy enough to put the correct Season and Episode number on IMDB.

Of course but it means for those episodes that IMDb and YT would not tie up, so anyone searching in this instance for Ep 562 is going to see it as 143 on YT but would need to search for 142 on IMDb to find the right listing. It would also leave it open to someone in the future adding Season 3 Episode 266 as that is what’s in the last episodes details on YT and with IMDb ending with ep 265, it would look like 266 is missing rather than it doesn’t exist.

I don't understand the point you're making. If that happened it's easy enough to report it to IMDB.

So by correcting the YT ep number when you add it to IMDb, you’ll be putting what YT calls ep 143 onto IMDb ep 142 as you know that it is 142 in the series. Someone else who doesn’t know that 143 on YT is a mistake will not know that you’ve listed it under the correct number of 142 on IMDb. I agree that extra ep could be removed but I believe it’s easier to prevent issues than have to correct them if they occur.

I raised all the relevant issues with IMDB that I'm aware off (re-numbering hundreds of episodes incorrectly, adding data that does not appear on the episode credits etc) and we'll wait and see what they come back with.

I haven’t looked at any episode credits so can’t comment on that issue. But I don’t agree that the episodes have been numbered incorrectly, everyone I talk about Shortland Street with refers to episodes by overall number. It would be a shame if IMDb were to lose that detail.

That not how it works on IMDB. Read the guidelines. If there are separate seasons for shows (as there are for Shortland Street) then the Episode No has to reflect that.

Please look at the IMDb listing for the series Neighbours, they also use two numbering systems for their episodes and IMDb uses the overall episode numbers rather than listing each season separately. This is how soaps work best when uploaded to IMDb, if you look into EastEnders, Coronation Street and all the big soaps with thousands of episodes across many decades this is how they are listed on IMDb.

Coronation Street, Eastenders have never had seasons. So the IMDB guidelines on episode numbering if there are separate seasons don't apply.

Did you look into Neighbours? The episodes are on Freevee listed by season and on IMDb by overall number. Ultimately the overall episode numbers give us a unique 3-4 digit code for each episode. Ignoring that and using a generic numbering system overcomplicates this.

IMDB are investigating the issues I've raised, so we'll see what they come back with.