In television, the end of your acts should have a cliffhanger or ‘hook’ so the audience comes back after the commercial break. This may sound confusing and contradictory but after you’ve written your screenplay, you’ll want to go back and divide it up into “commercial acts”. A one hour American TV show can have a format like:
TEASER: 2-4 pages title sequence & commercial break
ACT I: 10-12 pages commercial break
ACT II: 10-12 pages commercial break
ACT III: 10-12 pages commercial break
ACT IV: 10-12 pages commercial break
TAG: 2-4 pages credits
Studios are often very particular about script breakdown, so if you're writing a TV spec script for an existing series, it's best to request a guide. The above breakdown is only a rough guide as some break more frequently on public broadcast. Premium channels can run with fewer commercials. So public broadcast scripts tend to be shorter (42-48 pp) while premium scripts (50-55 pp). This will vary with country as well.
