The Good Place season premiere

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This has happened several times on this show, but The Good Place but the season premiere aired as an hour block. However, it probably shouldn't be considered a single episode.

From the episode guide: "Some programs air two-part episodes from time to time. If the two parts are clearly separated (separate titles or a separate title card), then they should be entered as two separate episodes (with "Part 1/Part 2" on the end of the title if they don't have unique titles). "

This episode features two separate title cards: "Chapter 27" and "Chapter 28". So, why aren't these considered separate episodes? 
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Adrian, Champion

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Posted 2 years ago

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Ed Jones(XLIX)

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I agree with you.
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Adrian -
Can you confirm if there were opening and end credits featured for both parts?
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Adrian, Champion

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There are not opening and ending credits for both parts, but that is not a requirement per the guide (and is indeed rare for episodes shown back to back). There are, however, separate credits for writing which should lead one to believe that they are separate episodes.





If this were a single episode, the writing credits would be listed all together. It is not unusual that all other credits are listed together. The only credits that generally change between episodes of the series are writer, director and guest cast. These two episodes had the same director and I'm pretty sure after watching them all the guest cast was the same.
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Adrian -
In this case, the episode should not be split into two parts, but will need to remain listed as a single episode, the writer credits will then need to be displayed with the appropriate segment attributes, for example:
Michael Schur (written by) (segment "Chapter 27")
I hope this helps clarify!
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Adrian, Champion

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No. This does nothing to clarify the situation (just as previously the same answer did nothing to clarify the situation). There are plenty of shows that do the exact same thing and are listed as two separate episodes. These are ABSOLUTELY two different episodes. If they were a single episode, they would have a single chapter number and the writers would all be grouped together.

Furthermore, this decision violates your own guidelines. Unlike most back-to-back episodes, The Good Place uses title cards. Your own guideline states these are separate episodes. Can you explain that?

When episodes are run back to back like this, the default position should be that they are separate episodes. This is the case 99% of the time. It is very rare for a half hour show to have a 1 hour episode or a 1 hour show to have a 2 hour episode. It happens, but not often.
(Edited)