I know, I hate the "mini-season" layout... Hollywood/TV Producers are soooo out of ideas that they need to stretch any story they can to try and make it last...
Yea, in the old days a show would do about 10-12 eps for the first half then repeat those eps again(reruns) then do the second half. Most producers **cough** Scfi **cough** now only does about 10 per season then replaces it with another 'new' program then when that one is up replace it with another one then return to then first one.
The one advantage is new shows throughout the year. Big disadvantage is you only get about 10 episodes per season and have to wait nearly a year to see the next new one