Mini-drought

A mini-drought was the gap of time between the first airing of the seventh and eighth episodes of each season of Daria on MTV. Instead of airing all episodes in succession, MTV chose to air them in two blocks. The first block usually contained seven episodes and began airing in late-February or early March. The second block would contain six episodes and start its run in late June or July. Thus, the months in between were known as a mini-drought, in contrast to the drought of episodes between full seasons.

A couple of times MTV deviated from this arrangement. In Season Three (1999), only six episodes were aired during the first block. In Season Five (2001), MTV chose to air the second block a month early, in late May instead of late June.

Fanfic authors felt less pressure to produce during a mini-drought, but still kept their output flowing.