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It is a long Thanksgiving break for the cast and crew of "FlashForward."

Variety is reporting that production has come to a screeching halt on the ABC show as the David S. Goyer-led show takes a breather.

Production first stopped last week, and will continue until next Monday when Episode 13 will go in front of the camera.

This, however, was a stoppage that was planned all along, an ABC spokesman told the trade publication. It was meant to be an effort to help "boost the writing."

"They want to maintain the high quality of the show, and this gives the writers the opportunity to do so," the spokesman said.

"FlashForward" kicks off a very difficult night for ABC on Thursdays, going head-to-head with "Bones" on Fox, "Survivor: Samoa" on CBS and comedy on NBC. So far, it has averaged a 6.0 rating/10 share in overnights, according to Fast Nationals from The Nielsen Co., second to "Survivor" (7.2/11) but ahead of "Bones" (5.8/9) and the NBC comedies "Community" (3.4/5) and "Parks & Recreation" (3.1/5). However, it is ABC's lowest-rated show on Thursdays behind "Grey's Anatomy" (9.5/15) and "Private Practice" (6.6/11).

"FlashForward" also has kept ABC in second place on Thursdays in non-news, non-event programming. The network is averaging a 7.3/12 so far this season compared to the 8.8/14 from CBS. Fox has been third so far this year with a 4.8/8 while NBC has finished with a 3.7/6 on Thursdays.

Based on the novel by Robert Sawyer, "FlashForward" was brought to television by Goyer, who helped pen "Batman Begins" and its sequel "The Dark Knight," as well as "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Star Trek: Enterprise" alum Brannon Braga. It premiered Sept. 24 with a 7.7/13 overnight, according to Zap2it, but lost an entire ratings point in its second week, falling to a 6.7/11.

After hitting a 6.2/10 on Oct. 22, "FlashForward" has regularly slipped in the ratings to a 5.2/8 last week.

"FlashForward" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.