Another day calls for another production break.

Late last week, filming was temporarily halted on ABC’s Cougar Town so that Courteney Cox could attend to a private family matter. (The network has since said work would resume on November 30.) Now FlashForward is getting its own time out.

Although ratings have gone steadily downhill since the 12.4 million premiere (the series pulled in 8 million last Thursday), the six-day break was reportedly built into the shooting schedule.

“They started production early so that they could have the luxury to do this,” a rep told EW. “They want to maintain the high quality of the show, and this gives the writers the opportunity to do so.”

FlashForward‘s last original before 2010 will air December 3.