Loyal viewers know the feeling: their favorite television show is going off the air soon, but there’s a chance, however slight, that someone could make more episodes. So they turn on the TV, revel in what seems like a series finale, and remain hopeful for a reprieve from cancellation.

That was the position that political junkies found themselves in on Wednesday as CNN prepared to televise the 20th Republican presidential debate of the 2012 nomination race. There are no more debates on the conveyer belt — an abrupt change for a campaign season that has been punctuated by one every nine days on average from September to the most recent debate in January.

Some in the television news business deemed Wednesday’s debate a “season finale.” Charles P. Pierce of Esquire magazine suggested in a blog post that it be titled “A Very Special Episode,” a promotional line for TV shows that is now mostly a parody of the medium.

“They should invite the whole cast back, all the people who left the show for their own spinoffs, the way they brought Rhoda and Phyllis back when Mary Richards got fired at WJM,” Mr. Pierce wrote, alluding to the classic sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”