Just reading the excerpt of the Private Eye article (in the SFX piece) and stories of Budgetary problems on TV shows is nothing new. When I used to work at the BBC we regularly had budgetary problems and had to scamper off to wardrobe to raid props from other shows.
Now I work in US TV with budgets that we could only dream about at the BBC and we still run out of money

I'm working on a new show for the fall season and have already decided we can only afford to make 8 episodes of the 9 the broadcaster has ordered so we're wondering if we can have a flashback after just 8 shows