A new study suggests that traditional seasons of television need to make a comeback. Over the past few years,the TV landscape has been increasingly shifting to a streaming model. With that has come a number of changes, including how often TV shows are released, as some series are opting for a big batch release over weekly rollouts. Another change is the length between seasons, which has been prolonged for popularshows likeSquid GameandStranger Things. Long season gaps have been one major point of contention shared by audiences and critics alike.
Analysts break down another major TV issue as new data fromLuminatesuggests that the industry should switch back to more traditional TV formats. According to new data,more and more shows are transitioning into limited series and “planned ending” titles, rather than simply seeing shows get canceled. This ultimately amounts in fewer episodes being produced per season, and fewer long-running series, which analyst Carolyn Finger describes as “not a sustainable strategy for the industry.” Check out the full quotes from Luminate below:
Carolyn Finger:This has been a really interesting and somewhat disturbing trend over the past few years. So, when we’re saying in our vernacular that something is ‘non-renewed,’ that’s kind of colloquially known as just something that is cancelled. You know, there are two different flavors of that. One is something, first of all, there’s one thing that doesn’t complete production, and then it’s just abruptly taken off the air. Then, there’s something where you’re all kind of on a cliffhanger after season 2, and wondering will this get renewed or not, and it is not renewed. Then we have what we call ‘planned ending,’ and that could be anything from a limited series to a streamer or network announces ahead of time that ‘hey, the fourth season of this show is going to be the last one.’
Mark Hoebich:And that will allow the creative team to essentially wrap up and resolve those stories for viewers.
Finger:Yes, but it also plays a major role in where we see a huge decline in the number of episodes being produced. Because it definitely decreases that. Because a lot of times those planned ending seasons might be like ‘okay, here’s your last eight episodes, or four episodes to wrap up the storyline.’
Hoebich: And what we’re seeing here is really a surge of planned endings over the last six years. Versus the simply not renewed or terminated series, cancelled series. What’s contributing to that trend line in your opinion?
What This Means For The State Of TV
The Limited Series Are Still Doing Well
This perspective of television is especially notable given the watch data Luminate revealed towards the end of their webinar.The most-watched streaming original of 2024 wasFool Me Once, which was a limited series adaptation of the Harlan Coben novel of the same name. Also appearing in the top 10 wereNetflix’sThe Perfect CoupleandGriselda, both of which were also limited series that fall within this “planned ending” category. This part of the data will make it harder for some streamers to avoid making limited-run content, because the shows are doing well.
Returning To Classic TV Models Would Be A Huge Industry Change
Image via Apple TV+
Switching back to longer-running series models would be a major paradigm shiftfor the industry as it stands right now. As much as audiences complain about season gaps, we are still in what is arguably a Golden Age of television that has produced massively acclaimed shows likeSuccession,The Last of Us, andSeverance, all of which have far fewer than 20 episodes per season. To change the season models would be to disrupt the new status quo, but from what the data looks like now, this may be a necessary shift.
