During the drama boom “a lot of stuff got made that people didn’t get to see” says SPT’s president of international production, who criticized the production buying spree by super-indies like Fremantle and Banijay. “I don’t see their endgame.”
The cable network chairman’s prediction on the drop in scripted series is finally realized.
In what appears to be the first significant crash in the supply of original scripted U.S. TV series since the industry first began benchmarking so-called “Peak TV,” the number of seasons released in 2023 fell 24% from 2022, according to an analysis released this morning by Ampere.
The end of the writers’ strike marks a new era. Studios and streamers are likely to order fewer TV shows. Consolidation could follow.
TV Is Dead! Long Live TV?
Television’s boom may be over, but its experimental energy persists. Here’s a look at TV’s next wave.
TV viewers are using a pause in production brought on by the Hollywood strikes to catch up with all the shows they’ve been missing out on.
The tipping point has finally arrived. After years of heady growth, heightened demands and unpredictable development and production schedules, seasoned TV writers are feeling the burn and yearning for the structure of simpler times, before streaming changed everything. As striking Writers Guild of America members gather daily on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York, the realization of how much has been lost amid the unprecedented spike in episodic production has come into sharp focus.