Why Have Television Series Gotten Shorter Over the Years?

(OPGOV GLOBAL) - Over the years, television shows have slowly declined in the number of episodes per season. 

Before the 1970s, it was fairly common for TV shows to have as many as thirty-nine episodes per season. From the 1980s to the 2000s, many shows averaged around 20 to 26 episodes per season. More recently, around the 2010s, seasons had only about 6-8 episodes. A few shows have retained longer episodes, but they are few and far between. 

Why is that? To explain this, we need to understand why shows often had twenty episodes per season to begin with.

Photo Credit: Netflix

When cable was the gold standard, TV shows ultimately needed to produce around 20 episodes per season to fill a network’s yearly slot. Because broadcast television relied heavily on ad revenue and needed reruns to sell shows to local networks, networks aired multiple reruns of episodes to make that possible. They needed people to keep watching, so they produced more episodes to keep viewers tuning in. 

This, in turn, required writers to make many filler and bottle episodes (episodes that take place in only one location) to pad out the season and make cheaper episodes.  

Streaming platforms, on the other hand, do not have that problem. Since people can watch whatever they want, ads (if there are any) will just be integrated into anything you're watching. They also don't need to fill a yearly slot, since streaming doesn't require multiple shows to play on repeat. Anyone can just pick and choose what to watch whenever they choose.

Co-founder and CEO of production company Lighthouse Ladies Sònia Victoria Werner states that streaming platforms are ultimately better oriented toward "optimizing for completion rates and subscriber retention rather than volume.” Audience members are ultimately more likely to watch a shorter show than a longer one. 

Audiences preferred bingeing the whole season at once rather than waiting for weekly releases. That is much easier for viewers to do with shows that have fewer episodes.

She also says production values matter, since “Fewer episodes means more resources per episode,” and the fewer episodes required, the more money can be allocated to each episode. This ultimately means the budget can be divided better than it was when shows had twenty episodes. 

Werner also says actors and writers prefer the change because it reduces how long they commit to a project. With shorter seasons, they are more likely to commit to a television show than they would in the past. 

Photo Credit: Warner Media

Ultimately, producers find it a better investment for themselves and consumers to release fewer episodes. 

One question remains: Will we ever go back to twenty-episode seasons?

Lighthouse Ladies' Head of Production Emily Wirth states that even before streaming took over, premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime “never sold commercial time, so they never had to write episodes around an ad break,” so they could get away with shows having thirteen-episode seasons like The Sopranos.

Even shows that aired on cable before coming to streaming platforms, such as Smiling Friends, had only roughly 8-10 episodes per season. Cable itself, too, doesn't need a significant episode count these days.

Given how shorter seasons have seemingly benefited everything, and how networks no longer have to rely on the same short seasons, they may be here for good. Only time will tell. 

To add to or correct any information in this report, please contact me at stefan.p@lead4earth.org.