A couple thoughts on why 22 episode seasons do not make as much sense in the Streaming Era:
1. The point about shows getting their bump in the first 45 days mostly makes sense within the context of dropping all episodes of once. I would be curious to read if you think weekly drops are different. An 8 episode weekly release vs. a 16 episode weekly release literally means twice as many weeks with people tuning into the show, possibly generating more buzz and definitely bringing people back to the platform for a longer time period.
2. I wonder about trying to do two 8 episode drops a year. I believe Netflix did this with the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I do not know what the numbers were (obviously), but this would give a series two 45 day buzz windows, even for shows that drop them all at once.
After about a century of broadcast storytelling (going back to network radio in the 1920s-50s), 25-30 years of original cable series, and a decade-ish of streaming, plus models from other countries, we now have a vast array of successful, and unsuccessful, examples of different configurations of episodes and seasons. With all that out there, and the massive creative and financial challenges of the industry today, I would hope that there’s plenty of incentive to continue experimenting to find a sweet spot that would allow creators a bit more space to let shows grow, studios a steadier supply and revenue stream, streamers and advertisers more predictable audience levels, and viewers more opportunities to get comfortable with characters and premises they enjoy.
I'm one of Max's lost viewers. I'm not watching any new series on Max so I decided to cut it. I miss the TMC catalog but I can always watch when there's a new show I'm interested in
A couple thoughts on why 22 episode seasons do not make as much sense in the Streaming Era:
1. The point about shows getting their bump in the first 45 days mostly makes sense within the context of dropping all episodes of once. I would be curious to read if you think weekly drops are different. An 8 episode weekly release vs. a 16 episode weekly release literally means twice as many weeks with people tuning into the show, possibly generating more buzz and definitely bringing people back to the platform for a longer time period.
2. I wonder about trying to do two 8 episode drops a year. I believe Netflix did this with the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I do not know what the numbers were (obviously), but this would give a series two 45 day buzz windows, even for shows that drop them all at once.
After about a century of broadcast storytelling (going back to network radio in the 1920s-50s), 25-30 years of original cable series, and a decade-ish of streaming, plus models from other countries, we now have a vast array of successful, and unsuccessful, examples of different configurations of episodes and seasons. With all that out there, and the massive creative and financial challenges of the industry today, I would hope that there’s plenty of incentive to continue experimenting to find a sweet spot that would allow creators a bit more space to let shows grow, studios a steadier supply and revenue stream, streamers and advertisers more predictable audience levels, and viewers more opportunities to get comfortable with characters and premises they enjoy.
I'm one of Max's lost viewers. I'm not watching any new series on Max so I decided to cut it. I miss the TMC catalog but I can always watch when there's a new show I'm interested in