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The latest Bloomberg reports shows that Netflix shows are struggling. More and more people are not bothering to tune in for the second seasons of various shows (across the genres), and it’s likely not just Netflix on its own. All streaming shows are likely seeing this struggle.
People watch a show for a season, and then they don’t bother watching more. It leads to a lot of shows canceled after just a couple of seasons.
That’s if it even gets past the one-season mark, at this point. More and more shows are being canceled after just one season, leaving viewers with cliffhangers. It’s getting to the point where people don’t bother watching a new show until they know it’s going to be renewed. Why invest?
Streaming Platforms Have Themselves to Blame for the Woes of Streaming Shows
It’s not the viewers’ fault that they’re not tuning in for the next season of a popular show. One Piece viewers dropped by 30% between Seasons 1 and 2, and Beef viewers dropped by more than 70%.
People wanted to watch them, but there were a few issues that are all the streamers’ doing. It all comes down to this binge-release model.
Viewers get to watch all eight to 10 episodes in one sitting. It can take a weekend, but in some cases, people will spend the whole day watching one show. Then that’s it. There’s nothing else from that show to watch until the next season comes out.
That next season? Oh, you’re looking at a two-year wait in most cases. In those two years, there’s been no mention of the show. Maybe there’s been some casting announcement, or maybe the actors and the showrunners have tried to keep the momentum going, but people have forgotten all about it.
When Beef Season 2 dropped, I had no idea. And I work in this industry.
Netflix did nothing at all to promote it. If people don’t know that it’s dropped, how are they going to know to tune into it? That’s if they even remember anything about the show in the first place after two years of waiting.
One Piece saw a smaller drop, and there are a couple of reasons for that compared to the huge drop Beef saw. While it took three years to wait, the viewers of the anime were always going to keep an eye out for the next season of the live-action. On top of that, Netflix actually promoted that show, so you knew it was coming back.
Viewers Aren’t Going to Just Wait Around
Something needs to change for the streaming shows to get the viewership they deserve. The best thing is for streamers to change the way they release content.
The weekly model may not be popular with all viewers, but it is the best for the TV shows as a whole. When Eric Kripke asked for The Boys Season 2 to get a weekly release, it wasn’t to hurt viewers. It wasn’t to punish them in some strange way.
It was because he knew the weekly model is the best for the longevity of the show. Think about how people would gather around the water cooler to chat about the episode that aired the night before on TV. They’d have theories and commentary on events.
As the season finales hit, there would be a discussion about what could happen next during the break. Broadcast shows have around four months in the summer, although that is turning more into six months; it’s still a much shorter wait than streaming. With the weekly releases, the filming can happen while the episodes are still airing, which allows for that shorter window of time.
There’s a reason people are still interested in the likes of NCIS* and Grey’s Anatomy*, despite them following the same formula. Plus, the longer the seasons have gone on for, the more people can rewatch during the break to keep the love for the show.
Even Paramount+ has shown that it can keep the wait down to around a year for a lot of shows. If it has to go past that, it can keep it to around 18 months, but the shows remain popular because of the weekly release model. Apple TV has done something similar by choosing the weekly release model over the binge one.
People want good TV, and they want to watch that good TV. We don’t want to sit around and wait for it with no word on what’s happening and no marketing to say it’s arriving.
Streaming shows deserve better, and that means the streamers need to do something different. Otherwise, nothing is going to change, and more creatives will suffer. This business is already bad enough, but now the streaming platforms are making it worse.
What do you think is killing TV shows? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
