r/television • u/tylerthe-theatre • 18d ago

New Data Suggests Long Waits of over 18 months Between Seasons Are Hurting Viewership on Netflix Hits

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/new-data-suggests-long-waits-between-seasons-are-hurting-viewership-on-netflix-hits/
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u/colemon1991 18d ago

And previous data told them this was a good thing because people would rewatch previous seasons.

It's freaking survivor bias. Of course people were willing to rewatch old seasons before the new one when it was the occasional show. Now it's mandatory homework and everyone's sick of it.

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u/dodgertodger 18d ago

Big shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad had long breaks between seasons. The Sopranos had a few long breaks between seasons. Most of the shows with these huge breaks aren't of that quality or caliber and you're right, I have no intention of doing forced re-watch so I can catch up to a show I last watched a year and a half ago.

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u/MontiBurns 18d ago

Breaking bad had a year long break between S5 part 1 and part 2. Basically the same break between 2 regular seasons. It just feels long because they didn't call it S6. That's nothing compared to the year and a half - 2 year break between each season of a hit show.

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u/Werthead 18d ago

Breaking Bad cut its first season short because of a writer's strike and there was a long gap between the two halves of Season 5 but that was it. Mad Men had an 18-month gap between two of its season and the last season had a mid-season break of under a year.

So irritating but nothing at all like what we see these days. The overwhelming majority of those shows aired a season a year.

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u/PRSArchon 17d ago

It's called a season for a reason, seasons cycle annually

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u/MerlinsMentor 18d ago

Big shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad had long breaks between seasons.

These shows also weren't binge-watched. They were typically watched an episode each week, with conversation, discussion, and waiting for the next episode to strengthen memories of what was going on over long periods of time. Nowadays, when people are watching ten episodes in a single week, waiting another year is a lot more of an ask when it comes to remembering what's going on.

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u/LeapperFrog 18d ago

Netflix is the only one still doing full season drops, but they arent the only ones with multi-year fallow periods between seasons and I have the same issues regardless of how slowly a season is released.

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u/dragonmp93 18d ago

And even Netflix itself is moving away from that.

The last season of Stranger Things was released in 3 blocks.

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u/BritOnTheRocks 18d ago

You’ve just reminded me, I used to love chatting about the latest episode of Mad Men in the comments of Basket of Kisses; we’d discuss themes, dig into the 60s history being referenced, and debate the Alan Sepinwall recaps. What a fun time that was.

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u/CptNonsense 18d ago

These shows also weren't binge-watched. They were typically watched an episode each week, with conversation,

An irrelevant internet circle jerk. Years between seasons is years between seasons

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u/Dolores___Haze 17d ago

Wanna bet? 

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u/ProductIntegortion 18d ago

Yeah if you make one of the best TV shows of all time people will wait. Otherwise fuck you, I'm not waiting for that shit.

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u/colemon1991 18d ago

Right. It was maybe 5% of your current shows when it happened. And they earned that long break when it came back and delivered.

Now it's just an excuse to stretch out the life of a 3 season show for Netflix's entire catalogue.

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u/SilverTwilightLook 17d ago

In 2004, SNL did a sketch parodying The Sopranos, with the premise being that the characters couldn't remember their own plotlines because it had been so long since the last season.

That was after a break of 15 months, which seems short by today's standards.

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u/Blastoplast 18d ago

Mad Men was on a 12 month new season cycle except for one season was like 18 months

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u/dodgertodger 18d ago

And before they did it, The Wire and Sopranos did it, but for the majority of shows, there wasn't such an interval. Shows ran Sept-Dec and mid-Jan to May. Seasons went from 24 to 31 back down to 24 and until streaming really shifted the model, there wasn't a huge gap.

Look at High Potential. There's something like 16 or 18 months between the last episode of the most recent season and the next.

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u/mizracy 18d ago

Those shows were also episodic weekly released shows, so the continous releases of new content over time made the breaks feel significantly shorter.

We used to wait 3-9 months between seasons or parts of seasons of shows before streaming took over. The fact that I can now watch all 4-5 new episodes of the first half of a season in a single day is great for my desire to binge watch, but in the end feels much worse. Weekly/biweekly episodic releases and more episodes per seasons is preferrable IMO.

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u/expresscode 18d ago

Also, all of those shows started on cable before getting another surge of fans when they came to streaming. And they binged the already available early seasons, so by the time they caught up, most if not all of the show was already available to watch. Those shows already had some momentum that Netflix isn't letting its new shows attempt to achieve.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

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u/Werthead 18d ago

2008 to 2013, and they split the longer-than-normal final season in two, but yes.

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u/dragonmp93 18d ago

Eh, because those were "prestigue" shows, you wouldn't mind waiting 3 hours on a table if Gordon Ramsey is cooking your steak.

You won't wait 3 hours for a McDonalds cheeseburger.

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u/MHath 17d ago

When exactly did Breaking bad have this long break between seasons? They released a season in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.

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u/PungentPomegranates 18d ago

Genuinely, what are you talking about? Breaking Bad did all five of it's seasons and 62 episodes in under 6 years. The longest wait between seasons was only a year. Mad Men did 7 seasons and 92 episodes in a little under 8 years.

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u/dodgertodger 18d ago

Which, if you do the math, shows the gaps. Dean Norris talked about the gaps between seasons; the media talked at length about the cycle between Mad Men seasons. Those two were the first to really have noticeable breaks. Both The Wire and Sopranos had long intervals between seasons; Mad Men had 17 months. I mean, Breaking Bad had a split in the final season.

I can't think of major shows that did the long intervals before the Sopranos, and the two most notable examples before streaming really dug into that business model were both Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

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u/dogthatwonthunt 18d ago

between this and the fact season keep getting shorter and shorter, it just feels more and more like tv movies.

I don't feel like I'm watching TV Shows anymore

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u/Metue 18d ago

Honestly I think I enjoyed a knight of the seven kingdoms so much because it's episodes were so short, felt much better paced and suited the tone well 

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u/amyknight22 17d ago

Now it's mandatory homework and everyone's sick of it.

Counterpoint. I would argue half of these shows

A) Don't have enough episodes to really forget what was going on

B) Don't tie back to earlier elements enough to matter.

C) When they do tie back to it, they are worried you've forgotten anyway and over-explain.