My guess is that you don’t hook viewers, emotionally engage and capture their investment in the plot and characters by producing 8-10 episodes. Shows used to do ~24.
If I spend less time with your character while you’ve got my attention at the start, the connection will more quickly fade away and when it comes to season 2 I have forgotten caring.
My guess is that you don’t hook viewers, emotionally engage and capture their investment in the plot and characters by producing 8-10 episodes. Shows used to do ~24.
Some of the best shows going are between 8-10 episodes a season though. And it’s not as if any competitor of netflix now is doing 24 episodes a season. That’s mostly exclusively reserved for network procedurals.
All of the shows “going” are that length these days. That means that the best ones have to be that length and that’s survivor bias I think. Just because some shows that length survive doesn’t mean a majority will.
Yeah. But an investment in a longer season is more likely to translate to sustained viewership for subsequent seasons. There was also less choice in the past. But really I think it’s about emotional investment.
The less choice here is key. People were more likely to be focusing on one or two TV shows at once because there were simply less TV shows being made. That’s all gone now. There’s far more competition for people’s interest now across the board. There also was much less international options too. Lost was not competing with Korean or Spanish or German shows for people’s attention.
Emotionally engaged for that 90-120 minutes. Most people would not be invested enough to watch a season about the same character 2 years later. It’s an entirely different proposition and different mode.
My guess is that you don’t hook viewers, emotionally engage and capture their investment in the plot and characters by producing 8-10 episodes. Shows used to do ~24.
If I spend less time with your character while you’ve got my attention at the start, the connection will more quickly fade away and when it comes to season 2 I have forgotten caring.
Exceptional exceptions excepted.
Some of the best shows going are between 8-10 episodes a season though. And it’s not as if any competitor of netflix now is doing 24 episodes a season. That’s mostly exclusively reserved for network procedurals.
All of the shows “going” are that length these days. That means that the best ones have to be that length and that’s survivor bias I think. Just because some shows that length survive doesn’t mean a majority will.
Most shows have always failed though. Including the old long-form 24 episode shows that got cancelled all the time.
Yeah. But an investment in a longer season is more likely to translate to sustained viewership for subsequent seasons. There was also less choice in the past. But really I think it’s about emotional investment.
The less choice here is key. People were more likely to be focusing on one or two TV shows at once because there were simply less TV shows being made. That’s all gone now. There’s far more competition for people’s interest now across the board. There also was much less international options too. Lost was not competing with Korean or Spanish or German shows for people’s attention.
I’m routinely emotionally engaged by 90 to 120 minute films. If a show can’t manage it in ten episodes, it’s just not a very good show.
Emotionally engaged for that 90-120 minutes. Most people would not be invested enough to watch a season about the same character 2 years later. It’s an entirely different proposition and different mode.
American shows always used to have crazy long series of mostly filler episodes. Dunno how anyone could ever be bothered actually following them.