The number of scripted television shows seems to be dwindling lower and lower as the years have progressed. According to Deadline, Ampere Analysis recently released a report of the number of scripted television series that have been produced since the year 2019. The number was nearly cut in half.
Whether this is due to the Hollywood strike of 2023, which put vast amounts of projects on hold for several months, or because people are more interested in reality TV, there is not a concrete answer as to why this is exactly happening. Deadline reported that the research done by Ampere showed that last year 418 shows were ordered in the US. In 2019, the number was 722. Deadline also reported that the number of shows may start to increase in 2024. Ampere said this is due to “the potential for truncated 23/24 seasons doubling up.”
“The more terminal decline is originating from the SVoD services,” Ampere reported. Deadline stated in response, an analysis of the change in releases coming from major streaming services such as Netflix. It reads, “With Netflix reducing its show releases from 107 in 2022 to just 68 in 2023 – a drop that cannot be blamed on strike action as it took place during the first half of the year. Other big reductions were from Peacock (-20 titles), Hulu (-11), Max (-9), and Paramount+ (-4). Furthermore, while other players like Amazon Prime Video, Apple, and Disney+ maintained the number of series released in 2023, only Prime maintained the series it ordered, meaning 2024 will be “even lighter for almost all the major SVoDs,” Ampere said.”
Since Hollywood and its Television services were dark for the majority of the year, Ampere said “The strikes are partly the cause but also conceal the broader story of internationalization and the decentring of Hollywood as the core of the world’s TV industry,”
An Analyst at Ampere, Fred Black, spoke about the U.S. “script boom” and how it may be coming to an end. Stating that the increase has “finally run out of steam.”
He then continued, “While 2024 will see some level of a bounce back in the content being ordered, many of these titles will be released in 2025, meaning any recovery is likely to be slow going.”