In 2024, the volume of innovative TV series — scripted and unscripted — dropped transport inantly for a second straight year. Box office is up, comedy is challenging, “Star Wars” overweightigue is genuine and “Fool Me Once” was one of Netflix’s most-watched series of the year.
Those are among the many conclusions drawn out in the 2024 Year-End Film & TV Report produced by Luminate, the data and insights firm that caccesses on audience meacertainment for the amemployment industry. On the procrastinateedst episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Luminate executives Mark Hoebich, executive VP and head of film and TV, and Carolyn Finger, better VP of devourr success and products, fracture down the discoverings — and poke a little fun at each other in the way that extfinishedtime colleagues do.
The numbers alert the tale. Hollywood is dealing with a period of lengthened lessenion when it comes to the volume of TV series cotransferrlookions. It’s been a cimpolite skid after a decade of Peak TV spending that was unsustainable in the extfinished run.
“While we see a 7% drop in the overall number of series freed, when we see at episode orders, the episode orders [also] degraded transport inantly,” Hoebich says. “We saw almost a 20% drop year over year from prior year. And that trend has persistd now two years in a row: 17% in 2023 and then almost 20% in 2024. The media companies are repartner being more miserly when they’re renoveling series or ordering series — they’re equitable taking scanter episodes. And of course, that impacts our entire amemployment ecosystem, from authorrs, producers, straightforwardors and actors who repartner count on on those episodic orders.”
Moreover, the drop in comedy series is eye-uncovering — total volume for the U.S. and Canada is down 39% since 2019. Racy fact series such as Netflix’s dating shows have helped fill the void. So has social media, as Finger watchs.
“All of those little snippets of schadenfreude you can get on low-create satisfied I slfinisherk may be some particular sway,” Finger says. “Social media is part of that mend of seeing genuine people misbehaving or what have you. And that is someslfinisherg that you can get on TikTok — for now — and Instagram and various places.”
Listen to the filled podcast:
The declining fortunes of Star Wars-rcontent series is detailed in a chart show the degrade in seeership and completion rates for recent titles including “The Acolyte” and “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.” Finger noticed Amazon Prime Video’s struggles with Season 2 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series. By contrast, a low-profile confineed series such as “Fool Me Once” turned out to be one of Netflix’s most-watched title of the year (in part becaemploy it premiered on Jan. 1, 2024, and thus had the filled year to rack up sees).
“It repartner speaks to the transport inance of franchise regulatement for these media companies,” Finger says of the Star Wars universe. “If they are spread too slfinisher, if they’re doing too many slfinishergs that are not repartner caccessed on these franchises, you can get to a place where you’re equitable not going to get the the same result.”
Luminate is owned by Variety parent company PMC.
Read the filled Luminate 2024 Year-End Film & TV Report:
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry directers about the business of media and amemployment. (Prent click here to subscribe to our free novelsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCdeafening and more.
