For the past few years, FX Networks Chairman John Landgraf gives a pseudo-State of Peak TV update. He commissions his internal research team to come up with stats relating to the volume of scripted series that get released each year. And it appears that with the influx of streaming services, 2019 was yet another record-breaking year.
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According to Landgraf’s research, which he presented at a recent TCA panel, 2019 features 532 scripted original series and limited series. That’s up 7% from 2018, which then had a record-breaking total of 495 scripted series. And the FX boss doesn’t see the growth stopping anytime soon.
“Given that the streaming wars are now at hand, that total will increase substantially this year, which to me is just bananas,” Landgraf said (via THR).
Landgraf is absolutely right in his estimation that the number of TV series will likely keep going up before it begins to plateau eventually. Put simply, we have yet to see the peak of Peak TV, thanks to the new services like HBO Max and Peacock (debuting this year), as well as the ramped-up efforts from Apple TV+, Disney+, and FX (and its new home on Hulu). Not to mention the continued arms race between Amazon and Netflix.
Obviously, with 532 scripted series released in 365 days, there’s literally not enough time to watch everything. Even if you slept 8 hours a day but did nothing else other than watch all the new scripted shows, you’re still probably going to fall behind. We are coming close to a point of oversaturation. Sure, you could argue we’re already there, but at some point, the sheer number of scripted series (no matter the quality) will be too much and streaming services (and networks) will begin to falter.
But in the meantime, get ready for a bigger avalanche of scripted programming in 2020.