It’s official (well, as official as polls and the like can be): viewers have realized that networks are canceling things so easily and so quickly, and they’ve begun to adapt to this new TV landscape. After all, why get attached to the show and invest time in the characters only to have him hacked to death shortly after the end of the season, like a recent Reload (even if he deserves a second season)? Or just a month, like several other long list shows canceled in 2022? Also, there is a chance that the show’s renewal will simply be dropped and eventually canceled (Shine), because, without quoting anyone specifically, “money matters, but shares.” Beyond the obvious impact on the many people involved behind the scenes, from directors, writers, and those first few listed on the call list, to every one of the names flashing quickly through the end credits, viewers themselves are increasingly through with a dash around.
Like a recent YouGov (via Diversity) the poll found that 27% of American adults would rather wait until the season is over and the future looks rosy or at least certain before they even want to start a new streaming show. They apparently got burned too many times and came to the conclusion that waiting until it was done was the best course of action to avoid wasting time in dead ends. If 27% doesn’t seem like a very large number, there’s also 46% from the same poll - that’s the number of Americans who would rather wait until the entire series is completed before even starting the first episode.
Most likely, this is the case when many refuse to pull the carpet out from under them again and again. Maybe they’re longtime TV viewers who see the endless stream of new streaming services and the many shows each one brings with them as the perfect opportunity to step back with a wait-and-see approach (or “cut the cord” is a popular phrase for cutting cable completely). television). Maybe it’s a younger viewer who has never really known any other kind of TV choice other than the a la carte nature of all the different streaming options, in which case the feeling of unique attachment to some old way of watching things is completely out of place. starter. Either way, they don’t want to play this game.
“Must-See TV” to “Can Wait TV”
For those who still remember the old days when TV was the only way to watch the latest episodes of your favorite shows from a rather limited number of networks, the options are endless. Instead of trying to keep up with everything, which is completely impossible, viewers can now choose on their own terms and in their own time. If the DVR once gave viewers the opportunity to watch an episode at their leisure, the instant gratification of binge viewing seems to have combined with the delayed gratification of delayed viewing (waiting for the series to end before starting) to become binge drinking. - wind up the clock. Depending on the person and the series, it’s entirely possible to loop the entire show in the amount of time it would take between two new episodes airing on TV. There’s something to be said for a TV season that stretches out over a period of time instead of being a flicker in a pan that burns so brightly and so quickly. At the very least, it instills some forced patience in an increasingly dynamic world.
Making sure that society appreciates patience and other worthy qualities was hardly the intention of such things as “Destination Viewing”, “Must-View TV” or any other catchy phrase that appears on page after page. TV program, but the effective buzzwords really reinforced the concept of regularly sitting down and watching the show as something actionable and fun to talk about with friends, family, and colleagues in the coming days. From September to May, when there may have been too many repetitions, this was common. However, within this instilled regularity, those in charge seemed to understand that schedules and promises actually meant something. Performances were canceled all the time, obviously, both undeservedly and for a good reason, but on the whole there was order (again, it must be emphasized, in general). The show ran for a while, had a chance to sink or swim, and was then either canceled or renewed shortly after the series ended. There were, of course, some aberrations, but basically it was reliable and easy enough for viewers.
It’s safe to say that the framework is largely gone. There are many more series using the classic TV model on old school networks, some of which continue to be quite successful, but the wide scale structure of how it used to function has been replaced by a looser understanding. From things like the number of episodes a show can have in any given year, to when the next season might air, it’s all a bit of crap. A fun new trend that Warner Bros. has recently indulged in is canceling shows that have already been renewed for another season. Not only that, but in some cases, these decision makers are actually waiting until production on a new season is almost done (or fully wrapped!) before handing the entire cast and crew a notice notice. Stuff like this hasn’t gone unnoticed among TV viewers, which is no doubt a contributing factor to some of them being reluctant to start new shows.
Cancellation or Overeating?
Also according to that Diversity A YouGov study found that 48% of those surveyed said they wanted to wait until the end of the series because they prefer to watch drunkenly. As if being cautious about cancellation wasn’t enough, the reality is also that many simply aren’t interested in waiting to see the last episode every week, one at a time, for months on end. TV seasons, especially for streaming services, are often 6 to 13 episodes long, and whether a show is 30 minutes long or an hour long, making it a long weekend after it ends is just too appealing to millions of fans. Whatever the reason, many viewers came to the same conclusion just by checking out a series they heard was good once it was over and done with.
There is no longer a learning curve for the show as the writers and actors figure out what works and what doesn’t and what they haven’t even considered. They have to somehow be amazing right off the bat to be a resounding success, or at least enough success for people to try, but then the show also needs to nail the ending in a way that makes some sort of social media buzz. What’s missing from this script is the entire middle section, between the premiere and the finale, where the series really reveals itself and the viewer discovers what they like, from the characters to the storylines to the music and everything. As the saying goes, it’s more about the journey than the destination, and postponing possible pleasure to some hypothetical end date for fear of getting burned again will only lead to a lot of wasted pleasure and unattainable expectations.
Source: Collider
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