Is it just me or are seasons of shows getting shorter and shorter? Mayans was only ten episodes while I remember Sons of Anarchy churning out 14 + episodes a season. American Horror Story will only be 9 episodes, they use to be 12 + episodes. Now of course you have TWD which drags on with 16 episode seasons, but I think for the most part I dislike how short seasons are getting with TV shows
shareNot sure the reason but I think a show like American Horror Story which is basically a mini-series really does better with a shorter season. I remember struggling to get through earlier seasons because some episodes felt entirely like filler and they tried way too hard to fill up the time. This season is the first I've watched in a while and I've been enjoying that it feels pretty straightforward.
I'll edit to add that I really hated the 90+ minutes episodes they would do back in the day as well.
Over here in the UK, most of our shows have only 6 episodes a series so 9-10 sounds pretty reasonable if you ask me.
Plain and simple: It's getting too expensive to produce long season.
A lot of that expense is salaries. Many actors these days get paid more for a single episode than actors used to get for an entire season. Back in the seventies, seasons of 30+ episodes were not uncommon. Imagine trying to pay for that today.
I agree that's it's mainly money. I remember the time when studios would order 13 weeks worth of episodes, and if the show did well after the first few weeks, they'd order additional episodes. I have no idea what they do now, though. I watch mostly British shows these days, and yes, most of them are 6 or 8 episodes, maybe 10 at the most.
shareBecause the production cost increases tremendously overtime when a series turns out successful (payments, bonuses, royalties, more elaborate CGI, etc.) and studio can only has so much budget... therefore later seasons usually have fewer episodes to stay in production.
shareAll kinds of reasons. The actors get paid way too much these days and bring up the cost of doing a show. There are also all sorts of labor unions involved in almost every aspect of the production that make it much harder to do business. On the bright side it makes every episode mean something instead of there being certain episodes that are a waste of space, just there to fill a quota.
shareAnything over 10 episodes is way too long. And I hate when every season is the same amount of episodes as if magically they keep telling their story within that episode limit.
shareNot enough talent.
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