Category: Netflix

Does the Fall TV season still matter?

Fall TV

This question has been going through my head for the past few months, as a new TV season has begun.  Just like every year that I remember, the broadcast television networks brought back many of their biggest shows for their season premieres.  Also, new series debuted with the hopes of becoming big hits on their own.  Many of those new shows get cancelled while others live on to “maybe” to become a big hit, lasting numerous seasons and making stars of its cast.

However, as time goes on, competitors to the TV season have emerged in numerous places, to the point that the fall season is increasingly losing significance.  There are other times of the year/ways to watch television that are increasingly competing with the status quo.  Here are some examples.

1. Netflix/Hulu/Amazon: Their original programs tend to premiere outside of the Fall window.  “House of Cards” seasons have launched in February.  “Orange is the New Black” premieres during the summer.  Amazon has been an exception, with its original shows like “Transparent” going live in the fall.  Outside of their constant new programming, these services have entire runs of series that are no longer on the air, but were huge successes.  Why watch a new series on CBS when Netflix has every episode of “Lost” or “Breaking Bad”?

2. Cable: Speaking of “Breaking Bad”, AMC will bring its spinoff “Better Call Saul” to air in February.  The cable networks have year-round launches for new shows.  HBO has some of its biggest hits like “Game of Thrones” and “Girls” premiering early in the year.

3. The increasing role of the “midseason replacement”.  NBC programs its spring schedule around the fact that “Sunday Night Football” only happens in the fall.  Fox only airs “American Idol” (which spent most of the 2000’s as the highest rated show on TV) in the spring.  No longer is the cream of the crop of broadcast offerings reserved for just the fall.

4. Cat videos, and other non-“TV” video entertainment.
Autumn is still an important time for the entire commercial world to begin, especially with the school year (and major ad campaigns targeting the back to school crowd) starting.  However, it is only one venue now to launch new and returning TV shows.

Amazon’s “Transparent” shows that “Binge Watching” works.

Jeffrey Tambor in “Transparent”

How much of “Transparent”‘s success is due to Amazon’s decision to release it’s first season’s episodes in a Netflix-like “binge watching” approach?  Based on results, the approach works.  The entire season was released on September 26, 2014 and already renewed for a second season on October 9th, less than two weeks later.

This is clearly a reflection of Netflix, who has released its entire seasons of original shows like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” at one time.  A year ago, Amazon’s first two original series, “Betas” and “Alpha House” were released in the more traditional manner of one new episode debuting each week.  It took Amazon a few months from the premiere until the announcements to renew or cancel.  “Alpha House” was given a second season while “Betas” was cancelled.

Amazon has announced that Season 2 of “Alpha House” will be released all at once, unlike it’s first year of episodes.

Amazon, Netflix and other services like Hulu are in the infancy of releasing studio quality “Television” shows on their online services.  They are still fine tuning how this process works, from the time of year to release new shows and the choice between coming out with the entire batch of shows at once or releasing them on a weekly basis.  Hulu has taken the weekly approach with “The Awesomes”, an animated superhero parody led by Seth Meyers, and featuring the voices of Meyers and other comedians from the SNL / NBC / Lorne Michaels camp.  The show has completed two seasons, with a third on the way.  However, its buzz is quite weak compared to the successes on Netflix, Amazon and traditional TV shows like “Game of Thrones” and “Breaking Bad”.

Obviously, the entire season can’t be released for everything.  Chelsea Handler’s new late night series for Netflix will likely be topical, and wouldn’t make sense to release more than one episode of a time.  However, for most traditional TV formats debuting on an online VOD service, the entire season approach has seen the most success.