My apologies for the lateness of today’s newsletter. I had to take care of some personal stuff, which pushed my workday back quite a bit.
The Ampere Study On Increased Time Between Seasons Doesn’t Mean What The Hollywood Trades Are Telling You
It’s a very tough time to be a journalist anywhere, but especially difficult if you’re writing about entertainment. That is even the case at the various Penske Media Hollywood trades, where there are fewer journalists cranking out an increasing number of pieces, Many of them posted primarily to serve the SEO Gods while at the same time boosting the visibility of the company’s big moneymakers: live events and FYC advertising.
A press release with some data that can drive pageviews is always catnip, so I wasn’t surprised to see the latest info from Ampere Analysis being covered on nearly every conceivable entertainment news site today. And sadly, I also wasn’t surprised to see nearly every article get it wrong.
The headline of the email from Ampere was titled “The Stranger Things Effect? Viewers Are Waiting Longer Than Ever For Returning Streaming Shows.”
Shout out to Deadline for using the phrase “the Stranger Things Effect” in the headline of its version of the re-worked press release. But I read maybe a dozen versions of the story, none of which provided any context beyond what was included in the Ampere press release:
Streaming audiences are waiting longer than ever for the return of their favourite Original shows. According to new research from Ampere Analysis, the average gap between seasons of Scripted Originals has almost doubled from 12 months in 2020 to 21 months in 2025. While audiences remain loyal to hit titles such as Severance and Wednesday, longer waits risk fuelling subscriber churn if platforms fail to keep viewers engaged.
There are several problems with focusing on this paragraph. First, the press release doesn’t provide any context for the “risk fueling subscriber churn” claim, other than this data point. Which provides such a vague cause-and-effect claim that it is essentially useless:
Despite strong engagement around returning shows, long gaps create risk. In Q1 2026 in the US, 54% of respondents said they would be likely to cancel a service subscription if they were not using it often enough. Long waits between seasons leave streaming platforms vulnerable to churn and encourage audiences to only subscribe when their favourite shows return.
And this statement from Christen Tamisin, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis that is included in the press release is front and center of every story about the study. In large part because it provides an excuse for every person in Hollywood to point to the coverage and scream “See! Streamers need to have longer seasons and shorter breaks between seasons! Just like they used to do on broadcast TV!”
"Many Original shows build highly dedicated audiences that remain loyal despite increasingly long waits between seasons. However, streamers need to balance blockbuster production timelines against a steady flow of content. Extended gaps may generate anticipation around flagship titles, but they can also encourage audiences to cancel subscriptions and return only when major shows are back on screen."
Except…there are plenty of datapoints (and I use this term very loosely) in the press release that suggests the very opposite behavior from consumers:
“The long gaps between seasons may actually lead to higher engagement. Existing audiences often rewatch earlier seasons to refresh their memories, while new audiences continue discovering shows during the gap between releases.”
“Original shows with gaps of over 30 months between seasons have achieved the highest engagement* in the premiere month of the new season. Shows including Apple TV’s Severance and Netflix’s Wednesday generated almost twice the average engagement levels despite lengthy waits between seasons.”
That “*” in the paragraph above points to the biggest problem with the Ampere Analysis data. That “highest engagement” figure is based solely on Internet search activity. And that is apparently the case with this entire study.
I say apparently, because the press release doesn’t discuss how the data was collected. And I couldn’t find a mention anywhere on the Ampere web site about its methodology.
I have nothing against using social media posts or Internet search activity as a way to develop some interesting trends. But we shouldn’t be using it as the basis for making industry-wide decisions on what does and doesn’t work with streaming audiences.
And it didn’t take long for the headlines to make the jump into budding industry conventional wisdom. Lesley Goldberg has an excellent piece this afternoon on The Ankler entitled “The Pitt Effect: A Scramble To Get Shows Back On The Air Faster.” I tend to think “The Pitt Effect” is more dependent on having a strong show than it is on the number of episodes in a season. But regardless, a lot of executives believe it and it is forming some of their decision making right now.
However, there is also this passage, which links to Deadline’s coverage of the Ampere study:
In fact, a new report from Ampere Analysis found that the average time gap between seasons on major streaming platforms nearly doubled from a year in 2020 to 21 months in 2025. The result is that streaming shows today rarely make it to four seasons, as platforms would rather shift resources to new originals than pay more for aging shows that are delivering smaller audiences.
Once again, while the study found that gaps between seasons had doubled, that fact is being cherrypicked here to suggest that the extended gaps are leading to fewer seasons of shows.
But she does touch on one aspect of this process that tends to get lost in these discussions. Many of the shows cited in the study as having the longest gaps between seasons also showed the highest engagement. In large part, I suspect, because they are expensive genre shows that have loyal audiences willing to wait it out.
And at least in the case of Netflix, there are two additional factors contributing to why shows tend to die there after two or three seasons. Partly, it’s contractual. Costs tend to rise substantially a couple of seasons in due to the way cast contracts are written. So unless a show is generating a growing or at least solid audience, it likely won’t survive.
On a side note, that is why Netflix splits a lot of its animated shows into “chapters.” It orders one season, which is 13 or 23 episodes. Then it divides those episodes into shorter chapters in order to stretch out the releases and keep from paying the higher costs that come from ordering a second or third season.
But getting back to my main point, the other factor that leads to Netflix preferring more shows with shorter seasons is because it’s better for both subscriber growth and reducing churn. I’ve written about this a number of times in this newsletter and I don’t want to bore you again. But trust me, there is plenty of data that supports that decision.
So yes, the streamers are making an effort to tighten the gap on shows overall, but it’s not for the reasons conventional wisdom would suggest. Despite what you might be reading in the trades today.
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Odds & Sods
The French-language remake of Zorro is premiering in the U.S. and Canada Tuesday, June 30th on MHz Choice. It previously premiered on France 2 and Paramount+ in select international territories. Here is a look at the trailer and here is a photo gallery of images from season one. This is the official logline: “
Spotify, Netflix, and Jay Shetty today announced a new partnership to expand On Purpose into video across both services.
The season four two-part reunion special for Southern Hospitality premieres Wednesday, June 3rd on Bravo.
The first episode of Instadocs premieres Saturday, May 30th on Netflix. The streamer describes the series as “a new fast-turnaround documentary series that takes you to the very center of the loudest headlines, immersing you in the facts and feelings of the moment.” Saturday’s episode is entitled Instadocs: Alex Murdaugh, Unconvicted. Here is the official logline: “In 2023, former lawyer Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, and was convicted on two counts of murder and two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He also pleaded guilty to dozens of financial crimes. While Murdaugh began serving consecutive life sentences in a maximum security prison, his team appealed the verdict, claiming that Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill had interfered with the jury. On May 13, 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the double-murder conviction, granting him a new trial that will take place this year. Instadocs: Alex Murdaugh, Unconvicted features interviews with South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the creators of Trial Watchers, as well as jurors — including Myra Crosby — whose shocking dismissal from the jury contributed to questions about Hill’s misconduct.”
What Is Hasan Piker Watching On TV?
If you have spent any time around engaged people on the political left, you have no doubt heard a lot of conversation about the political commentator and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.
The TV Scholar newsletter has an interview with Hasan in which he talks a lot about his TV viewing habits.
The entire piece is worth reading, but this exchange jumped out at me, because it frames broadcast TV procedurals in a way you don’t often hear from people in the TV industry:
I’m always surprised by how the 65+ demo still watch broadcast TV procedurals. Do you ever tune into any of those?
I’m very familiar with it. I don’t watch any of it, but I think it’s really interesting because it's pro cop, but it's also very woke at the same time. They are personally rewiring the brains of a lot of boomers to be more open-minded to, like, trans people, to understand consent, especially if they had a very different understanding of consent in their upbringing. They talk about concepts such as patriarchy, but also at the same time it’s very, very pro cop. All of those copaganda shows are very interesting. It's this "blue lives matter," but also Black Lives Matter, and "all lives matter" narrative that they teach people. They're like yeah, we're pro-trans, but also we got to make sure that the police force is heavily armed and they're doing a great job combating these sorts of heinous crimes, so they have to be well funded. Interesting.
What’s Coming Tonight And Tomorrow
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27TH, 2026:
A Good Girl's Guide To Murder Season Two (Netflix)
Brilliant Minds Season Premiere (NBC)
Kylie: Tension Tour Live (Netflix)
Mystery At Blind Frog Ranch Season Premiere (Discovery)
My Two Cents Series Premiere (Netflix)
Secrets Of The Dead: China's Bronze Kingdom (PBS)
Southern Hospitality Season Four Finale (Bravo)
Spider-Noir Series Premiere (Prime Video)
The Rise And Fall Of The Roman Empire (History)
The Testaments Season One Finale (Hulu)
THURSDAY, MAY 28TH, 2026:
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season Premiere (Paramount+)
Deli Boys Season Two Premiere (Hulu)
Good Night With Ben Glieb Series Premiere (YouTube)
Murder Mindfully (Netflix)
The Four Seasons Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
Viral Hit Series Premiere (Netflix)