Netflix Shows Lose 30-70% of Viewers Between Seasons Due to Streaming Economics · Digg

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Netflix Shows Lose 30-70% of Viewers Between Seasons Due to Streaming Economics

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Par Pill (evm/acc)@pill_evmTECH

@TrungTPhan Man that's so real. You can really feel the quality dip when shows get stretched just to fill a slot.

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Many users validated the point that Netflix shows lose viewers between seasons because they notice a real quality dip when series get stretched to fill streaming slots.

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Marc Sequence ᯅ@LifeguardDJTECH

@TrungTPhan 😲🥳 https://x.com/LifeguardDJ/status/2074170131547394472/photo/1

Trung Phan@TrungTPhanTECH

Lucas has a good interview with Matt Stone, who said he gave up on new TV shows because streaming economics “distort the art”. Stone’s view helps explain 30-70% viewership drop-off for Netflix shows between S1 and S2. Streaming shows are created at volume and not every episode can maintains the quality bar. This causes problem because one of the key metrics for streamers is “completion rate” (% of people who finish a show they started). Low completion rates lead to shows getting cancelled. This is why so many with devoted fan bases get scrapped after 1 or 2 seasons. Viewers enter shows not knowing how many seasons they will get. When execs decide to renew, it often takes 2-3 years between new seasons. Even when a show gets multiple seasons, the median viewer then bounces after a bad episode…which then lowers completion rate…which leads to eventual cancellation…which conditions viewer to expect streaming shows to all eventually crap the bed and/or leave narrative arcs hanging (if they get cancelled). Stone did watch a few streaming show but always caught a dud episode and “it feels like your wasting my time, it’s a betrayal.” Add in Netflix’s binge mode style — without the traditional weekly audience can talk about the show cadence — and it’s hard for viewers to truly invest their attention. Also, shows that do get a 2nd season have the marketing energy split with the conveyor belt of brand new shows Netflix is always cranking out. “The butter and bread equation has gotten screwed up in the 2010s,” Stone says. “There’s this much butter in the world but we’re going to make [a lot more] bread. There’s just not that much good stuff out there.” *** Full interview here from 2025: https://youtu.be/xVvNc4x88AM?si=AtacDNIJiXh852A3

Trung Phan@TrungTPhanTECH

Here’s my full write up on how streaming economics changed TV shows over the past decade…and why the only new shows I’ll watch are anthology series liek White Lotus: https://www.readtrung.com/p/the-case-against-streaming-tv-shows

The Case Against Streaming TV Shows(readtrung.com)viaTrung Phan
Co-Creator Stone on South Park and the Promise of AI(YouTube)viaTrung Phan

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