The coronavirus pandemic, which crippled Hollywood manufacturing for months, probably introduced in regards to the peak in what FX chairman John Landgraf as soon as famously coined as Peak TV.
The community’s analysis division has launched its annual estimate of the full variety of scripted tv sequence for calendar 12 months 2020, and it’s 493, a 7% decline from 2019 which noticed 532.
That is the primary time the amount of scripted originals has declined since FX began tallying the reveals in 2009.




Landgraf had been anticipating the huge development of unique scripted sequence we have now seen prior to now decade to decelerate and attain a peak, however the goalpost on that has been transferring because the unique 2016 projection.
And the 2020 decline could possibly be a only a blip that’s adopted by extra development as a result of there have been distinctive circumstances that factored into the 2020 tally, most notably the pandemic.
Associated Story
Pilot Season 2021: What To Expect Amid the Pandemic & Status Of All Leftover 2020 Broadcast Pilots
The published networks picked up a fraction of the variety of new scripted sequence they might’ve usually ordered due to the obliterated 2020 pilot season. They ended up relying extra closely on unscripted and purchased product.
The pandemic-related shutdown additionally created a backlog, forcing streamers and networks to reverse numerous renewals for sequence like Netflix’s The Society and GLOW, and Showtime’s On Changing into a God In Central Florida in addition to delay in pickups of recent sequence till present ones get within the manufacturing pipeline.
The 2020 decline additionally displays the contraction of the unique scripted enterprise in fundamental cable, with the vast majority of ad-supported cable networks pairing down considerably their unique scripted portfolios or exiting the world altogether.
AT&T’s Viewers Community, which carried originals, shut down, however its father or mother WarnerMedia launched a brand new streamer, HBO Max.
With current entrants HBO Max, Disney+, Peacock and Apple TV+ nonetheless in fast growth mode, Amazon’s persevering with development and Netflix’s insatiable urge for food for scripted sequence remaining intact, we could also be in for a year-to-year improve in 2021.
Moreover, the published networks are anticipated to get again to semi-normal this 12 months with near a common quantity of recent scripted sequence.