Why Your Favorite Streaming Shows Have Shorter Seasons: Sterling K. Brown Breaks Down the Economics

'Paradise'

My wife and I are fans of Paradise, and there are times between seasons when we wish we had way more episodes. I suppose you feel that way about every show you love. But when the show is on streaming, you know you're only going to get 8-10 episodes.

Now, I work in Hollywood, and I've tried to explain why that happened to my wife tons of times, but leave it to Sterling K Brown, the amazing actor, to break it all down in terms that are easy for anyone inside or outside the industry to understand.

The comment went viral and was all over the internet. And I want to dissect it.

Let's dive in.

The Quote

"Cable and streamers don't make money on more episodes, but network does. Network is all about advertisers. The more shows you have, the more ads you can run, the more money you make. Premium cable and streamers make their money off subscribers. So it's not about how many shows do you have. It's about how many new shows do you have that make people wanna subscribe to your platform. So if they did more episodes, they don't necessary get new subscribers. But if they come with something that's new and shiny that's makes people say 'ooooo I wanna see that,' then they're building their subscriber base. The only thing that could change it is if fans actually stop subscribing and mandate that these platforms make longer seasons, but I don't think that's gonna happen."

Sterling K. Brown Breaks Down Streaming Formats

Okay, so the comment was posted on a thread discussing the Season 2 finale of his Hulu series, Paradise (created by Dan Fogelman), which had just aired.

Basically, fans were upset over the shorter episode count and the long wait for Season 3, and Brown stepped in to explain the industry's shift from the 22-episode network model (which he lived through on This Is Us) to the current "subscriber-focused" streaming model.

Honestly, I'm not sure there's an actor better suited to talk about this in modern development, so it was cool to see.

The Network Model

In the traditional broadcast world (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox), the math is simple: you want Inventory to place advertisements to get paid.

As Brown explains, "Network is all about advertisers. The more shows you have, the more ads you can run, the more money you make."

This is the old model, and one we're seeing kind of die out.

Broadcast networks operate on an ad-supported model that streamers are actually trying to replicate on a much smaller scale, and with a different strategy.

Every hour of television contains roughly 18 to 22 minutes of commercial space. A 22-episode season provides 484 minutes of ad inventory to sell.

If a show is a hit, the network wants as many episodes as possible because each additional episode represents a fresh opportunity to sell high-priced "spots" to brands.

Streaming doesn't need episodes...it needs shows.

👁 Sterling K. Brown in 'This is Us'
Sterling K. Brown in 'This is Us'Credit: Netflix

The Streaming Model

Streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Max (along with premium cable like HBO) operate on an entirely different engine: Subscriptions.

"Premium cable and streamers make their money off subscribers," Brown notes. "So it’s not about how many shows do you have. It’s about how many new shows do you have that make people wanna subscribe to your platform."

In the streaming world, a 22-episode season of a returning show offers "diminishing returns" for the platform's growth.

If you already subscribe to Netflix to watch Stranger Things, Netflix doesn’t necessarily make more money if the season is 20 episodes long versus 8 episodes.

Your monthly fee remains the same.

They need to get the people who don't watch Stranger Things as subscribers, so it means finding shows for them.

So they use their budgets to acquire new content. They would rather spend their production budget on three different 8-episode series (each capable of attracting a different demographic or "niche") than on one 24-episode season of a single show.

That makes more sense for them, even as they bring ad-tiers onto their services.

The Churn Factor

Every streamer has the same goal: to prevent churn. But what is churn? That's the industry term for when a user cancels their subscription.

Brown argues that "if they did more episodes, they don’t necessarily get new subscribers."

From a corporate perspective, once you are "hooked" on the platform, the platform's goal shifts to finding the next thing to bring in the next person.

This leads to the "Boutique" feel of modern TV, where high-budget, cinematic, short-run series are prioritized over the long-running "comfort" shows of the past.

They need things to be buzzy, so people go to the next show, or they need to replace the people leaving with new subscribers coming in.

Can the Trend Be Reversed?

No.

And don't take just my word for it. Brown is skeptical about a return to the 22-episode standard in the digital age. You'd need people to rise up and cancel at a rate that feels impossible.

"The only thing that could change it is if fans actually stop subscribing and mandate that these platforms make longer seasons," Brown says. "But I don’t think that’s gonna happen."

We live having our shows, and we wouldn't want the interruption it would take to overhaul an entire industry norm.

Now, I am surprised these streamers are not willing to try and make a lot of episodes of a cheap show, but I also get that would mean hiring a lot more people, and I am sure they ran the math and decided that was not profitable for them.

👁 Sterling K. Brown in ''American Fiction'
Sterling K. Brown in ''American Fiction'Credit: Orion Pictures, Amazon

The Filmmaker Takeaway

For filmmakers and writers, this shift means the industry has moved away from "marathon" storytelling toward "sprint" storytelling.

It means fewer jobs from top to bottom, and more people trying to work on multiple shows in one year, just to make ends meet.

While the shorter seasons allow for higher production values and less "filler" content, they also mean fewer workdays for crews and fewer opportunities for bottle episodes and deep-dive character development that defined the Golden Age of Network TV.

But if you want to work, you have to adapt.

Summing It All Up

In the current landscape, the new title will always beat the longer-running series because, in the eyes of the streamers, a new subscriber is worth more than a satisfied one.

And right now, they are kicking the neworks' butt when it comes to programming and getting eyeballs on things.

Let me know what you think about all this in the comments.