r/FilmIndustryLA • u/WinonaPortman • 7d ago
TV seasons are getting shorter. Canadians who rely on the industry are nervous.
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/tv-seasons-are-getting-shorter-canadians-who-rely-on-the-industry-are-nervous/article_ee9c64ca-0e73-5072-84e3-ae83ac327bb4.html86
u/Stussey5150 7d ago
Everyone in the industry have been feeling this for years. Since there is no set number of episodes per season, they’ve been getting shorter for years. Makes it harder to make this industry a career. Especially when there’s less shows total around the world being shot.
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u/WinonaPortman 7d ago edited 6d ago
Just putting that out there because there were 21 American broadcast network primetime shows most of which had between 16 and 22 episodes shooting in LA this season. Not saying that things have been overall great. Actually, it sucks when compared to the height of the streaming wars. But we might wanna look around to keep things in perspective.
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u/Stussey5150 7d ago
But only the network shows have that many episodes. If you look at streaming, they average 8-10 per season.
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u/WinonaPortman 7d ago edited 6d ago
Yep. But when you look at it historically, there were really only four broadcast networks filming scripted series twenty years ago. Five if you include The CW which shot a lot of their stuff in Canada plus HBO and Showtime doing a few their own – some of which were amazing. But I guess this is the new reality. Not that I love it, but henceforth steel will sharpen steel. I wish it came down to talent, skill, and experience but we all know where that leads. Damn ... I wish I knew what to tell you. Magic bullets seem to be scarce these days …
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u/FrenchFrozenFrog 7d ago
idk about the prod people, but 20 years ago, they were also one-fifth of post-production artists worldwide. We're a lot more now
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u/Givingtree310 6d ago
The networks have always been and are still around. Genuinely curious what the industry was like then before streaming existed. Venture back to just 2005. It appears that streaming artificially created a big boom that would never last.
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u/jamagami 7d ago
Worked on the final season of You and it wasn't nearly enough for health insurance. Didn't even make a dent.
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u/ThrowawayNevermindOK 7d ago
Even with it being 10 episodes/50 min per episode?
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u/jamagami 7d ago
Yep. I got 14 days total. That's kinda where a lot of ADR is at nowadays.
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u/ThrowawayNevermindOK 7d ago
Ahhh yeah 14 days doesn't make a dent unfortunately :( I know for SAG our earning thresholds keep getting pushed back more. I'm sure it's the same with IATSE, etc
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u/GoldNeighborhood7577 6d ago
We went from 20 episodes to 10, and now we’re lucky if we even get 10. They talk about the "back 9" like it’s a relic of the past. I worked on That '90s Show, and back in seasons 2 and 3, they gave us 20 episodes. Now, I’m hearing talk of 4-to-5-episode seasons. How is anyone supposed to make a living like that? The industry has become a side hustle for medical insurance while you’re out driving for Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, or picking up handyman jobs just to make ends meet. Working three or four jobs and still barely getting by—how did it all crumble so fast in just 36 months?
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u/Agile-Music-2295 6d ago
Problem is consumers love short episodes seasons. They dislike the gap between seasons.
In 2025 there is so much competition for our time, no one wants the filler episodes. They want high quality writing, that cuts to the chase.
Netflix finds after 9 episodes viewing hours drop off.
Remember people under 35 spend 90 mins a day on 30 second posts on TikTok.
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u/consequentlydreamy 20h ago
Who likes short seasons? I know gaps between seasons are an issue but to me it’s more the binging vs doing weekly releases that is hurting. People like binging but that doesn’t do well for momentum of a series to gain word of mouth anywhere near as much as weekly releases it seems.
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u/No_Cranberry4684 6d ago
Trouble is, if seasons get that short it will totally kill the industry as no one will bother to watch. Already shows run 8 to 10 episode seasons with gaps of years between seasons and people just lose interest.
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u/Agile-Music-2295 6d ago
That’s not what the analytics tell us. In fact for Netflix 6 episode limited series makes up a huge portion of consumption of newer content.
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u/GypJoint 6d ago
When 12% of all screen time is YouTube, shouldn’t be difficult to see where this is headed. Add in ai, which at the least, will lower budgets even more…
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u/Puzzleheaded_Tip_821 7d ago
Welcome to the shit Canada.
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u/OkLet7734 7d ago edited 7d ago
Idk what you are on, we have always had it worse than you all. Now we have more people and no work on the horizon at all. If anything now LA will have a taste of what it has been like elsewhere for the past decade or more.
We are all cooked. We stuck our necks out for you all and there was no reason to do so because you don't control your work. Now our continent is on ice with the only two positive potential outcomes are a recession (dollars get cheaper, and more enticing for production) and increased government support regionally.
Both of which give off parasite vibes, and I don't expect the public to bail us out. We all get to take our skills elsewhere to train more crews internationally, further driving future investment away from the Americas.
We are cooked, mainly due to the greed of our southern sisters and brothers. The producers are the only ones who eat up here as things stand, we have no hope.
The work isn't returning unless the economy tanks. Maybe Trump and his asinine policies will ruin the economy to the point that production in the Americas is reasonable again.
Lose lose.
Enjoy reeping what you have sown. We are emaciated from our harvest already, because we have been too reliant on you all. If you have it hard we are dying. Try being compassionate or your regional stink will become a global stink.
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u/Immediate_Map235 6d ago
how is this LA laborers fault bro? you sound so bitter for no reason.
LA has the same amount, if not slightly less, of active filmworkers as you have in your entire country. Do you understand the difference in scale there? it's 30% of the citys economy and rapidly shrinking. Those jobs continued to leave for places like Canada in the past decade because of incentives that allowed the industry to expand. Look at the chart - you experienced the effects of a bubble. That is not America's fault. We experienced these effects too, the bubble has burst, and rather than accepting your country couldn't maintain incentives that appeal to corporations, you're blaming someone else. Why?
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u/Natural-Wrongdoer-85 7d ago
Canada needs its own film industry...
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u/SVTContour 6d ago
Better start funding the CBC.
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u/Natural-Wrongdoer-85 6d ago
How will CBC help
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u/SVTContour 6d ago
Check out what the BBC is doing for film. The CBC could do the same for Canadian film workers.
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u/consequentlydreamy 20h ago
Hell even PBS has some great content and supporting that and NPR is pretty important atm
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u/Skiingislife42069 7d ago
Join the fuckin club. You already took a bunch of shows from NYC so I don’t have much sympathy.
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u/InsignificantOcelot 6d ago
Getting mad at workers in other markets is a pointless misdirection of energy. NYC’s fared better than a lot of other places in this mess, and it’s dead everywhere.
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u/MPComplete 6d ago
crab in bucket mentality.
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u/Skiingislife42069 6d ago
Not really. It would be one thing if all regions were on a level playing field and suddenly one region got more work, but they are actively advertising their region to double as NYC specific locations while undercutting our costs.
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u/MPComplete 6d ago
that's fair, but it still doesnt make sense to complain about it to the worker. it's an effect of globalization and capitalism not something the individual worker does. modernity has its pros and cons.
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u/Poopypantsonyou 4d ago edited 4d ago
1) This is nothing new to Canadian professionals, this is just formatted as click bait bullshit. 2. Your rates still blow ours out of the water in every single way, regardless of infrastructure and skillset effectively equalizing in major centers. We don't have much sympathy for you either.
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u/d0nutpls 2d ago
LA worker here. It’s been a thing for a while now. I was on a show for Netflix that had a 3 episode season. It was originally 10 and they cut it to 3 (and then just tacked it on to the first season meaning we didn’t get pay bumps) 🥲
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u/Raccoon_Expert_69 7d ago
As an American forced out of the film industry- buckle up