A Sony TV executive has slammed the streaming industry for being ‘too data driven’, blaming the focus on metrics as the reason for lengthy gaps between seasons for fan-favourite shows like Euphoria and Stranger Things.
Speaking at the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo in Rome, Sony Pictures TV President Katherine Pope criticised firms for slowing down their series-renewal process, calling the delays ‘absolutely untenable’.
‘It is so frustrating. Those long delays are just absolutely untenable and they are not fair to the fans.’
While acknowledging that some of the hold ups may come from ‘the gigantic scale of productions’, Pope said that ‘some of it also comes from data-driven companies who don’t want to pick something up until it premieres and want to wait a month.’
The veteran television executive also warned that the extended delays between seasons risk viewers failing to return to shows that they had previously watched.
‘In such a saturated world, we can’t afford to lose fans,’ she said. ‘It is hard enough to get them.’
It is not uncommon for viewers to sit down to watch their favourite TV series after patiently waiting for its return, only to realise that it has been so long since the previous season aired that they cannot remember what happened.
While Pope did not point any fingers, TV shows like HBO’s Euphoria and Netflix’s Stranger Things are just examples of the several shows that have seen lengthy gaps between seasons, noticeably causing frustration among fans.
Euphoria, starring Zendaya, is expected to begin filming its third season in January, a whole three years after season two aired. Season one came three years before that.
Meanwhile, the fifth and final season of sci-fi show Stranger Things, which stars Millie Bobby Brown and Winona Ryder, will air in 2025, also three years after the previous set of episodes were released.
The second season for HBO’s s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon aired in June but won’t return to screens until at least 2026.
As for the 2023 post-apocalyptic hit, The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, its second season will return next year.
But BBC’s Happy Valley, which had its last season air in 2023, takes the prize for the longest interlude as actress Sarah Lancashire, who plays police sergeant Catherine Cawood, did not reprise her role on the crime drama for seven years after the release of its second season in 2016.