Ever scroll through the TV guide past dozens of shows you’ve never heard of or would never consider watching and wonder who in the world watches them?
You probably have, because according to a report issued by FX, there were more than 1,400 primetime television series that made it to air in 2015, including 412 original scripted series.
Those numbers sound outrageous, especially considering they include only primetime TV and don’t count original programming on streaming sites like Netflix, which are seizing more and more of the television market.
But is the proliferation of TV series any sort of problem? FX’s chief executive thinks so. Here’s what the network’s CEO, John Landgraf, pronounced back in August, according to The Hollywood Reporter:
“This is simply too much television. My sense is that 2015 or 2016 will represent peak TV in America, and that we’ll begin to see declines coming the year after that and beyond.”
With the cable industry under threat as streaming increasingly replaces live viewing, networks will presumably have to scale back their output, or at least channel their attention toward cheaper programming like reality television, maybe as soon as 2016. With more than 1,000 unscripted shows—again, just in primetime—it will be hard to imagine making any possible programming that much cheaper than it is.
This is an important issue for TV execs to figure out, but from a consumer’s perspective, there doesn’t seem to be any downside to excess TV. Sure the vast majority of series are not very good, but choices are never bad, and if people want to watch “Hoarders Family Secrets” or “Celebrity Food Fight” or “Sex Sent me to the Slammer” they’re better off for having the opportunity.
From a business perspective, it’s easy to imagine 1,400 television series is too many, but from a viewer’s shoes it’s a dream. Really, we should savor this era of more TV than we know what to do with, because it might not last too much longer. You would think we could express our gratitude for this golden age of television by watching something other than “Big Bang Theory,” “NCIS” and “The Walking Dead,” but that’s for a different post. Of course, that’s as long as someone, thank you Netflix, Amazon and other streaming services, has the money to pay for the good stuff to watch.
Here’s the full list of primetime TV series aired in 2015, ranked by viewership.
All Primetime Series on Television
