For those complaining that there is nothing good to watch these days as far as sci fi and fantasy television shows, pretty soon they may start to realize just how good they had it over the past few years. Peak TV has been cranking out scripted series left and right, and while the quality may vary widely and the longevity of shows may not have been great, it’s a stretch to say that you can’t find anything to watch. But as we progress into 2023 and beyond, a dearth of genre entries may become more of a reality.
As I have been putting together the schedule during the 2022-23 season (you can see the current Sci Fi TV premieres at this link), I have noticed that there have been fewer premiers than last season most months, and as we head into Spring and Summer the numbers appear to be dropping even more. The chart below (click to enlarge) shows the trend which started with more premieres than the prior season during August and September, but that was because television was still recovering from the COVID production delays at the beginning of Fall 2021. Beginning with October, the current season numbers began to lag behind last year and that trend has continued.
As we head into Spring, the numbers look particularly low in April and May with not much more following in the Summer months. I know that we are still waiting on premiere announcements, and more shows will start to fill up the schedule, but those are coming at a much slower pace than last year. April currently only has one genre premiere at this point (From Season 2 on MGM+) and that was just announced this week. The streaming services do tend to drop shows on the schedule without much advance notice, but by this time last year, there were notably more shows with their premiere dates set already.
In addition to this, the broadcast networks have announced no sci fi and fantasy pilots for the 2023-24 season. That is the big goose egg, nothing currently in the works. And that is the first time I recall that happening in a very long time (maybe as far back as the ’80s or ’90s). There are also very few shows in the works on the cable networks, including the premium cablers like HBO and Starz. There are still plenty of shows on the way from the streaming services (and you can keep up with development announcements and updates with the weekly Sci Fi TV Week in Review column), but that does appear to be slowing down to an extent. When you factor in all the cancellations and shows ending (26 so far this season), the number of genre shows available certainly appears to be on the downswing.
This should not come as a huge surprise, though. I have been saying for a while that Peak TV has to reach its peak at some point, and we may very likely be there now. There is an iron economic that is law quickly forgotten by economists and business leaders who should know better when the money is rolling in: The numbers can’t keep going up! Peak TV hit a new record in 2022, but I don’t expect to see scripted television at those levels again this year as the streaming services deal with cost overruns and behind-the-scenes shakeups and the linear channels back away from new development. Whether this will lead to just a market correction or a bursting of the bubble remains to be seen. But don’t expect the glut of television production to continue.
To some degree, this may not be a bad thing. Do we really need all these supernatural and superhero shows that have made up the majority of the genre output over the past few years? Sure, there are some gems among them (like Syfy’s Surrealestate and Disney+’s She-Hulk) but there are also far too many retreads. Trimming those down might not be a bad thing. We will also likely see less of the mega-budget productions like Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Netflix’s The Sandman. But sci fi can still produce decent shows on a budget as we have seen with the recent entry The Rig (more on that at this link).
At this point, genre fans need to focus their attention on the current and upcoming shows they want to watch and start supporting them. The networks have been bad about promoting their own shows, particularly the streaming services, so the fans need to take to the social networks and bring them more attention. That won’t guarantee that they will survive the purge that could be coming, but it will at least give them a boost. The number of sci fi and fantasy shows on the schedule is declining and that may be the trend across all television programming in the coming years. Fans can at least stump for their shows and hope that they survive a potential scripted series crash or at least get the opportunity to wrap up their storylines. And stay tuned to CancelledSciFi.com as we predict the fate of the current shows while also tracking the potential decline of Peak TV.
Which sci fi and fantasy shows are you currently watching and will you make an effort to bring more attention to them? Chime in with your comments below.
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates of all the airing, returning, and upcoming sci fi and fantasy shows for the current season with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
SciFiTVSite.com: Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
