It took nearly three years for the second season of Wednesday to arrive, and Netflix paid the price: a 59% drop in audience in the USA over the first 12 weeks of this release.
According to a recent study by the firm Luminate, a waiting time longer than 18 months multiplies the chances of a drop in interest, despite exceptions that prove the rule such as Severance on Apple TV.
Stranger Things and The Rings of Power hit by the audience decline
Even giants like Stranger Things are affected, with 23% fewer viewers in the USA for the latest seasons, more than three years after the previous one. A similar observation applies to The Rings of Power on Prime Video, with 57% of its audience lost after two years of waiting for the second season. It should be noted that the questionable quality of the series in question is potentially worth considering…
More expensive and longer-to-produce series
The study suggests that this drop in interest can compound: once a series has lost momentum, the next waiting window will be even more damaging. A wait that is now unavoidable because series are more elaborate, more expensive and take longer to produce. The era when a new season arrived every year on the same date is over.
Broadcasters must now find that fragile balance point between ambitious productions and an increasingly impatient audience.