Fewer Series, Almost Same Viewing: The Numbers Worrying Hollywood

A report by Luminate reveals that in the first half of 2026, only 517 series and new seasons premiered in the US, a 15% drop from 2025 and 44% from 2022. Cable channels suffered the most, with a 47% decline in output. Despite the drastic cut in supply, viewership of original content fell only 4%, mainly due to viewers relying on older series and vast libraries.

A new report by Luminate, which tracks entertainment industry data, paints a grim picture for Hollywood: the output of new series and seasons in the US continues to plummet, but viewers are barely reacting. In the first half of 2026, only 517 premieres aired, a 15% drop from the same period in 2025 (608 premieres) and over 44% from 2022, the last peak year with 930 premieres. This is the fourth consecutive year of decline, and the report states that "the post-peak TV contraction still shows no signs of reversing or even slowing significantly." Cable channels took the hardest hit: their output fell 47% from 508 series in 2022 to just 267 in 2026. Streaming services, once the driving force behind "peak TV," also cut productions by 12% from last year, as shareholders now demand profitability over subscriber growth at any cost. However, viewership of original content dropped only 4% to 13.6 billion hours, mainly because viewers spend most of their time on older content: older series and acquired content accumulated 42.2 billion viewing hours, nearly four times that of original content. Netflix dominates unchallenged with 57% of all original content viewing hours, more than all its rivals combined. In film, seven of the ten most-watched movies were streaming productions, six of them from Netflix. The implication for the industry: fewer series, fewer jobs, and fewer opportunities for new creators.