Congratulations, you’re watching too much television again. Go outside and play.
According to stats from FX Research released this week, a record number of original scripted programming—455 TV shows—aired in 2016, from Atlanta to Stranger Things to Westworld. Per Variety, “that all-time high is almost three dozen more than were released in 2015, the year FX president John Landgraf coined the term ‘Peak TV,’” a la the concept of cultural tipping points. As of this year, we’ve also officially reached PEAK Peak TV, which is the peak of us talking about peak TV.
To put the numbers into further perspective, the volume of scripted shows in the U.S. has increased by 137% in the past decade. In addition to traditional cable, streaming services—Netflix, Amazon, etc.—have played a visibly critical role in the 2016 TV boom, contributing to our increasingly validated feeling that there’s too much television to watch, too many recommended shows, too many best shows ever.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Netflix is the biggest contributor to the growth in scripted shows, seemingly adding new original series every month. Often it drops new shows onto its streaming service with little or no fanfare as was the case last week with the drama “The OA.”
Overall, the amount of original scripted fare on streaming services has gone from six in 2011 to 93 in 2016. That figure will continue to rise next year as CBS Corp.’s online streaming service “All Access” introduces at least two new scripted series — a “Star Trek” series called “Discovery” and a spinoff to “The Good Wife” called “The Good Fight.”
Gold star for anyone who has watched all 455 shows and can name them.