Everyone cares about labour rights until it affects their entertainment.
do you think studios budget for shorter and fewer seasons because they’re concerned about. labour rights
Reminder that writers want longer seasons. That actors want longer seasons. That costume and hair and make-up departments want longer seasons. That crew-workers want longer seasons. Literally everyone directly involved in the production of television shows want longer seasons because it means that you have a longer period of stable work.
The only people who don’t want longer seasons are the studio executives, who want to cut as many corners as possible to make as many bucks as possible. If they only have to pay people for 8 episodes of television rather than 20-24, then you bet your ass that’s what they want to do - regardless of the wishes of those who are actually involved in making or watching the show.
Typical tv season in the 1960s was 26 episodes; one episode a week for six months.
The idea being viewers would invest interest in a show over half a year. Summer was the off season, when actors & show production staff got time off. Networks would “rerun” episodes to fill that time, allowing devoted fans to catch episodes they’d missed. Remember, this was years before VCRs. Most shows were expected to be seen exactly once.
Shows made money by running commercials every 10 or 15 minutes. Sponsors would pay more to air their commercials during popular shows.
Streaming changed all that. Income is mostly via subscriptions now. Netflix doesn’t give a shit what happens after they’ve got your payment. Watch or don’t watch, it matters not to them. Thus, 6 or 10 episodes in a season are just fine, especially if it means they don’t have to pay royalties on 26 episodes per season.
