According to a recent report released by FX Networks, scripted originals dropped in 2020 for the first time in more than a decade. The US outfit, under its chairman John Landgraf, revealed that the total number of scripted originals on broadcast, cable, and streaming totaled 493 last year, down from 532 in 2019, which represents a 7% drop, most likely caused by the impact of the pandemic on production and commissioners rowing back on some renewals because of increased costs.
The network’s research department has released its annual estimate of the total number of scripted television series for the calendar year 2020, and it is 493, a 7% decline from 2019 which saw 532. The 2020 decline also reflects the contraction of the original scripted business in basic cable, with the majority of ad-supported cable networks pairing down significantly their original scripted portfolios or exiting the arena altogether. This is the first time the volume of scripted originals has declined since FX started tallying the shows in 2009.
Scripted originals in 2020 stood at a similar level to those in 2018 when there were 495 shows counted by the FX research team. In 2010, scripted originals stood at just 216. The pandemic-related shutdown also created a backlog, forcing streamers and networks to reverse several renewals for series like Netflix’s The Society and GLOW, and Showtime’s On Becoming a God In Central Florida as well as delay in pickups of new series until existing ones get in the production pipeline.
Scripted originals in 2020 stood at a similar level to those in 2018. In 2010, scripted originals stood at just 216. The decline comes despite a flurry of activity on the commissioning side, with recently launched streamers such as HBO Max, Apple TV+, and Peacock all moving heavily into scripted.
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