Podcast Summary: All Of It – "Why Waiting for the Next TV Season Takes So Long Now"
Host: Alison Stewart (WNYC)
Guests: Ben Lindbergh (Senior editor, The Ringer), Rob Arthur (Journalist & Data Scientist)
Air Date: January 12, 2026
Overview
This episode of All Of It explores why the wait between TV seasons—especially for streaming and prestige series—has grown dramatically longer in recent years. Host Alison Stewart is joined by Ben Lindbergh and Rob Arthur, who offer insights based on their research and industry analysis, while listeners call in to share their experiences and frustrations. The discussion touches on changes in production schedules, the impact of streaming, industry-wide disruptions, and how these delays alter both content and viewing habits.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The New Normal: Longer Waits Between TV Seasons
- Prestige & Streaming Are the Main Drivers
- Ben Lindbergh: "It's a little bit of both, but it's primarily reflective, I think, of the shift towards streaming and also to prestige TV in general." (01:50)
- Shows like Stranger Things and The White Lotus are cited as examples, with gaps between seasons now commonly stretching from two to three or more years.
- The move from a set TV calendar to an on-demand streaming model enables and often encourages these longer breaks.
2. Historical Context: Shortening Seasons, Lengthening Gaps
- Trends in Average Season Gaps
- Rob and Ben discuss data showing a substantial increase in the time between seasons starting around 2000, accelerating in the past five years.
- Rob Arthur: "What we saw with regardless of what approach we took or what kind of particular genre we looked at, was that there was this massive increase in how long successive seasons were to come out." (04:18)
- Game of Thrones is highlighted as an early and notable example of rising gaps, followed by even more dramatic waits for recent shows.
3. Industry Changes Fueling the Trend
a. Streaming Model
- Streaming platforms "decoupled everything from the calendar," creating less pressure for annual releases (02:18).
- Complete seasons are often filmed and released all at once ("binge drops"), leading to longer periods between new episodes (09:08).
b. Production Scale and Complexity
- Higher production values, more VFX, and "autourist" creators (who write/direct whole seasons themselves) slow down the process (08:02).
- Fewer episodes per season means longer waits for the same amount of content.
c. Scheduling and Talent Conflicts
- Shorter seasons free up actors for other projects, which can lead to further scheduling bottlenecks and delays (08:37).
d. Disruptions & Recent Challenges
- COVID-19, industry strikes (e.g., the 2023 WGA/SAG strikes), and even natural disasters like LA fires caused production to halt, exacerbating trends (10:13).
e. Streamer Consolidation & Downscaling
- As platforms push for profitability over growth, there may be fewer shows overall—but possibly more regular output from those that remain (10:49).
4. Listener Experiences and Strategies
- Waits and Audience Fatigue:
- Callers mention drifting away from previously beloved series due to long waits.
- Some stick with shows they consider worth waiting for, such as Bridgerton, Fowda, Tehran, and The Blue Eye.
- Tools to Catch Up:
- Amanda from Manhattan recommends YouTube recapper "Man of Recaps" as essential for remembering previous plotlines after long hiatuses (11:21).
- Bingeing as a Strategy:
- One listener texts that discovering shows late and bingeing multiple seasons at once is a "life hack" for avoiding painful waits (20:39).
- Ben Lindbergh: “I've felt envy for people who've discovered a series I love late, whereas I've had these agonizing, excruciating waits for new episodes.” (20:43)
5. Impact on TV Content and Storytelling
- Shorter seasons and longer gaps can hurt narrative momentum and risk audience drop-off.
- Cliffhangers lose effectiveness when the gap is years instead of months.
- Ben Lindbergh: “If it goes away for three years, you don't even remember who was hanging on the cliff. Or the character could have fallen off by then.” (15:37)
- Previously, "filler" episodes and "clip shows" kept series present all year, but now viewers get higher quality but less frequent content.
6. The Role of Streaming Business Models
- Churn & Subscriber Retention
- Streaming companies are closely watching subscriber churn; if people only sign up for one show and then cancel, that's a problem.
- Strategies include live sports, sitcoms, procedural dramas, and more regular release schedules to keep people subscribed (18:49).
- Ben Lindbergh: “Netflix is sort of the outlier there where it has a low churn rate... But a lot of other streamers...people just sign up to watch one show and then that show goes away and they cancel.” (19:07)
7. Franchise Building and Staggered Releases
- Increasingly, TV follows the movie industry's approach: building franchises with sequels, prequels, and spin-offs (21:13).
- Ben Lindbergh: "Anything with name recognition or a built-in audience that can just kind of break through the static..." (21:29)
- Staggering releases within a franchise can also lead to longer waits for individual series.
8. Unique Challenges with Animated Series
- Callers note that animated shows, now made with higher production values and respect, often have especially long production times (22:17).
9. How Viewers Are Adapting
- Patience vs. Plenitude:
- Ben: "I almost feel like I don't mind waiting for anything now just because there's so much that I never really feel the absence of any particular thing." (23:28)
- Viewers often fill the gap with other shows and media, making the waits less painful.
Memorable Quotes & Moments
- Ben Lindbergh: “Stranger Things… the gap between season one and season two... just a little more than a year. Then it went to almost two years, then almost three years, then almost three and a half years between seasons four and five.” (03:04)
- Rob Arthur: “It was kind of getting longer for a while since 2000, but in the last maybe five or so years, it's really taken a turn towards these huge, huge gaps, in particular the prestige show seasons.” (04:18)
- Caller Amanda: “Whether it's a long gap or a short gap, [‘Man of Recaps’ on YouTube] is like my go to...If you're not watching the Pit, I don't know what you're doing.” (11:21)
- Ben Lindbergh: “It can make it difficult to capture or increase your audience… people are out of the rhythm of watching that show. It seems like an ancient memory.” (14:16)
- Ben Lindbergh: “If it goes away for three years, you don't even remember who was hanging on the cliff.” (15:37)
- Ben Lindbergh on premiering shows like The Night Manager: “The first season aired when Barack Obama was president. So I remember liking season one, but I remember almost nothing about it beyond that because a lot has happened since.” (03:40)
- Rob Arthur: “Perhaps TV streamers are reacting to these longer breaks, maybe finding that it does lead to loss of interest over time. But that's speculation on my part because we just don't have the data.” (18:07)
- Ben Lindbergh (on the binge-late strategy): "That's a great life hack." (20:39)
Notable Timestamps
- 01:50: Ben outlines the primary causes behind longer gaps between seasons.
- 03:04: The case study of Stranger Things’ increasingly lengthy season gaps.
- 04:18: Rob summarizes the research and visual data points on the trend.
- 08:02 - 08:42: Breakdown of how production and scheduling have changed on prestige streaming shows.
- 10:13 - 10:49: Discussion of industry disruptions like the pandemic and strikes.
- 15:27 - 15:37: Why cliffhangers don’t work after years-long hiatuses.
- 20:39 - 20:49: The "wait and binge" viewer strategy and guest reactions.
- 23:28 - 24:12: Ben and Rob reflect on adapting to abundance rather than waiting anxiously for single shows.
Conclusion
The podcast paints a vivid picture of a transformed TV landscape: higher production values, fewer episodes, and much longer gaps between seasons—all intensified by the demands of streaming, industry shocks, and evolving business models. Both data and anecdotes highlight growing tension between fans’ desires for more of what they love and an industry still navigating volatility, costs, and technology. While nostalgia lingers for the old annual TV rhythm, new viewer strategies and a glut of content mean that—paradoxically—even as the waits drag on, there's always something to watch.