A Sony TV executive has criticized the streaming industry for being “too data-driven,” blaming a focus on metrics as the reason for long gaps between seasons for fan-favorite shows like Euphoria and Stranger Things.
Speaking at the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo in Rome, Sony Pictures TV president Katherine Pope criticized the companies for slowing down the renewal process for their series, calling the delays “absolutely unsustainable.”
‘It’s very frustrating. “Such long delays are absolutely unsustainable and not fair to the fans.”
While acknowledging that some of the delays may come from “the gigantic scale of the productions,” Pope said, “some of them also come from data-driven companies that don’t want to pick up something until it’s released and want to wait a month.”
The veteran TV executive also warned that long delays between seasons risk viewers not being able to return to shows they had previously watched.
The president of Sony Pictures TV, Katherine Pope, criticized the companies for slowing down the renewal process of their series. HBO’s House of the Dragon won’t return until 2026
Pope warned that long delays between seasons risked viewers not being able to return to shows they had previously watched. The Last of Us won’t return until next year after a two-year hiatus
The fifth and final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things will air in 2025, three years after the previous season premiered.
“In such a saturated world, we cannot afford to lose fans,” he said. “It’s hard enough to get them.”
It’s not uncommon for viewers to sit down to watch their favorite television series after patiently waiting for its return, only to realize that so much time has passed since the previous season aired that they can’t remember what happened.
While Pope didn’t single anyone out, TV shows like HBO’s Euphoria and Netflix’s Stranger Things are just examples of the various shows that have experienced long gaps between seasons, notably causing frustration among fans.
Euphoria, starring Zendaya, is expected to begin filming its third season in January, three years after the second season aired. The first season came three years earlier.
Meanwhile, the fifth and final season of sci-fi show Stranger Things, starring Millie Bobby Brown and Winona Ryder, will air in 2025, also three years after the release of the previous run of episodes.
Happy Valley saw a seven-year gap between the second and third seasons.
Euphoria, starring Zendaya, is expected to begin filming its third season in January, three years after the second season aired. The first season came three years earlier.
The second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, aired in June, but won’t return to screens until at least 2026.
As for the 2023 post-apocalyptic hit The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, its second season will return next year.
But the BBC’s Happy Valley, which aired its final season in 2023, takes the award for longest interlude as actress Sarah Lancashire, who plays police sergeant Catherine Cawood, did not reprise her role in the crime drama for seven years after the launch of its second season in 2016.