You have likely noticed that many of the biggest shows right now are remakes of past popular shows or are new shows set in a popular universe like Star Wars and Star Trek. Increasingly big-name studios and streaming services have been relying heavily on old successful shows to launch new shows.
So if you are wondering why there are so many Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of The Rings shows being made. Right now, it really comes down to the fact that 95% of all TV shows fail, according to Peacock/NBC Chief Susan Rovner at SXSW and the exploding costs of new TV shows.
With the exploding costs of big-name shows like Game of Thrones, which cost $6 million per episode for the first season, now costs $20 million per episode for the new House of Dragons show. With the exploding costs of new shows, you can see why executives are being careful about what they put money into. A string of failed blockbuster shows can sink some studios right now.
Even streaming services are getting hit by high costs on their original programming. Netflix spent $30 million per episode on Stranger Things season 4, WondaVision cost $25 million per episode, and The Mandalorian cost $15 million per episode, according to BuzzFeed.
To help deal with the high cost and high risk of new shows increasingly, studios are turning to well-known and successful universes of the past like Star Wars and Star Trek.
Studios are still creating original programming, but according to one entertainment executive that talked to Cord Cutters News, for every high-risk show, they make studios like to have as few guaranteed lock shows as possible. So for every experimental show a studio makes, you will likely see a few Star Wars, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, etc, spin-offs to help protect the studios from an expensive failure.
This stress is not unusual in the world of TV, but cord cutting has made it even more necessary to ensure your network has a hit show. Gone are the days of garmented income from cable subscribers. Now Peacock, Paramount+, Disney+, and more need hit shows to keep subscribers.
Original new shows will still be made on these networks just don’t be surprised to see a classic show like Kind of The Hill gets new life to help offset the risk.