Last week I watched season 2 of Citadel and it appeared to be just as expensive as season 1. My wife and I must be 2 of the tens. And it ended on what looked to set the stage for season 3.
The idea was that each spin-off season would follow secret agents in a different location right? And it's all kind of interconnected? Do you watch the foreign language spin-offs?
I suspect that part of the reason that first season was so expensive is that they were front-loading assets they were planning to use in all the spinoffs.
Good analysis! Always enjoy your work. One note: there were three networks in the beginning, not four. ABC, NBC, CBS. Fox didn’t come along until the early 1990s and by that time cable already had original programming.
There is value in prestige productions. There is value in simple entertaining content. If you make good content, people will watch. I do fear that Paramount/WBD – if it ever goes through – will be forced to produce mostly cheap, forgettable programming. The debt load from the merger appears suffocating to me.
This probably makes me sound like such a jerk but I think it's appalling to spend $60 million on an episode of TV so that people can be entertained for an hour (and pay a subscription fee and watch ads). For $60M, Amazon could send every person in the US two free books. We'd get more than an hour's worth of entertainment and possibly learn something or gain more empathy in the process.
Last week I watched season 2 of Citadel and it appeared to be just as expensive as season 1. My wife and I must be 2 of the tens. And it ended on what looked to set the stage for season 3.
The idea was that each spin-off season would follow secret agents in a different location right? And it's all kind of interconnected? Do you watch the foreign language spin-offs?
I suspect that part of the reason that first season was so expensive is that they were front-loading assets they were planning to use in all the spinoffs.
Good analysis! Always enjoy your work. One note: there were three networks in the beginning, not four. ABC, NBC, CBS. Fox didn’t come along until the early 1990s and by that time cable already had original programming.
I thought the fourth one was PBS.
Started around 1970
Hi all, this post makes so much sense.
I just recently wrote about a very low budget TV show which caught my eye.
Would love to get your opinion on this.
https://sandpras.substack.com/p/the-most-unhinged-tv-show-ive-watched?r=74at53&utm_medium=ios
There is value in prestige productions. There is value in simple entertaining content. If you make good content, people will watch. I do fear that Paramount/WBD – if it ever goes through – will be forced to produce mostly cheap, forgettable programming. The debt load from the merger appears suffocating to me.
Curious, what was your source for budget data?
This probably makes me sound like such a jerk but I think it's appalling to spend $60 million on an episode of TV so that people can be entertained for an hour (and pay a subscription fee and watch ads). For $60M, Amazon could send every person in the US two free books. We'd get more than an hour's worth of entertainment and possibly learn something or gain more empathy in the process.
Realizing I conflated the price of a single episode with the cost of a whole season in my math. $700M per season=2 books for every American