Elma Taric

Bridgerton showrunner Jess Brownell announced that Season 4 will air at least two years from now, citing extensive filming and editing as time-consuming factors.

The news comes after the release of Bridgerton Season 3: Part Two after a month-long wait.

Brownell told The Hollywood Reporter: “We are working to try and put the seasons out more quickly, but they take eight months to film, and then they have to be edited and dubbed in every language.

“The writing takes a long time as well, so we’re kind of on a two year pace. We’re trying to speed up, but somewhere in that range.”

“Production was interrupted on several shows, forcing crews to compensate by reducing the number of episodes.”

This is not a unique situation. Stranger Things’ Season 5 release, another Netflix show, is currently up in the air. Production began earlier this year in January. In March, Millie-Bobby Brown confirmed that there were still at least nine months of filming and post-production left to do.

The fifth season will likely air sometime late next year, meaning there’s a three-year release date gap between seasons 4 and 5. Fans from both shows have voiced their upset with the extensive wait. 

Should We Wait For Short Seasons?

Previously, TV shows were motivated to run for 20 episodes or more to reach broadcast syndication. This helped increase the likelihood of reruns, which were extremely profitable for television production companies in the golden age of sitcoms.

“from a large-scale perspective, production can focus on quality over quantity”

This began to change around the time of the 2007 Writers Strike. Production was interrupted on several shows, forcing crews to compensate by reducing the number of episodes. Streaming platforms such as Netflix and their rising popularity further reinforced the now-norm by pushing the ‘binge-watch’ model, seeing as they were independent and did not have to adhere to syndication. As such, longer seasons run risks if not perceived positively by audiences, meaning more money and time spent by networks compared to shorter lengths.

The combination of the two explains why there are so few episodes but so much content. Long-form seasons are declining, with US scripted seasons over 20 episodes declining from 19 per cent to 4.5 per cent in the last year alone.

Is It All Bad?

But are shorter seasons a positive thing? One might say yes to streaming services and companies that can benefit from bingeing, but what about audiences?

Compressing a story in ten episodes or less can be a hit or miss. However, from a large-scale perspective, production can focus on quality over quantity. Plot and proper pacing can be better established without worrying about meeting a quota of 20 episodes. Fillers, which are ‘filler episodes’ between central episodes, make up a larger portion of episodes per season. While fillers are fun, research shows shorter TV shows are better at maintaining audience attention. 

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Featured image courtesy of Digital Content Writers India on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

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