Streaming Has Supersized TV Episodes, But How Long Is Too Long?
variety.comMichael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeTwo decades ago, then-NBC executive Jeff Zucker made headlines by “supersizing” “Friends” episodes as a monthlong stunt.
But in the streaming era, viewers are frequently caught off guard by run times that vary considerably from one episode to another.Freed from the need to fill a half-hour (actually, 21 minutes with commercials) or an hourlong (e.g., 44 minutes plus ads) time slot in linear TV, producers are allowing their shows to breathe — and let the story dictate how long or short an episode can be.Netflix’s new Shonda Rhimes drama “Inventing Anna,” for instance, is an hour long … sometimes.
Other episodes clock in at as many as 75 minutes, while the finale lasts a nearly movie-length 82 minutes. Disney Plus’ “The Book of Boba Fett,” meanwhile, varies anywhere between 39-minute episodes to a 61-minute finale. “It’s just so strange that for my whole life, we were completely focused on” episode length, says Gareth Neame, executive producer of “The Gilded Age” on HBO, who performed similar duties on “Downton Abbey.” “The story had to fill a certain space.
If you were really passionate, sometimes you could get another 30, 40 seconds, 60 seconds out of the broadcast because you just needed that extra space.
Read more on variety.com
