BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) – John Landgraf, the CEO of FX networks, feels the audience’s pain.
“I long ago lost the ability to keep track of every scripted series,” he confessed. “This year, I finally lost track of the ability to keep track of every programmer who’s in the scripted programming business.”
Viewers, along with network bosses, can all agree with Landgraf: “This is simply too much television.”
Speaking to TV critics Friday, he noted that last year the total of original scripted TV series had swollen to an eye-popping 370 – and he predicted this year the number would likely exceed 400.
Adding to the influx, of course, have been program newcomers like Netflix and Amazon and, in the season ahead, a boosted push by digital services such as Crackle.