00:00Remember back in the day when your favorite television show aired once a week?
00:03Welcome to Ms. Mojo, where today we'll be looking at the return of appointment television and the
00:09future of streaming. You need to know we do this on Sunday specifically because this
00:12is our football. It's like your church. Yeah. Yeah. It's like our church.
00:17When Netflix brought Arrested Development back seven years after its untimely cancellation,
00:23the award-winning comedy's creator, Mitch Hurwitz, noted that the new medium of online
00:27streaming required a new format. That new format was binge-watching. Rather than releasing episodes
00:33on a weekly basis, the streamer introduced the idea of dumping entire seasons in one night,
00:38allowing viewers to decide their own schedule.
00:40And that's when Maybe, who had spent so long lying to others, and even herself,
00:46finally had to admit she had made a huge mistake.
00:49I know I'm fine.
00:50Though traditional TV execs were skeptical of the method, and some experts worried about
00:54related health concerns, the big swing worked out in Netflix's favor. Audiences proved to be eager
01:00and willing to spend entire nights binging their favorite shows, and surprisingly, those shows proved
01:05to be a hit with critics as well.
01:07How is it so good?
01:08What time is it?
01:09It's like daylight already. How did that even happen?
01:13We just stayed up all night.
01:14Do you want to watch more?
01:15My vacation day starts now.
01:16In 2013, House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and The Resurrected Arrested Development all landed Netflix a
01:23total of 14 primetime Emmy nominations, with House of Cards landing streaming its first major
01:28award show win. It appeared as if online streaming, and particularly the binge format,
01:33was the future of television. But could it last?
01:36Truth is, we don't want to discourage you from doing it. In fact, the more you binge watch,
01:41the more money we binge make.
01:43In just over a decade, public perception of Netflix has changed drastically. While shows like The Crown
01:49remained awards darlings, the majority of the streamer's bloated output is considered weak and
01:54forgettable. Everything has been thrown to the wall, and not a lot of it is sticking.
01:58You make this a lot harder, you know?
02:01I know.
02:03I miss me too.
02:05I'm fantastic.
02:06Of course, it's important to note that Netflix is no longer a novelty. Services such as Disney+,
02:12Hulu, Amazon Prime, and HBO Max have since emerged and established themselves as tough competition.
02:18Unfortunately, the wide array of choices has also come with a wide array of subscription costs.
02:24Will we see cheaper prices? I mean, that's something that you typically think of with
02:28businesses as more competition. Will lower the prices, do you foresee that at all?
02:32Well, one would hope that that would be the case, but I suspect what companies are paying
02:36to produce this content is going to lead the prices to actually continue to go up.
02:41With prices climbing each year, and services seemingly removing more content than they can produce,
02:46it's easy to see why consumers have become disenchanted with streaming. Some have even
02:50begun to take advantage of the binge model, subscribing to a service with the intention
02:54of watching their favorite show and then canceling immediately after. It all feels increasingly
02:59unsustainable, both for the streamers and their millions of subscribers.
03:03Why do you even bother watching cuts, giving us notes, if you're just going to let some machine
03:11make all your decisions for you? Once thought to be a thing of the past, cable television has
03:17actually been seeing a surprising comeback in the midst of streaming's messy decline.
03:21According to one study, 22% of consumers have chosen to return to cable as of 2025,
03:26with another 6% considering a return due to rising streaming costs.
03:30I think that is kind of a discussion that a lot of people are having, you know, being a little
03:35discouraged, like, hey, I want to watch my favorite show here. Okay, in order to watch this one,
03:40I have to download this. It just, it keeps kind of snowballing.
03:43While this may not seem like a lot, it does suggest a significant shift in the public's mentality,
03:48one that can also be seen in the rising popularity of network and cable TV shows in recent years.
03:53You know what? I don't care if you think I'm good at this or not anymore.
03:57I care about whether or not I can make a change.
04:01Beginning in 2021, Abbott Elementary ushered in a new era for network sitcoms,
04:06entertaining both audiences and critics alike. Meanwhile, HBO found success in the young adult
04:11demographic with Euphoria, which not only drew in millions of viewers each week, but quickly became
04:16the most tweeted-about series of the decade. Even Succession began to make waves in its final
04:21season, garnering a sizable fan base that steadily grew in numbers in the lead-up to the series'
04:26shocking climax.
04:27We anoint you. You get the bobble. Congratulations. It's haunted and cursed and nothing will ever go
04:36right, but enjoy your bobble.
04:39In 2020, COVID spread across the U.S. and forced many Americans into lockdown, presenting the perfect
04:45environment for nationwide binge-watching. Unfortunately, while nostalgic rewatches and mindless entertainment
04:51like Tiger King thrived, ongoing film and television productions faced unprecedented challenges.
04:57How many of those have you sold?
04:58Fifty. Cash money.
05:00On my way to buy an earnest and new computer. All part of my contingency plan.
05:05You gotta think ahead, you know.
05:07Yeah.
05:08Because everything ends.
05:09With many unable to work within pandemic restrictions, several series were subject to cancellations or
05:14significant delays. After a brief boom in popularity, streaming took a hit in the following year,
05:20and companies were forced to consider new ways to grow and maintain their online viewership.
05:25I think I'm onto something. If you could just let me keep going.
05:30Are you even trying to be careful?
05:34Huh?
05:35Or are you just gonna burn your career and take me down with you?
05:39Coin flip.
05:40Some services turned to the old television model, releasing episodes on a weekly basis.
05:45Whether they released three, two, or just one episode a week, the desired outcome was the same,
05:50to keep people interested and talking. And so far, it seems to be working in their favor.
05:55It's time for a change.
05:57In more ways than one.
05:59What's this?
06:00A fresh start.
06:02Hulu employed a Demi-binge model with its original series Only Murders in the Building,
06:07dropping a three-episode premiere followed by single-episode weekly releases.
06:10Its first episode, released in August of 2021, earned the honor of the most-watched comedy
06:16premiere in Hulu's history. And by that October, it had become Hulu's most-watched comedy series
06:21ever.
06:22Oh my God, do we have fans?
06:24Oh, thank God we have fans.
06:26Where's the new episode?
06:27Shouldn't you be recording?
06:28Yeah, we don't work for you, you vultures!
06:30HBO Max and Apple TV Plus saw similar successes with weekly release series like The Pit and Severance,
06:36with the latter even eclipsing the popularity of former Apple powerhouse Ted Lasso.
06:40Well, Trent, I've never really concerned myself too much with wins and losses.
06:44Now, that's the course I'll probably use.
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07:01So what does this mean for the future of watching TV online?
07:05It's hard to say.
07:06It's unlikely that streaming will be going anywhere anytime soon.
07:09But it looks like the way we watch may be changing for good.
07:12There is no one way.
07:15If you want to conquer life's obstacles and be the best you can be,
07:17you're going to need to learn more than one discipline.
07:19While The Bear still manages to maintain its success in spite of its full season drops,
07:24it seems like an outlier in the current climate.
07:26Even Netflix appears to be turning its back on the format that made them famous,
07:30announcing that the final season of Stranger Things will be doled out in three separate
07:34installments rather than all at once.
07:37Hopefully, the return of this old way of watching will be better for the shows,
07:40and better for our brains.
07:42Winners find a way to win.
07:44Let me find a way.
07:45Chances of success are 20 to 1.
07:47Never tell me the odds.
07:49Do you prefer to binge full seasons of TV or watch new episodes weekly?
07:54Let us know in the comments.
07:55You mean we can watch another one?
07:57Well, if we're all up for it, I don't know if there's everybody else.
07:59Yes, please, yeah, one more, one more.
08:01One more episode.
08:03One more episode.
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