Binge-watching or devoting excess time to watching TV has quickly become one of America’s favorite pastimes. After a hectic week of work, most Americans admitted to wanting to spend their weekend dressed in their sweats, ready to catch up on the newest TV shows or movies. Over the last few years, miniseries have enhanced the ability to indulge in binge-watching. The number of scripted TV series has increased by 13% from 2020, not including international shows like Squid Game or Money Heist that have reached a large audience in America.

What exactly is a miniseries? It’s essentially a limited series meant to be watched over a short period. Miniseries are longer than a movie, but not so long that they require a long-term commitment. They also tend to be released all at once to allow the watcher to binge-watch all episodes quickly. Thanks to streaming series like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, etc., miniseries are more popular and accessible than ever. According to a study done in 2021, Americans have spent at least three hours a day streaming their favorite show or movie. With that much time dedicated to watching TV, the demand for eye-catching entertainment has increased. Over the last year, streaming services have delivered when it comes to great limited series.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

With the number of miniseries produced increasing to meet the demand, writers have taken to adapting content from books similar to what Netflix’s Maid did with author Stephanie Land’s novel Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive. Now there seems to be as many miniseries produced as TV shows on streaming services. Here’s why the miniseries has become the most popular TV show format.

It Has Adapted to Fit Modern Demand

The first miniseries was aired in 1953 on BBC Television. The 6-part series, The Quartermass Experiment was successful enough to allow for two more six part series in 1955 and 1958. However, it wasn’t until the late 1970s into the 1980s that TV miniseries increased in popularity. At this time, streaming services where only a thing in the future, so it was the network shows that aired these miniseries. In 1976, one of the first breakout miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man, aired on ABC Network over the course of 6 weeks, from February to March. The nine-and-a-half-hour miniseries won 4 Primetime Emmys in 1976 and 4 Golden Globes in 1977. Rich Man, Poor Man script was adopted on the novel by Irwin Shaw, and it sparked the decade long use of books adaptations for TV.

Over the next few years, more network channels started producing miniseries. With this increase, the Emmy Awards needed to adjust their categories—which they have had to do a few times over the years to keep up with the demand of the miniseries. From its origin in 1974, the award for a miniseries was housed under the title of Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and was defined as a limited series with two or more episodes and a total run time of at least 150 minutes. It then changed in 1986 to Outstanding Miniseries where it stayed until 1991. Between 1991-2015, the category was renamed four times before Ryan Murphy entered the scene with his American Horror Story anthology series, which aired on FX. This change in 2015 allowed more short-season cable TV programs to compete for the award and even sparked the interest in producing miniseries again.

It Fits People’s Desired Lifestyle and Interests

     Marvel Studios

Cue the entrance of the big streaming services. From the time that Netflix, and even Hulu, joined the world of streaming, cable networks were already producing miniseries. Between the network shows and the originals produced by streaming services, the fight to win a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series commenced. The first few years of the newly-named award featured mainly network shows, but over the years, the momentum for newer limited series competition emerged.

With more networks and streaming services vying for the award, plot lines for the shows required a revamp as well. As we know, most of the plots are derived from books, and while that is still one of the most common storylines for a miniseries, the emergence of shows based on historical events came on to the scene. In 2016, the Hulu original staring James Franco, 11.22.63 was based loosely on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. From the minds of Stephen King and J.J. Abrams, the pair created a miniseries that incorporated both a book adaptation and historical events. True, time travel to stop an assassination is fiction, it does include some facts about the real life assassination.

Network stations like FX are still producing miniseries, over the last few years, it is the streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max that have taken over the bulk of the miniseries produced. Disney+ has even joined the hunt producing their latest Marvel Universe additions of Emmy-nominated WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Solider, Loki, What If…?, and Hawkeye—all of which were hugely successful.

Regardless of the topic, the extensive library, has quickly fit into most people’s busy lifestyles. With so much to try and do in a day, the ability to watch a few episode miniseries, as opposed to a multiple season TV show, has made watching TV more accomplishable. True, movies are still the shortest version of a story to watch, but having the middle ground of the miniseries does allow for more people to catch up on the newest story.

It is Constantly Growing and Being Added to

     Hulu

Thanks to the influx of streaming services over the last year or so, the number of places to watch miniseries has also increased. Whether you are looking for fiction or non-fiction style miniseries, documentary-style limited series, or even to see you favorite novel being adapted, the concept of a miniseries is not going away anytime soon.