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.”

Last year, he noted, 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.

With such a proliferation of viewing options, even the good shows contribute to the problem as they “get in the way of the viewer finding the great ones,” Landgraf said. “This has had an enormous impact on everyone’s ability to cut through the clutter and create real buzz.”

This trend won’t be going on much longer, he warned, saying 2016 will likely represent the programming peak.

“We will begin to see declines coming the year after that and beyond,” he said.

Source: www.usnews.com