Audiences love drama. To be fair, who doesn’t? The umbrella genre accounts for the greatest number of TV titles overall and the largest share of audience demand in the US. However, despite its enduring popularity, the drama genre is losing a modicum of its momentum, which is creating opportunities for other programming lanes. Tracking and understanding these trends can help direct resource investment and green light, renewal and cancellation decisions. 

In Q1 2022, the drama genre accounted for 49.5% of the 100 most in-demand streaming originals domestically, according to Parrot Analytics. But by Q3 2024, this share has fallen to 45.5%. Still massive, but a notable change in the programming ecosystem. This trend is mirrored in comedy, the other major umbrella genre, which saw its share of the top 100 shows fall from 26.3% in Q1 2022 to 21.2% in Q3 2024. Audiences are simply seeking out a wider array of genres and programming styles among the upper-echelon shows in recent quarters. That requires creatives and executives to adjust accordingly lest consumers leave them behind.

Specifically, the fantasy genre has upped its game thanks to a slew of successful animated and live action fare such as Netflix’s Arcane and Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The former is one of the more successful video game adaptations in recent years while the latter is arguably Disney+’s only non-Marvel or Star Wars live-action hits. Shows such as these have pushed fantasy’s share up from 8.1% to 9.1%. Science fiction has also experienced significant growth as recent releases such as Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Netflix’s 3 Body Problem have driven up the genre’s share from 4.0% in 2022 to 6.1% in 2024. Sci-fi and fantasy are staples of genre entertainment that offer fans escapism. 

And now we return to the drama of reality TV, which accounts for 4% of the Top 100 series as of Q3 2024. Major streamers have launched successful spinoffs of notable linear reality programming to great effect. Specifically, Peacock’s Love Island USA and Paramount+’s RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars have successfully expanded these franchises into streaming. In 2022, reality did not account for any of the Top 100 streaming originals. 

All of these changes tend to align with public reports about the buying side of Hollywood. Expensive prestige dramas, especially period pieces, with little commercial viability are out as are sad dramedies. Genre entertainment with a good hook and manageable costs are viable, as are more traditional sitcoms and procedurals. The same holds true for middle of the road unscripted programming. 

Blending elements from multiple genres has become more common in the streaming age. One example of this is the rise in serialized procedurals such as Amazon’s Reacher and Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer, which borrow creative elements from linear TV but modernize the storytelling and structure. Another example is HBO/Max’s The Penguin, which uses the superhero genre and the hit 2022 film The Batman as a guise to tell a grounded crime tale. The same goes for The Boys, which blends elements of superheroes, comedies, action and fantasy all together. 

The point is that development and programming is no longer as binary as it once was. In the world of streaming originals, a balance of tones and style is needed to address consumer preferences. More importantly, streaming companies must continually pay attention to the types of shows that drive demand in order to stay ahead of rapidly changing genre trends.