TV in the 2010s: How the New Golden Age Turned Into the ‘Peak TV’ Era

In the summer of 2015, FX chief John Landgraf took the stage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel during the Television Critics Association press tour, as he’s done twice each year. But this time, he uttered the phrase that has become part of the industry lexicon: “This is simply too much television. My sense is that 2015 or 2016 will represent peak TV in America, and that we’ll begin to see declines coming the year after that and beyond.” The production of TV shows has only continued to rise as we head into the 2020s — and Landgraf has since walked back that lofty prediction. But his utterance of the words “Peak TV” ended up defining this current era of televised entertainment. The previous decade saw “The Sopranos” make HBO a household name, “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” turn AMC from an old-movie channel into a scripted powerhouse, proving that popular TV shows were no longer the sole domain of the broadcast networks. It was often cited as the beginning of a new Golden Era of Television, or the “Prestige TV” era. But the success of newcomers like AMC and FX, along with the rise of streamers like Netflix and Amazon...

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