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bicyclecat t1_j0lf3m9 wrote

There are over 6,000 episodes of EastEnders. Episode count doesn’t dictate budget either direction. The 22 episode US network model was about ad revenue but the real money was in making 100+ episodes so they could sell it into syndication. Many shows were produced pretty cheaply, and the few that became major hits and needed to pay actors a lot to keep them were the outliers. (And even then, the shows themselves were still pretty cheaply made. Friends was not blowing its budget on sets or visual effects.) Big budget TV like Game of Thrones is a new thing with streaming and they’re never 22 episode seasons.

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MT_Promises t1_j0m4wdq wrote

The syndication 100 episode marker wasn't it though. Networks originally didn't want to let their shows be re-run at all as they thought it would decrease demand for the new stuff. Syndication was a later development.

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