What is Next? Exploring the Dynamics of TV Series’ Success
(A2025-125931)

AUTHORS

Zeynep Aydin Gokgoz, Sabanci University, Sabanci Business School; Zeynep Karagür, Sabanci University

ABSTRACT

In light of the growing entertainment and streaming industry, TV series experience a revival in popularity. We bring together a unique data set of 12,999 observations from 1,155 series to analyze how linguistic, emotional, and stylistic characteristics impact a series’ success. In contrast to movies, series consist of multiple episodes that contribute to the series’s overall success. Thus, we first analyze what impacts the success of a single episode. We use a multilevel model to account for the nested structure of episodes within series. The findings highlight an interplay between consecutive episodes of a given series. Episode success does not only depend on the episode’s characteristics but also its relationship with the previous episode. This interplay between episodes has important implications that differ from findings on movies.