Gossip Girl: The Death of the 20+ Episode TV Season
By RJ Edrolin
Television has seen rapid change in the last decade. As cable television has slowly died out and shifted towards streaming, the modes of viewership in how audiences view and experience television has changed. Most notably, television shows have reduced the number of episodes per season. Long gone are the days when you could expect 24 episodes per season and wait a whole year for the next season to be released. Now, you can most likely expect no more than ten episodes per season and a two or more year waiting time for the next season. There are many reasons why television has become this way, primarily due to the rise of streaming, but in turn, new strengths and weaknesses can now be identified for each season model. For the sake of this article, we’ll be focusing on the narrative choice of why this new television model is better. To put simply, less is now more. One prime example we can use to showcase this change in audience’s preferences is through the hit teen television show Gossip Girl (2007). Gossip Girl was an immensely popular teen drama focused on the glamorous yet toxic life on the Upper East Side. Gossip Girl follows four awfully wealthy students, Serena (Blake Lively), Blair (Leighton Meester), Nate (Chase Crawford), and Chuck (Ed Westwick), as they navigate high school drama and eventually adult life. However, after season three, Gossip Girl’s ratings quickly fell season by season. Comparing Gossip Girl with contemporary programming displays how shorter television seasons are better. Fewer episodes per season allow for tighter storytelling, better pacing, and increased quality in the writing and production of each episode. Although there is less overall content released per season, in the bigger picture, television shows have benefited from the ‘less is more’ model.
Despite Gossip Girl (2007) still holding the crown as one of the most immensely popular, iconic, and loved teen drama television shows, its last three seasons faced an immense decline in ratings. As an avid lover of Gossip Girl myself, I cannot deny the richness of the first three seasons. Each season had a continuous plot line from the beginning to the end. For example, in season one, from the very first episode, we’re thrust into the cruel yet alluring life on the Upper East Side. Within this one-hour episode, we’re introduced to the key love triangle between Blair, Nate, and Serena, Chuck’s playboy tendencies, Jenny's (Taylor Momsen) social climbing thirst, and Dan Humphrey’s (Penn Badgley) unrequited love for Serena. These elements hooked the audience, allowing them to witness these characters navigate their relationships and conflicts with each other. After 18 episodes, these conflicts had progressed and we’re given our answers; the love triangle dies, Chuck chooses Blair over his playboy lifestyle, Jenny realizes the Upper East Side isn’t perfect, and Dan starts a relationship with Serena . The first few seasons of Gossip Girl were perfect for this 18-episode structure as it had a continuous and developing storyline that was enough for one season. By the first episode of each season, we understood what the season would uncover and what themes it would explore. Similarly, by the end of the season, these conflicts progressed, and either concluded or developed more for later seasons to tackle. However, in the later seasons, the imperfections in Gossip Girl became more apparent due to a lack of content the show could rely on, and subsequently, the overall quality of Gossip Girl paid this price.
It’s important to mention that Gossip Girl is loosely based on the book series with the same name. In fact, the pilot of Gossip Girl is the entire storyline of the first book. While the writers of Gossip Girl chose to divert from the books in the later seasons, the books still possessed an influence on the series. However, by the third season of Gossip Girl, it was clearly evident that the writers were running out of source material. In the first three seasons, the writers of Gossip Girl had already run through almost all of the thirteen books in the series.. In the later seasons, Gossip Girl began regurgitating old conflicts that were introduced in the first season and threw some of the characters’ development in the trash. This recycling of old storylines is arguably due to the fact that Gossip Girl premiered at a time when 20+ episodes were the norm and television writers just kept adding more to the story to meet this demand. While this format allowed the show to keep running and added more content for fans to enjoy, not all of these additional plot points were necessary, nor enjoyable.
As previously mentioned, by the third season of Gossip Girl, the show had seen a slow decline in quality. This can be attributed to the fact that in the third season, the characters had graduated from high school and moved on to college. The writers initially struggled to keep the drama going with all of its characters attending various schools in New York City, namely, NYU and Columbia. Despite this, the writers still made an effort to keep the storyline focused, and for the most of it, they were able to successfully do so. In the first episode of the third season, we’re hinted at the main conflicts and storylines each character would be forced to encounter: Jenny becomes the new Queen Bee at Constance, the preparatory high school, Blair and Chuck navigate their new relationship, and Serena struggles with her relationship with her father. Throughout the season, we watch these characters reach highs and lows with their individual stories, and, by the end of the season, these storylines wrap up and the audience sees a conclusion in them: with Jenny deciding being Queen B is too much, Blair and Chuck breaking up, and Serena realizing that while she loves her father, she is better off without him. The third season does a good job of keeping storylines of all the characters focused. However, not all of the storylines were lucky enough to experience this. Arguably, the most lackluster storyline was Dan’s. In the first episode, Dan struggles to adjust and balance his glamorous new lifestyle. While we initially see Dan grapple with this, this plot point is essentially abandoned a few episodes in and Dan’s entire storyline becomes revolved around the woman he’s dating at the time. Although not popular among fans, Dan is still an intriguing character as he served as a strong metaphor and theme for an outsider who secretly craved the luxurious life he constantly looked down upon–a remnant of Jay Gatsby. Dan’s love-and-hate relationship with the Upper East Side is hardly addressed this season despite it being a constant problem with his character in the first few seasons. The writers decision to have Dan confront his internal conflict in the first episode, only to not follow through with it during season three, was a letdown. Dan had regressed despite having one of the strongest foundations for storytelling this season.
While the third season of Gossip Girl still performed relatively well, the next seasons performed worse. Episodes were barely breaking past two million viewers, something that the show used to be able to do easily. The decline of Gossip Girl was already hinted at in the previous season, as seen when plot points, like Dan’s struggle with the Upper East Side, were abandoned. But now, instead of plot points being forgotten, the writers attempted to stretch them out to fill in the 20+ episode season. In the fifth season of Gossip Girl, one prolonged storyline is the relationship between Chuck and Blair. Although their relationship is one of the main attracting elements of Gossip Girl, the trajectory of their relationship in this particular season was heavily dragged out. For the first thirteen episodes of the fifth season, Blair grapples back and forth between marrying Louis (Hugo Becker) or being with Chuck. This storyline was beaten to death, with even Chuck and Louis expressively asking Blair, multiple times in the season, what she wanted. This storyline was not only dragged out but confusing altogether. It’s completely obvious that Blair was still in love with Chuck, I mean she even said it herself. While the writers tried to play this off as Blair just being torn, for the last four seasons of Gossip Girl, Blair was consistently characterized as a headstrong and follow-her-heart type of woman. Seeing Blair constantly having doubt about her love life for the entire season was not only repetitive, but also unlike her character. To top off this confusing plot line, in the end, Blair chooses none of them and starts to date Dan. This decision forces Blair’s character, who now enters yet another love triangle, to feel stuck. The first half of the season focused on Blair-Chuck-Louis while the second half focused on Blair-Chuck-Dan. While Chuck and Dan had other storylines to explore, Blair’s storyline primarily revolved around the men she was dating. Again, this was highly untypical of her already established character, and the blame is on the writers for trying to stretch out this plot point for an entire season. At this time, Chuck and Blair were a beloved couple in the show, and in a last-ditch effort to save the show's ratings, the writers attempted to drag on this ‘will they, won’t they’ storyline for as long as they could to entertain its viewers. The writers could’ve honestly gotten away with her one-dimensionalization if they remembered that Blair herself was a fan-favorite and let her struggle with other elements besides her love life. Regardless, the plot was incredibly stretched out and felt tiresome to watch.
The fatigue I felt as a viewer watching these stretched-out episodes could’ve been easily fixed if the writers had returned to their first season format. As previously mentioned, the first season focused on developing their characters rather than trying to stretch out as many storylines as they could to fit into the later prescribed 22-episode-seasons. If I could rewrite Gossip Girl and explain all the changes I would make, I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that this paper would probably be a hundred pages long. To put it simply, I would model the later seasons of Gossip Girl after the first season because of its focused and concise narrative. The first season was effective because it knew when to end. As previously mentioned, the first episode of the season introduced the characters and upcoming conflicts, providing a base from where the story was to continue from. The main plot point of the first season was Serena’s abrupt return to the Upper East Side and by the end of the season, we’re immersed in this dark yet enchanting world of hers. In the next season, the characters are all seniors and are anxious about their future and at the end of the season, it ends with their graduation. In the third season, the characters are all freshmen in college and by the end of the season they all blossom into maturity as they are thrust into the adult world. Seasons one through three had a consistent storyline that started with the essential premise of the season and ended with a conclusion on it. Every season’s ending was logically connected to a main conflict, storyline, and plot point from that season. Each event in its respective season was there for a reason and served a purpose in driving the entire season further.
In contrast, seasons four through six are left in this murky ‘unknown’ environment and feel off because of the lack of a clear starting and ending event. If I were given the opportunity to rewrite Gossip Girl, I would have limited the series to only five seasons. Additionally, in season four, I would have added a time jump to the characters' senior year in college, which would have been possible since the writers of the show appeared to have forgotten about the characters' academic careers midway through the season. Then, if I were to change season five, I would make it the finale and have the characters mature and grow up from their old habits. Gossip Girl attempted to mature the characters, seen through their ‘more adult’ conflicts in season four. Despite this change, they reverted back to petty high school drama conflicts, something the characters have already graduated from, both literally and metaphorically. When the CW, Gossip Girl’s network, only greenlit ten episodes for the last season due to declining ratings, the writers were forced to rapidly mature the characters and run through storylines. The last three seasons of Gossip Girl were simply a mess, like a car crash that you can’t help looking at. It was a hard fall in quality and an even harder thing to witness live in 2011.
One lesson showrunners can learn from Gossip Girl is that stories must come to an end. Netflix’s Elite (2018) is very similar to Gossip Girl as both stories center around an ensemble of rich and privileged characters in a wealthy high school. However, one thing Elite has done so far that Gossip Girl struggled to do in later seasons is to keep the storyline focused. In Elite, one devastating central event occurs in each season (a death, disappearance, etc.). There are only 8 episodes per season and the story revolves around this major event. Elite thrives off this formula and has successfully managed to not only surpass Gossip Girl in its running years, but also has become Netflix's most-watched non-English TV series. Additionally, Elite possessed a consistent tone in its pacing and writing due to its commitment from the same writers. This writing inconsistency may have led to the downfall of Gossip Girl as its prominent writers, Josh Safran and Stephanie Savage, started to write fewer episodes of Gossip Girl together after the first season. The success of Elite and the downfall of Gossip Girl can be attributed to the episode amount per season. Elite stays short and sweet, not adding extra fluff into its storyline just for the sake of more episodes. The writers of Elite knew when to end and when to begin again.
In more modern times, we can see many shows following the format of less is more. Whether you believe one streaming service has better content than the other, no one can contest the superiority of HBO’s television catalog. House of the Dragon (2022), The Last of Us (2023), The White Lotus (2021), Succession (2018), and Euphoria (2019), are just a few of the many successful series HBO has been able to pump out in recent years. The success of these shows, besides brilliant writing and directing, can be traced back to their format. All these shows range from eight to ten episodes per season. While television shows based on intellectual property like House of the Dragon and The Last of Us have more strict deadlines for a season’s ending in order to match with the source material, shows like The White Lotus have more leeway on when a season concludes. Despite this freedom, The White Lotus manages to avoid tiring out the story due to its strict six to seven episodes per season, allowing the story to remain focused. While The White Lotus is an anthology series, the writer could’ve easily made each season ten episodes. But unlike the writers of Gossip Girl, Mike White, creator and writer of The White Lotus, understood when each season needed to come to an end and when a storyline was exhausted. Ultimately, The White Lotus's limited episode count has allowed for a tighter, more focused narrative that effectively builds tension and develops its characters to create a more impactful and satisfying story.
While this article primarily focuses on the narrative and aesthetic choice to shorten a season, it should be mentioned that shorter seasons are not inherently the writer’s decision. The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) Strike in 2007 is the primary reason why television shows are formatted the way they are today. The 2007 labor strike lasted months and caused numerous television shows to cut episodes. As a result, many television shows from the mid 2000s have one season that is much shorter than the rest (ex: The Office season 4). However, even after the strike concluded, many production companies discovered the hidden value in fewer episodes, and they began to rethink the way television shows were formatted. Many studios opted for shorter seasons with fewer episodes to mitigate the financial risks associated with full-22-episode seasons and to allow for more flexibility in case of future labor disputes or other unforeseen obstacles. Additionally, having fewer episodes per season was cheaper for studios as the WGA strike led to an increase in pay and better working conditions. This trend in shorter seasons has continued to this day, with many shows opting for shorter seasons with ten to thirteen episodes rather than the traditional 22-24 episodes per season. This change in how shows are crafted is not inherently the writer’s decision, but is in fact due to greed. Despite this avaricious decision, television shows have still benefited from having fewer episodes. In fact, the first season of Gossip Girl was shortened due to the strike, yet, despite this, it is one of the seasons with the most viewership. Similarly, the fourth season of The Office (2008) is its shortest season, yet, it is the most critically acclaimed and the highest rated season on IMDb. The decision to have shorter episodes may have not been the writer’s decision, but in a silver lining, writers still benefit from it as it has allowed television shows to stay alive, maintain its appeal, and raise its ratings.
Gossip Girl is not the only show that felt like it already exhausted its plot halfway through the series but it serves as a good example of the death of the 20-episode television season. There are many shows like Gossip Girl (cough Grey’s Anatomy cough) that have felt like they lost their story many seasons ago, and as a result, the quality of the show, and thus the audience’s love, declined over the years. Overall, while longer seasons may offer more content and opportunities for storytelling, the benefits of shorter seasons ultimately make it a better format choice for creating a compelling and engaging television show. While I loved having more episodes of Gossip Girl to consume, I would’ve preferred the show to have been left on a higher note rather than watch the mess of seasons four through six. By focusing on quality over quantity, television shows can provide viewers with an immersive and satisfying experience that will keep them coming back for more. Or to put it in simpler terms, three words, ten letters: less is more.
Works Cited
Created by Josh Schwartz, and Stephanie Savage, season 1-6, episode 1-121, 2007.
Ivey, Madilyn. “The Office Seasons Ranked, According to Imdb.” ScreenRant, 18 July 2021,
https://screenrant.com/office-seasons-ranked-imdb/#season-4-2007---2008-8-6.