How I Landed A Season 2 For My TV Show
It's official, my TV show Surf Girls is back for Season 2!
Prime Video announced the renewal, and I’ve been eager to share this news with you.
I’ve had to keep it quiet since last summer, so it feels so good to finally be able to talk about how it all came together.
In today’s newsletter, I’m breaking down a few reasons why TV shows get green-lit and renewed, and how you can apply these same principles to your projects.
Let’s get into it.
Why TV Shows Get Renewed
Reason 1: The first season was a hit
The first season of Surf Girls was a cultural cornerstone for women's sports.
It made history as the first women's sports documentary on Prime Video, and on Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine.
Since its release in 2023, women's sports has exploded in popularity, more than doubling in global revenue.
In 2024, women's sports TV viewership surged 131% from 2023.
In 2025, women's sports revenue projected to hit $2.35 billion.
These are strong statistics.
And Surf Girls isn't just about women's sports.
It's is a coming-of-age story through the lens of relatable and badass female athletes.
They are navigating young adult life, balancing the pressure of being professional athletes, and overcoming their own personal struggles.
The cast and their stories make Surf Girls a hit, a pattern commonly seen in successful unscripted TV and documentaries.
Reason 2: Strong viewership and completion rate
For Season 1, Surf Girls: Hawai'i, we dropped all 4 episodes at once.
Audience feedback and data showed that many viewers binge watched the entire season at once.
Binge Culture = Instant Gratification
The watch-through rate is a very important data point.
Platforms care less about how many people start watching your show, and more about how many people finish it.
Here are a few metrics streaming platforms track:
- Completion rates
- Drop-off points
- How fast people binge
For Season 2, Surf Girls: International, all 5 episodes will drop at the same time.
If you want a Season 3, you know what to do!
Reason 3: Network mandates and timing
Network mandates are basically explicit guidelines of what a streaming platform is looking for when ordering or renewing shows.
This can be things like brand identity, genre, format, and tone.
Here are some examples of what I've seen included in network mandates:
- Untapped audience growth: Tap into Gen Z, women viewers, global markets
- High engagement: Emotionally driven, character-based sports stories
- Sports league partnerships: Prioritize storytelling around live-rights sports and women's sports
- Seasonality: Option to refresh each year, introduce new characters or locations, or adapt to new stories while keeping its core DNA
Seasonality can also mean a "weather" season.
Surf Girls is a summer series that released following one of Prime Video's most popular shows The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Seasonality can also track a sports season.
One example is following the football season in Friday Night Lights.
The bottom line: seasonality is an important strategy behind TV show renewals.
I do want to clarify that there are no set "rules" and mandates change every quarter.
There's always exceptions, and sometimes there's just no explanation.
Welcome to the entertainment industry!
Reason 4: Low production costs
Like any business, the film & TV industry often favors low-cost production with high ROI.
The definition of ‘low-cost’ varies by platform and context.
Season 1, Surf Girls: Hawai'i was primarily shot in Hawai'i for the entire show, with one out of state week-long shoot.
Season 2, Surf Girls: International was shot internationally, across multiple countries including Brazil, Portugal, and South Africa, among others.
Sounds like an expensive change right?
Correct.
So the workaround was to travel a smaller "skeleton" crew that included the following:
- Showrunner
- Co-Executive Producer
- DP
We then hired local crews and production companies in each international location.
Hiring local crews abroad can reduce production costs while investing money back into the community and strengthening the local film industry.
Summary
In my experience, here are some of the reasons why a TV show might get renewed:
1. It's a hit
2. Viewership and completion rates are high
3. It lines up with company mandates and timing
4. It has "lower" production costs
There are other reasons to be considered, so use this as a starting point.
I hope today's newsletter inspires you to start thinking strategically about your films & TV projects.
