One major factor underlying Los Angeles’ much-discussed production exodus is Hollywood’s ongoing production contraction.
Total U.S. TV premieres, as tracked by Luminate, have dropped each year since 2022, which continues to stand as the final high point of peak TV. The problem facing L.A.’s local industry is not just less content being made in the city since then but less traditional entertainment content being made overall.
Yet even when taking this into account, L.A.’s loss of production volume has been disproportionately drastic, as explored in the new Luminate Intelligence special report Hollywood Exodus 2026. Notably, 40% of total U.S. scripted series released in Q1 2019 filmed in the city, versus less than 25% for Q1 2026.
There has been much speculation over whether California’s newly expanded film and TV tax credit will be able to revitalize production in L.A. in the years ahead. Since its implementation last summer, the credit has begun to attract some relocating shows along with titles that are newly eligible under the revised incentive program (including animated series, half-hour titles and “large-scale competition shows”).
However, it’s still too early to determine what the true impact of these reforms will look like. It’s entirely possible the growth in credit recipients will quickly stabilize as production hits a ceiling, though there seems to be genuine interest within the industry, as well as the local government, to help L.A. filming recover.
Among other production hubs, Vancouver has been hit hard by the decline of scripted broadcast series (the city was once the main shoot location for The CW, which no longer has an original scripted slate to speak of), but other key locales such as New York have seemingly maintained strong activity.
Still, raw title counts often mask the reduced work offered by streaming series, which typically have far shorter seasons than the 22-episode broadcast shows of yore. Indeed, the economic landscape for TV content has shifted dramatically amid the content contraction and post-COVID inflation.
For instance, $20 million-plus episode budgets, once unheard of in television, have become standard for large-scale franchise and genre series (Stranger Things, Shōgun, Andor) at the expense of many lower-cost shows.
Sub-$5M-per-episode series, once 82% of U.S. scripted TV releases, accounted for fewer than two-thirds in 2025, while shows costing under $1M an episode have all but disappeared. This echoes the film industry shifts of the 2010s, where blockbusters increasingly crowded out low- and mid-budget titles.
However, it’s those lower-cost titles that filled out slates in the peak TV days, helping to create jobs that remained close to home and offered work between seasons of big-budget shows, which often shoot abroad and take lengthy hiatuses.
This is what makes the current climate so daunting for industry workers: The relatively lucrative employment offered by studio projects is not only moving but shrinking, with shorter-term, lower-paying work such as vertical dramas expected to pick up the slack. It will likely take continued enthusiasm and effort from powerful talent to truly revitalize production in California.
