Apple TV+ Original ‘Severance’ Might Have Been A Major Hit, But At $20 Million Per Episode, It Is One Of The Most Expensive Shows To Be Made

wccftech.com:

The first season of Severance aired in 2022, and with a total of nine episodes, it quickly racked up immense popularity, but at a major financial setback. We reported earlier that Apple TV+ production costs have reached a stage where churning out original content has become unsustainable for the technology giant.

After all, investing $20 billion on the platform and barely garnering a 0.2 percent viewership share in the U.S. means that Apple has to discipline itself on expenses. One example where costs skyrocketed was when the latest estimates revealed that Severance cost $20 million per episode, making it one of the most expensive TV shows of all time. However, there are other factors responsible for taking that sum to ludicrous levels, which we have discussed below.

Related Story Apple TV+ Expenditure Has Crossed $20 Billion, Making It Unsustainable; Company Executive Taking Various Measures To Bring Costs Down Considerably

Part of why Severance’s costs ballooned was due to scheduling conflicts and script rewrites, raising the total to $20 million

Assuming that every Severance episode costs $20 million to make, the entire season would have a grand total of a whopping $180 million, which is typically the budget of high-profile movies from the Marvel universe. As reported by Bloomberg, behind the scenes, season two kept running into continuous hurdles such as script rewrites and scheduling conflicts. The science fiction psychological thriller is scheduled to release in January 2025.

Given its popularity and high rating, Apple will attempt for a third season, but bringing costs down is paramount for the company. Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of services, reportedly met with Hollywood chiefs to watch the streaming platform’s budget with a closer eye. However, it was not specifically mentioned if Severance’s production costs would be reduced or if there were other plans in the pipeline.

The report also states that Silo, another Apple TV+ original, has an