How many episodes should you watch before giving up on a TV show (and what do statistics say)?

In a nutshell: Not all television shows are created equal. Even among those that are universally praised, it can take a handful of episodes or more before a series sets its hook and starts reeling you in. This leads to a question that many have no doubt pondered over the years: how many episodes should you give a series before cutting your losses and moving on?

Daniel Parris from Stat Significant recently set out to answer this age-old question. To quantify it, Parris looked at IMDb user ratings (ranging from 1 to 10) for Friends and found the average to be around 8.34. Using this figure as the benchmark, Parris noticed that it wasn’t until episode seven that Friends episodes surpasses this threshold.

Using this method, Parris looked at every show in IMDb’s database and compared its average user rating to individual episodes, then averaged the resulting differential by episode number. Data revealed that most shows need six or seven installments before ratings start to match or exceed the series’ long-term average.

Depending on the series, six or seven episodes could make up the majority or even the entirety of the first season. With so much content to choose from these days, it’s no surprise that some aren’t willing to dedicate that much time to try and get interested in a new show.

While an interesting metric, it is by no means concrete as subjectivity plays a huge role as well. With some shows – especially sitcoms – it can take a season or two for actors to fully flesh out a character. Others manage to instantly click with audiences and get them addicted from the very first episode.

I usually know within the first episode or two whether a show is for me, though occasionally, I’ll give a series more time if it comes highly recommended. How about you? Does the 6-7 episode threshold seem about right, or is it too high? And while we are on the subject, what are a few of your all-time favorite television series?