Why do streaming services cancel our favorite shows?

BY MOLLY TERRELL @keenryanti

Netflix has infamously canceled many shows within the last few years, and it’s increasingly surprising to see that it still has anything original left on the platform.

The streaming service canceled around 20 shows in 2022, and a lot of the shows canceled had massive media presence but apparently did not have the views necessary to keep them afloat. A lot of these shows had garnered critical acclaim and audience appreciation, despite the lack of promotion they often received.

Netflix has a very inconsistent marketing strategy with most of its shows. It doesn’t promote its shows equally and will cancel a show for not getting enough views, despite the fact that the platform didn’t bother doling out a marketing budget for the project in the first place.

Award-winning shows like “Julie and the Phantoms” and “Anne with an E” got canceled after scoring high ratings outside of their target demographics. Shows with “low ratings” were the ones getting the boot despite fan petitions starting minutes after the shows’ cancellations were announced.

Many people have noticed a pattern between the shows Netflix renews and the ones it cancels. Netflix seems to like canceling shows like “First Kill” and “Warrior Nun,” which have sapphic leads, while renewing shows like “Heartstopper,” which underperformed compared to “First

Kill” but was led by teenage boys instead.

“First Kill” and “Warrior Nun” both have had petitions and trending hashtags following their cancelations. Fans would mention other streaming services by name trying to get another service to pick one of their beloved shows to produce on their platform.

“First Kill” was allegedly canceled due to not having enough viewership to combat with the budget, but the budget for “First Kill” did not seem outstanding to begin with. The show had terrible CGI that hurt to watch. That, combined with the fact that the show stayed in the top 10 list for weeks, makes the “no budget” reasoning a little hard to believe.

The stream (which is slowly becoming a river) of canceled shows has not done Netflix any favors. The streaming service lost millions of subscribers in the last few months because it canceled so many shows but simultaneously increased the price of the service.

When pondering what the most undeserved cancellation in Netflix’s history was, the dystopian teen show, “The Society,” was what came to mind. A show about a couple hundred teenagers coming back after a field trip to find their hometown deserted. It was an incredibly popular show that had a compelling plot and is missed by the fan base.

“I think about it every day,” said LSU sophomore, Sawyer Temple.

Sawyer was a huge fan of the show and loved how unique it felt. She felt “outraged” when Netflix canceled the show and said having no ending was extremely dissatisfying.

The show was originally renewed for season two following the popularity of the first season, but was eventually canceled- allegedly because the costs of filming the series in Toronto were too high due to the production happening during the peak of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

Still, a delayed season would have been preferred to canceling a show that millions of people flocked to. The show had unique plots and character dynamics, with the first and only season ending with a massive cliffhanger.

Another show “1899” was canceled after one season when the show was originally intended to have three seasons. The show trended in the top 10 list on Netflix and garnered over 79.27 million hours of viewership. Despite the viewership, Netflix claims to have never canceled a show unfairly.

“We have never canceled a successful show,” Netflix CEO, Ted Sarandos, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “A lot of these shows were well-intended but talk to a very small audience on a very big budget.”

Many shows like “The Society” and “1899” will never be given satisfying conclusions, and it’s Netflix’s fault for canceling them.

Or maybe the streaming service is right, and it’s all our fault for not streaming its shows enough.

Year Of The Rabbit