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There’s a narrative out there that old Hollywood/the traditional entertainment companies are “losing” to tech companies because they’re too “stupid/stodgy/old fashioned/out of touch…” and so on. Obviously, that’s a crass and simplistic summary, but I bet a lot of analysts would admit that’s how they actually feel about anything traditional/old media, and I read a lot of commentary that basically says that.
In today’s batch of renewals and cancellations news, you see one great example of why that take might be true. Then again, another section makes the opposite case. And the final section has a piece of complicated information that shows why simplistic narratives are just that: simplistic.
On to this edition of “Renewals, Cancellations, Un-Orders and Removals” where I’m talking about Netflix’s popular renewals, whether hit TV shows can come out on time, unpopular TV shows that got renewed, Netflix removing their most innovative content from their platform, and a whole lot more.
Popular Shows That Got Renewed
Looking at popular streaming shows that got renewed (because they’re popular), it just makes sense to start with Netflix, who renewed streaming’s most popular reality show, Love is Blind for seasons nine and ten. While season 7’s viewership dropped a bit last fall, season 6’s viewership was absolutely huge.
Meanwhile, Netflix…
…renewed Beef for a second season, but this time with Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as leads. (It was one of the best performing half-hour shows on streaming, checks notes, two years ago). They also renewed A Man on the Inside for season two, which did well at the end of the year.
…renewed the Monster anthology for a third season, this time on Ed Gein. (They’re going with “The Original Monster” not the “The Butcher of Plainfield”.) Season two (on the Menendez brothers) didn’t soar to the heights of season one, but still did well.
…renewed The Lincoln Lawyer for a fourth season (which bested Thursday Night Football for a week!)
…renewed Outer Banks for a fifth and final season. (It had a bit of a soft start compared to other seasons.)
… renewed Virgin River for a seventh season (ahead of its most recent season’s premiere). The latest did really well, but didn’t break into the “40 Million Hours club” like past seasons.
So yeah, looking at this list, Netflix has just a ton of hit shows, and the other streamers aren’t keeping pace. If you want to make the case that Netflix has “won the streaming wars”, there it is.
Then again, the four returning shows saw their ratings slip a bit from previous highs. Worse, Netflix doesn’t yet have a show that can get to the same number of episodes as broadcast TV shows used to (and some still do today). The broadcast model enabled sitcoms and procedurals to finish their runs with hundreds of episodes, and now those hundreds of episodes drive lots of viewership. The streaming originals just won’t get to that same number of episodes. Whether or not this matters—it doesn’t seem like Netflix is in a hurry to sell their shows to anyone, but also more episodes would drive more long-term library value—is up in the air.
Netflix’s Jurassic World: Chaos Theory also got renewed for a third season, the rare hit kids TV show to make the Nielsen charts, though season two didn’t repeat this feat.
Okay, let’s get to more renewals, and the theme is “It’s taking too long to make future seasons of hit TV shows.” (I was quoted in a great article on this topic by The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh just last month.)
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is coming back for a third season—which is, perhaps, the least surprising renewal possible—but it’s not going to start filming until this spring, which means that there’s almost no way the third season comes out a year after the second season. (This is an ongoing problem for the streamers.) I wrote extensively about The Rings of Power when it first premiered, then did a major recap after its second season run ended, asking, “How Good is Good Enough for The Rings of Power?” Like Beast Games, to paraphrase Peter Parker, with great budgets comes great responsibility (for big ratings). I cannot wait to see if the ratings go up, go down, or stay flat in season three.
HBO renewed The White Lotus for season four ahead of season three, which is smart since last season’s ratings more than justify this call, but you need to keep these shows coming out on time; White Lotus’ last season came out in 2023.
Adults Swim/Warners Bros. Discovery also renewed Rick and Morty for two more seasons. Again, the ratings more than justify that call, but this show also needs to start coming out on time again, and hopefully, this helps that.
Prime Video renewed Clarkson’s Farm for another season, and they ordered a Jack Ryan movie. Since Jack Ryan is a hit series (again, from two years ago), I like that decision, but I’d send the movie to theaters.
Paramount+’s Mayor of Kingstown got renewed for another season; this one kept chugging along on the charts throughout its run. (This show takes about a year and a half between seasons.)
Silo’s second season (which came out a year and a half after the first season) made the Nielsen charts for three weeks with 6.7, 7.5 and 6.6 million hours in its 8th, 9th and 10th week of release, which makes it far and away Apple’s second most popular TV show of all time, after Ted Lasso. (Though Severance’s second season is off to their fastest start since Ted Lasso season three.) Now Silo is getting two more seasons. Two things. First, the budget for this show is enormous; the first season cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Those ratings don’t justify that budget. (See my breakdown of Rings of Power that I linked to up above.) I would still call this a “hit for them”, not a true hit.
Also, The Family Plan is getting a sequel. This is one of Apple’s biggest film hits, though the timing of this announcement took a while.
Un-Orders, Removals, and Shows Moving Around
I normally leave this section—discussing “removals” mostly—for the end, but I actually moved it up, since one streamer actually started licensing their original films to another streamer, and Netflix removed some of their most innovative content.
In sort of the opposite of a removal, Hulu started licensing its films to Prime Video (including both Vacation Friends, Deep Water and The Summer of Soul), which I think is a smart business play to both…
- Get an unseen film in front of more people.
- Get extra revenue.
Of course, Prime Video also has gobs and gobs of money as they continue to buy their way to the top of the streaming wars (which, to be fair, they’ve been doing for, oh, fifteen years now). Speaking of tech companies with gobs and gobs of cash, Wolfs isn’t getting a sequel, because the creator is upset that Apple cancelled its theatrical release and announced a sequel (in the same PR leak) without talking to him first. (Stay tuned for my bi-annual collection of flops, bombs and misses, because this one might make an appearance…)
Prime Video’s game show, The 1% is moving to Fox exclusively and getting a new host, Joel McHale. (For those who don’t remember, the first season streamed on Prime Video first, then the episodes aired later on Fox.) Peacock nabbed Married at First Sight from Lifetime, and Deadline is reporting that the deal might be worth $50 million.
But here’s the really big news: Netflix has removed most of its interactive specials, especially kids specials including…
- Animals on the Loose: A You vs Wild Movie
- Barbie: Epic Road Trip
- Battle Kitty
- Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile
- Captain Underpants: Epic Choice-o-Rama
- Carmen San Diego: To Steal or Not to Steal
- Cat Burglar
- Choose Love
- Headspace: Unwind Your Mind
- Johnny Test’s Ultimate Meatloaf Quest
- Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: Hidden Adventure
- Spirit: Riding Free: Ride-Along Adventure
- Stretch Armstrong: Breakout
- Boss Baby: Get That Baby!
- The Last Kids on Earth: Happy Apocalypse to You
- Trivia Quest
- Triviaverse
- We Lost Our Human
- WWE: Escape the Undertaker
- You vs Wild: Out Cold
I’m sure all the folks who talked about how Netflix’s interactive specials represented a unique change in how we consumed media—especially post-Black Mirror’s interactive “Bandersnatch” episode—will write follow-up columns about this. On the one hand, I like innovations in the video space, using streaming technology in a way that couldn’t be replicated with old linear television. If you have a brand new medium, your content needs to reflect the new user experience. Interactive seemed to do that.
On the other hand, I always worried that these specials were probably too expensive to justify the costs; if you have to film four hours of content for one hour of viewership, that doesn’t net out in ROI terms. My working theory—which friend of the website Kasey Moore agrees with—is that removing these specials will make future UX improvements easier for Netflix. Of course, it’s not like Netflix is getting out of gaming/interactive, just focusing on their mobile games and/or cloud gaming initiatives.
Unsurprising Cancellations
Apple TV+ cancelled Sunny (starring Rashida Jones) after one season, a rarity for Apple Studios. This was the “miss of the week” when it came out, and if it were on any other streamer, would be a candidate for bomb of the year.
Paramount+ cancelled Frasier after two seasons. I would have expected a lot more from this one, and I wonder how it would have done if it aired on CBS first. As both a “miss of the week” and a nominee for “bomb of the year”, this doesn’t surprise me.
Peacock ended three series—Teacup, Hysteria! and In the Know—all after one season, because all of them flopped. The Continental—which might have been a series if it did well—isn’t coming back, so now it’s just a one-off miniseries. Finally, Bel-Air (which always felt more like an SNL sketch than a TV show concept) is ending after four seasons. Still, it led to this headline:
Bel-Air was anything but a hit.
More and more, Peacock is on a Hulu-esque losing streak this year. They just aren’t making enough hit shows.
Disney cancelled two UK imports, Shardlake (real title) and Extraordinary (a comedy about superheroes). Both bombed on Hulu earlier this year and, presumably, the UK (where they were on Disney+). Interestingly, Extraordinary later went to ITV, but I couldn’t find any ratings data on it. This didn’t stop multiple UK tabloids from calling them hits:
Related, I sympathize with any actor who is upset after their show gets cancelled, but after a certain point, you need to be realistic about whether a show actually resonated with audiences. Like how How to Die Alone star/co-creator Natasha Rothwell (who I like!) told Deadline,
“I am shocked, heartbroken, and frankly, baffled that Onyx has decided not to move forward with a second season of How to Die Alone, Rothwell said in a statement to Deadline. “This is a tough reality to accept because the show is an undeniable critical, creative, and award-winning success.”…Rothwell indicated she plans to shop the series. “My team and I are committed to find How To Die Alone a new home because stories like this matter,”
Based on the viewership, this choice wasn’t baffling: it didn’t make the charts. (And it wasn’t notable enough to garner more than a passing mention in my Streaming Ratings Report.) Again, I like Rothwell, but her show just didn’t resonate with audiences.
Prime Video’s Harlem’s third season came out three weeks ago, but that will be that show’s last one. We’re still waiting on the Nielsen ratings, but it didn’t make the Luminate or Samba TV charts or any interest charts…
HBO cancelled The Franchise after one season. Here’s a (rare) critical take that got cut for space in the Streaming Ratings Report: I’m not sure what expertise/experience Sam Mendes and Armando Iannucci have in making superhero movies (the premise of this show) but I’d be way more interested in watching something like this from the Russo brothers.
Netflix cancelled both Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (didn’t make the Nielsen charts) and Girls5eva (a big miss for Netflix after they grabbed the rights from Peacock), leading to this fun headline:
The Girls5Eva miss feels like it should put a damper on some streamers rescuing other streamer’s shows. First, shows that miss on one platform usually miss on other ones too. Very rarely do shows gain that much in popularity switching platforms. In a few cases, shows did well on their first window, for what that window was (often tiny, like YouTube Red), then got much bigger when they came to Netflix. Second, Netflix can’t make any/everything a hit!
Unpopular Shows That Got Renewed
Now, let’s get spicy.
If you want to argue that “Traditional Hollywood is soooooo dumb.” then you have to account for this section. That’s right, now we get to the most fun section of this update: unpopular shows that got renewed. For example, Apple TV+ renewed…
- Bad Monkey for another season, even though it never made the Nielsen charts.
- Same goes for Shrinking, which didn’t even make Luminate this year.
- After Noah Fielding didn’t show up to work, Apple reportedly cancelled The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, but based on its US ratings, they got lucky; I didn’t think it should have been renewed in the first place.
- For All Mankind, which has never made the charts, is getting a spinoff.
Even Silo—which I mentioned above—is arguably much too expensive to justify its viewership. At least, on any platform that isn’t Apple TV+.
If you want the counter-argument to “the old school studios are dumb” take, this is it. Most folks, when making the case that the traditional players haven’t done well in streaming point to their cash flow and the decline in revenue from the traditional model.
Yet…what is Apple doing?
If “losses” are the criteria, looking at this spending and the return (in terms of viewership), I don’t think Apple is making money. If we could know what Apple (and Prime Video) are spending, it might put the traditional player’s performance in a different light entirely.
Apple can spend and spend and spend in ways that other studios just can’t. Now true, the traditional Hollywood studios took on debt and did stock buybacks throughout the 2010s—not great, Bob!—limiting their ability to ramp up spending as the streaming wars got going. But even if they hadn’t, they were never going to be able to compete with the cash the tech behemoths could spend to gain a foothold in Hollywood. That doesn’t mean old Hollywood “doesn’t have a strategy”; it means the traditional studios can’t lose money and Apple and Prime Video can (without impacting their respective stock prices).
Compared to Apple, none of Prime Video’s renewals seem all that expensive. Like renewing animated anthology series Secret Level and sports docu-series Faceoff: Inside the NHL for second seasons (neither made the charts in their first seasons), Good Omens is ending with one more 90-minute episode (this show did okay ratings, but got caught up in the Neil Gaiman scandal), and The Legend of Vox Machina is coming back for a fourth season, but it also missed the charts.
Disney also has its own puzzling spending choices. Hulu renewed Tell Me Lies for a third season, even though it’s never made the ratings charts, and gave the showrunner, Meaghan Oppenheimer, an overall deal at 20th Century. Traditional media outlets are (rightfully) obsessed with getting their facts right, but that didn’t stop The New York Times from saying that this show and The Sex Lives of College Girls were hits:
Ironically, the viewership data on those two shows confirms what the UCLA researchers actually argued (which this article was trying to debunk), that it doesn’t appear that young people are interested in sexy shows. I think the reporter should have cited Bridgerton as an example instead.
Hulu also renewed a bunch of shows that haven’t made the charts in the US, including The Artful Dodger (maybe it did well in Australia, its home country?), Rivals (maybe it did well in England?) and Reasonable Doubt, which is from the US but didn’t do well in the US, getting just 3.7 million hours according to Luminate.
Presumably, Netflix renewed the NBA’s docu-series, Starting 5, because they announced next season’s cast. Many NBA fans and commentators have argued that the NBA’s tanking viewership is just due to streaming numbers…but this show disproves that. It didn’t make the US or global charts. The BBC renewed A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder, which streams on Netflix in the US. This got 19.2 million hours in its first two weeks, which is low for a scripted Netflix show. Selling the OC is getting a fourth season, but the last season eked out 3 million hours on the charts.
Netflix’s Tomb Raider is getting another season. So is Max’s Creature Commandos. Both are animated, which means that they’re cheaper than live action to produce. I’d add, sometimes animated shows have already started production on subsequent seasons, due to long lead times, which may have happened for both of these shows.
“Bubble” Shows, Edge Cases, and Surprising Decisions
Okay, on to bubble shows, edge cases, and shows that we don’t have a lot of data on. Like how Apple TV+ renewed Your Friends & Neighbors before it premiered. Really, this is probably a fake renewal and there were always going to be two seasons of this show.
Peacock renewed The Day of the Jackal, which did well on Luminate but not Nielsen, and Days of Our Lives, the soap opera that now streams on Peacock. It’s never made the Nielsen charts, but I like this call.
HBO’s Dune: Prophecy is right on the bubble, in terms of ratings, but HBO renewed it. Meanwhile, The Righteous Gemstones will end after its fourth season, which feels a pinch early, but this show never did huge numbers. (See the HBO datecdotes chart above.)
Disney renewed Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man for a third season before the first one even came out, even before they had season one ratings data! (It had already been renewed for a second season.) Then again, this show is animated so, presumably, costs less. This also applies to Paramount+’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy got renewed for a second season before its first season. (Again, I think production just keeps going.)
Speaking of shows that it’s hard to judge, the following shows have to make the acquired TV charts, which is usually a higher bar than the streaming Originals charts, but haven’t, including…
- FX cancelled The Old Man, which made some interest charts, but the linear ratings were down this season.
- Showtime renewed The Agency, which they said did really, really well for them, but it didn’t make the Nielsen streaming acquired charts. Same goes for The Chi, which is starting up its season 8 writing room ahead of season 7. Showtime shows rarely make the acquired charts, which makes both of these shows hard to judge.
- Same goes for Starz renewing British import Sweetpea.
- MGM+ renewed From. Nielsen doesn’t track MGM+—so I don’t have any ratings for this—but it performed incredibly well on the interest charts.
After shutting down Freevee, Amazon cancelled Dinner With the Parents and The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh. Nielsen doesn’t track Freevee either, so I can’t say if either did well. (Neither made the interest charts…)
Netflix renewed America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders for a second season. It did okay—making the Nielsen chart for three weeks, which basically makes it the king of the sports docu-series—like what the old version of this show on CMT did on basic cable. Hopefully, it’s being made for a reasonable budget. Even weirder, Netflix’s The Empress is ending after three seasons. Its last season made the charts for one week at 8.3 million hours, which is great for a foreign-language TV show.
Netflix’s The Sandman is ending after its second season. This show did well way back in 2022, getting 80 million hours and 14th best opening, but even at the time, Neil Gaiman, the co-creator of the comic and showrunner, said that based on the giant budget, it might not be enough to get renewed. After his scandals this summer, it’s not surprising that it’s ending after two seasons.
The Creep Tapes is getting renewed on Shudder, leading to this datecdote from Deadline: “[The Creep Tapes] debuted as the most watched Shudder show of all time on AMC+ and the strongest November release in Shudder history, driving record subscriber growth and social media engagement, we’re told.” Without anything to compare it to, I can’t put this datecdote into context, and honestly, I’m not sure how many TV shows Shudder actually makes.
Broadcast/Cable Channel Renewals and Cancellations
Finally, we have broadcast renewals and cancellations news, which I don’t track as rigorously as streaming ratings, obviously.
ABC renewed High Potential (which has made a bunch of interest charts), along with the juggernaut that is Abbott Elementary (which comes from Warner Bros…), and The Great Christmas Light Fight. Alas, Lucky 13 (which had an interesting business model in which Studio 1 pre-funded the show) is not coming back.
Oddly enough, The Bachelorette is skipping a season this summer (Bummer!) being replaced by a season of The Golden Bachelor and The Golden Bachelorette. After skipping Bachelors in Paradise last summer (which is returning this summer), I’m told fans of the show aren’t happy. FX renewed the hit comedy, English Teacher, for another summer. (It did well on the interest charts.)
CBS renewed Matlock, which also made the interest charts, NBC renewed St. Denis Medical, and Fox renewed Murder in a Small Town and Farmer Wants a Wife.
TBS cancelled Wipeout and The Cube, and the Paramount channel renewed Bar Rescue renewed for its tenth season and I don’t have strong feelings about either.
Finally, in your Bravo TV update, Vanderpump Rules is coming back with an all new cast (finally says my researcher/editor’s wife) but The Real Housewives of Dubai is not. You might be like, “Why does Bravo matter?” Because it’s the one cable channel that survived the NBC Universal spinoff! They’re doing something right.
Okay, back to the theme of this article…does old school Hollywood know what they’re doing? Well, the broadcast channels are still making popular TV shows that millions of people want to watch, on broadcast and, crucially, streaming, as we keep seeing over and over again. If High Potential and Matlock run for five-plus seasons, I have no doubt that they’re going to do terrific viewership numbers on the various streamers for years to come.
So it’s not like Hollywood has completely forgotten how to make content that people want to watch. Instead, technology and platforms are changing.
