Netflix has just cancelled Santa Clarita Diet, this article goes some way towards explaining why

[frelling_tralk]

‘Feeling The Churn: Why Netflix Cancels Shows After A Couple Of Seasons & Why They Can’t Move To New Homes”Honestly they’re just shooting themselves in the foot because I was planning on checking Santa Clarita Diet out after season 3 seemed to get really great reviews, and I heard people on my flist were really enjoying it, but hearing that it has

Comments

[honeymink]

they want to just churn out a couple of ten episode seasons to watch in a weekend as the equivalent of a really long movie

You may be onto something there. I had never really thought of it that way. Then again, I'm so used to my favourite shows getting cancelled early no matter the network/platform, maybe that's why I haven't given it any thought.

[frelling_tralk]

Maybe they’re not consciously thinking of it in those terms, but that seems to be how it works out when they are so focused on the initial numbers and buzz for the first couple of seasons, and then want to drop shows after that, it’s not how tv has been traditionally watched at all. Even on their own platform it’s not what’s producing the most popular and most watched shows, hence their desperation to hang onto Friends, even though it was produced by another network and they’re likely going to lose it eventually anyway

The most popular shows on Netflix are Friends, The Office, Parks And Recreation, Grey’s Anatomy, Supernatural, Gilmore Girls etc, none of which would have survived for even a quarter as long if they were Netflix’s own shows. Interestingly Orange Is The New Black seems to be their most popular original, and hmm that’s the one show that has quite a bit of content to consume, rather than wrapping up after 2 or 3 seasons once Netflix has lost interest in it. They have new movies and tv shows coming out all the time yes,

[honeymink]

I don't know comedy is tough - I never liked Friends tbh and was immediately turned off by The Santa Clarita Diet. I think the only two comedy shows that I have ever watched and re-watched were Black Books and Stacked. But that's not the point. I see what you are saying - it's tough though I mean I watched Girlmore Girls almost till the end (pretending when Lorelei and Christopher got married that was the happy ending) but I acknowledge that there was a decline in quality though not as terribly as with Grey's Anatomy - I stuck this out way too long until I felt completely screwed over by the new show runners last season. I mean similarly with Orange Is The New Black, I stuck it out for a few seasons - I acknowledge there was an important message there about the privatisation of prisons and the employment of unqualified personnel but it was hard to watch, especially with my favourite character being killed and then the last season seemed to be repeating old patterns in a new setting

[frelling_tralk]

I know what you’re saying about Gilmore Girls, I think that five seasons would have been the ideal there maybe. But then of course network tv is going to struggle more with coming up with new storylines and drama when they have 22 + episodes a season, whereas Netflix don’t have that problem, and GG would likely have not needed to introduce forced drama like April if it was 7 seasons of 13 episodes or less

[_profiterole_]

All of this!

Also, I've noticed that seasons are getting shorter and shorter. First, it was 13 episodes, then 10, now it's often 8.

[frelling_tralk]

Yeah I heard that come up a lot with their Marvel shows, that they wanted to cut the episode order down from 13 to 10. They really don’t seem to want to have too much of one show at all, even though their own data should tell them that the long-running shows are doing far better for them than Netflix originals

[_profiterole_]

They also get airing shows from other networks and stop updating them after a while. There are a lot of shows that I used to watch before I got caught pirating that they do have, but they only have the beginning, not the recent seasons, so it's useless to me.

[kazzy_cee]

I totally agree if I know something has been cancelled - and particularly if it ends without a resolution - I won't even start the series. It's so silly not to at least finish and tie up loose ends isn't it? That way people would bother to watch it!

[frelling_tralk]

I really don’t get what they’re thinking lately. Whether someone is watching a particular show or not, pretty much everyone hates a show ending half finished and on a cliffhanger, and so viewers are less more likely to even start one of their originals (that they are spending tons of money on as lasting content for their platform) if it doesn’t have a proper conclusion. Netflix really seemed to get that at one point when you heard about the CW shows getting shortened final seasons to tie things up properly precisely because of the Netflix deal that they had, and Netflix understanding that viewers are far more likely to watch a show that is complete

[violateraindrop]

I saw that article earlier. It sounds as if it's bad when a show is successful. Eventually, people will get fed up and realize that their original shows never get proper conclusions.

Santa Clarita Diet was great and it's a shame that it ended on a big cliffhanger. If they would have known about it, I'm sure they could have come up with a much more satisfying ending.

Does Netflix realize that Game of Thrones has more than three seasons and pretty much dominates the internet at the moment (coming from someone who doesn't watch GoT)? They picked up Lucifer after the third season...
I wonder if their big hit Stranger Things will also end after S3.

[frelling_tralk]

That’s what I don’t get, the really big shows in pop culture are not the ones that ended after a couple of seasons, Breaking Bad actually picked up more and more viewers through word of mouth as it ran for a total of five seasons on Netflix, and yet it’s been noticed more and more lately that Netflix seem to now consider three seasons the ideal length for even a show that is still reasonably popular.

They seem to be setting up their entire platform for just binge-watching the new shows, and disregarding anything that is considered ‘old’, even though it’s been pointed out that their most popular shows are easily the network ones that ran for six seasons or more

[violateraindrop]

Like you said, their most popular shows are old ones. They don't even give (new) shows a chance to become classics or gain viewers by word of mouth. You are probably not the only one who decided against watching Santa Clarita Diet. A lot of people won't start shows when they know there will be a cliffhanger and the show is already canceled.

I don't really think they consider three seasons the ideal length. To me it seems as if they just want to new promote shows, generate buzz, everyone binge-watches the first season, is excited for the second one, and then the hype dies down.

[frelling_tralk]

And that’s really ridiculous thinking of theirs in my mind, because of course a shows hype will die down with the way that they release shows all at once. I’m not saying that I want them to change the way that they release entire seasons at once, but it’s frustrating that they’re judging a shows popularity by it when as a strategy it clearly favours new shows where viewers can get hyped over hearing about this cool new show, and are able to check it out as a complete season. It’s hard to keep up the same hype though once you’re into a pattern of a new season being dumped on Netflix in a weekend every 1-2 years. Even Stranger Things doesn’t seem to have nearly as much hype behind it coming into the third season, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to drop that as well now that it’s no longer the hot new thing in comparison to newer shows like Sabrina

[eiffels]

I’m so upset about the Santa Clarita cancellation especially because there wasn't a proper ending. Definitely not great news to wake up to.

[frelling_tralk]

I’m really sorry, it just sucks for the fans, especially when the actors seemed to absolutely love doing it :( I was definitely hyped to check it out soon after everything I heard recently about how good it is, but then hearing that it ends on a cliffhanger really puts you off even starting it