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 been cancelled on a cliffhanger has just put me off even starting it. And their originals are going to be on their platform forever, so those are the shows that they should be spending and investing on to make sure that they get good conclusions, not paying out millions to temporarily keep Friends for another year. I get that Friends is doing really well for them right now, but surely they should be thinking more about looking after their own shows for the long-term?

The importance of viewer loyalty should not be underestimated, people are going to be put off even starting a new Netflix show if they know that it’s likely to be cancelled out of the blue like this. If Netflix wants to keep shows down to three seasons or less then I suppose that I have no strong objections to that, just as long as they tell the creative people involved that this is going to be your final season, we want to give you a chance to wrap it up. Don’t just leave the story half finished ffs!

I can’t help feeling like they’re shooting themselves in the foot as well though to keep chasing the hot new show all the time, it’s clearly been shown that the most popular shows on Netflix are the long-running comedies like Friends and The Office that viewers are nostalgic for and heavily invested in, for me personally I prefer tv over movies partly because of the depth of character development you get when a show is long-lasting and you really feel like you get to know the characters lives, and yet Netflix seems to have no interest in creating shows to run over the course of years (well other than The Crown I guess). It seems like they’re they’re so heavily invested in binge-watching that they almost treat tv more like movies, that 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?

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.livejournal.com]

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, and you can certainly argue that they produce more quality tv when they don’t let a show drag on past its prime, but at the same time surely there is a happy medium? They seem to have next to no interest in producing any kind of long-running tv show, even when they can see for themselves that it’s shows like Friends and The Office that most of their subscriber base keeps coming back for, and surely a sitcom like Santa Clarita Diet is exactly the sort of show that would have benefited them if it had ran for five seasons or so to increase its rewatch value (particularly when they are shortened seasons compared to network tv). I get the feeling that they are so focused on their hot new shows that it doesn’t even occur to them to make their older shows appealing for rewatch though, they just rely on their Friends deal for that?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_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.livejournal.com]

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...

The whole thing sucks because Netflix apparently make it even harder for other platforms to pick up their shows, they are kicking off now about how Disney has better not even have discussions on the Marvel shows before the two years are up, and also refused to let one of their cancelled comedy shows go to CBS, even though Netflix has picked up enough of other network shows themselves! It just seems like a show has no chance though if it’s Netflix that has cancelled it, and Netflix used to be the place we relied on to save cancelled shows :( I remember that coming up with their deal with the CW as well, that Netflix considered it important for the shows to be fully concluded and that was why Nikita had an extra shortened season, because they didn’t want to leave a story half finished. Sadly they really seem to have done an about face on that since for some reason

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.

They are going to lose a lot of viewer loyalty with their originals if they continue just cancelling them randomly like this, especially when in some respects they seem to be courting prestige tv and wanting to get a good reputation in that way, and yet they are now treating tv as cheaply as the traditional networks. No one would want to start a movie or a book that cut off right before the end, so why do they think that we want to watch tv in that way?!

[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.livejournal.com]

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

[eiffels.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Your "really long movie" comparison is interesting, and maybe not all that far off. I definitely think they're relying on binging, rather than character development and arc development. Which some shows suffer for. Like One Day at a Time - I like the show a lot, but I do think it was weaker for having a lot more "special focus issue" episodes rather than longer lasting arcs and character/relationship development. However, I don't think the format really allowed a smoother ride. I don't think it needed to be cancelled, I think it had more viewership than they admitted, but I wonder if it would've been more popular if so many of the episodes hadn't been in Very Special Episode territory.

I also wonder if Netflix went over on its own head. It was a great place to watch movies, and then it tried original content, now they seem to be questioning what kind of original content that want, plus what older stuff people want. (I have to say, their idea of what people want is... odd as far as movies go. They barely have any popular movies, instead seeming to have more obscure ones. It could be a rights thing, of course, but I have to wonder.)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there’s been a change behind the scenes at some point, because I definitely get the impression that they are now chasing the youth demo hard in this past year or so, and catering towards viewers who they see as having a limited attention span and just wanting to speed watch new content all the time. That seems very limiting to me though, because surely they’re never going to be able to produce *that* many new tv shows every month, especially while still trying to balance the money that they are spending. And as I’ve mentioned in several other comments, it definitely seems to be the case that most people are finding that it’s the older network shows that they’re happiest to rewatch the most as ~comfort shows~ almost, and that’s just not the kind of shows that Netflix seem interested in doing. That is going to present a problem once Netflix starts losing the rights to shows like Friends and The Office though, even young viewers are watching those shows on repeat by the sounds of it, and are not as obsessed with new content as Netflix might imagine. Their originals are not the most popular shows on their platform

And they seem to be trying more for prestige movies with their own content, I get the impression that it’s really important for them for their movies to win awards and be respected. And definitely they’ve never been great for picking up popular movies I’ve found, I suspect that that’s a cost thing maybe?

[nemophilist.livejournal.com]

SO BUMMED

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

:(

[tabaqui]

I....really don't get their logic. And if continuing past 3 (short) seasons is too expensive, they should change their business model. Or be up front with the show's producers, etc., that they need to make sure the story arc is told and complete in three seasons (or two), or at least has virtually no loose ends.... I dunno. It's stupid, to me.

I don't feel that Santa Clarita Diet ended on a 'cliffhanger' at all, really - I don't *like* that it ended, but I didn't feel cheated out of answers or anything.

Me, I'd watch it, because it really is fun and funny, and Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant are amazing. I thought the ending wrapped things up pretty well.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I’m definitely not getting their logic, it seems like they’re happy to spend billions on original content otherwise, but as soon as a show gets too popular in its third season then they suddenly start tightening the purse strings? At least that’s what I’m led to understand anyway https://deadline.com/2019/04/santa-clarita-diet-canceled-netflix-three-seasons-1202602903/comment-page-1/#comments

As I have reported, at least some of Netflix’s cancellations stem from the shows being deemed to have gotten too expensive. That is because of how many of Netflix’s series deals are structured. It is widely known that Netflix employs a “cost-plus” model, offering to pay upfront a show’s production costs plus a premium of 30%+ of the costs. The pacts include bump/bonuses after each season that are getting progressively bigger. While the payments are relatively modest after Season 1 and a little bigger after Season 2, I hear they escalate after Season 3, especially for series owned by Netflix — sometimes from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars — as the studio starts to pay off the shows’ back-end.


But really it’s just going to make everyone mad and cynical, whether they’re fans of that particular show or not, because who wants to get invested in a Netflix original now that it’s been confirmed that they no longer care about giving the creative people a chance to finish the story?

[snogged.livejournal.com]

Nick and I watched the first episode of Santa Clarita and we weren't convinced.
Others I know loved t and I feel bad for them.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I noticed a lot more people talking about it when the third season came out interestingly, it wasn’t really on my radar much before then, but it really seemed like the third season was a hit and the show was starting to become pretty popular. It’s baffling logic to then cancel it in order to save money, all they are doing is pissing off a lot of fans, and I always thought that their business model was to spend a ton investing in original content?

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

It's not the only show that got canceled recently and ended with a Cliffhanger. The same happened with THE GIFTED and the same WILL happen with Blindspot. I just hate it. I hate that shows don't get the chance to really end on their own terms anymore. It's all about money, money, money.

I've never seen SCD but I have of course heard of it and lots of people - especially on Facebook - are super upset about it...

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It is so frustrating, especially when at one point it seemed like Netflix was above that and cared about bringing shows to a proper conclusion, but now it just seems like they have decided to copy the networks instead :( Same with them suddenly deciding to chase initial viewing numbers and wanting the younger demo, even though in the past it always seemed more like they cared more about having a good selection of shows with something to offer everyone

[molly_may]

I guess their business model is to only care about new subscribers. They probably looked at how many people signed up in the week or so after S3 of Santa Clarita Diet dropped and decided that it didn't have enough buzz to bring brand new viewers in. And they figure that the fans of that show who are disappointed are also hooked on Sabrina or Stranger Things or whatever, so they're not going to lose subscribers. It doesn't seem to me like a very sustainable business model in the long term, especially if they do more and more originals and have a smaller catalog of older, long-running network shows. The reason shows like Friends, Supernatural, Gilmore Girls, etc. are the most popular is because there's so much content that viewers have relationships with those characters and enjoy returning to them again and again. But a three season series of 8-10 episodes? There's not enough content to go back to over and over, and not enough time put in for viewers to feel like the characters are old friends that they want to re-visit.

It seems like they’re they’re so heavily invested in binge-watching that they almost treat tv more like movies, that 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?

Yeah, I think this is true too, and it makes for less satisfying TV overall to me. I mean, I've enjoyed a lot of Netflix originals - I loved Russian Doll, and Stranger Things is a lot of fun - but I really think of them as miniseries, not a traditional TV series. The rewatch factor is much lower for me, because you can't just pop in and pick an episode at random to watch. Most of the shows are so serialized that no one episode can stand alone, unlike something like The Gilmore Girls, where there are serialized story lines, but most episodes can stand alone as a self-contained story.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

:nods: I feel like that’s the case with a lot of Netflix shows, that they’re an entertaining distraction for a weekend, but also almost being treated as disposable tv, just there to distract us until the next big hit comes along. And generally they’re not the shows that you want to sit down and rewatch over and over again like you would with say Friends or Gilmore Girls. It baffles me that nobody at Netflix seems to have figured that out yet, considering they have the clues right there when it comes to how few of their heavily serialised and designed for binge-watching originals are in the top 20 of their most watched shows.

They really don’t seem to want the cosy feel-good shows where you can just pop in an episode and watch at random, I guess they’re considered old-fashioned in some way, but clearly even on Netflix those kinds of shows are still by far the most popular when you just want to kick back and watch some tv before bed. And that’s going to be an issue for them for sure once more and more new streaming sites spring up and no longer want to license their content to Netflix, because their own originals just don’t have the same amount of choice for casual tv watchers, even their comedy shows are generally in no way designed for episodes to be watched at random

[mazephoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I wonder if Lucifer is doomed. One season and then over maybe?
I'm still mad about Daredevil. They had such a good buildup for another season..

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Same :( I’ve seen the argument that it didn’t technically end on a cliffhanger as everything was resolved with Matt and his friends, but meh it’s very frustrating to end it on the teaser for bullseye in season 4, and then just have the show cancelled

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

After season 3 of SCD dropped, I started to fear it wouldn't get a 4th season, especially after what happened with One Day at A Time and am so bummed that my fears were founded. I loved SCD's second season and was looking forward to the third. I totally get why you don't want to start it now. Like I said, I loved the second season but even I'm wary of starting the third season, especially hearing it ended on a cliffhanger.

After hearing about the cancellation, I was also annoyed with how Netflix doesn't release ratings. At least with network shows, you might have some inkling that a show you like might be in danger if the ratings are low. Though reading that article it might not even matter. It really sucks that their business model seems to be if your show doesn't get them new subscribers/isn't nominated for enough awards that they just chuck the show and move on to the next shiny new thing. To me, that seems even more cold-blooded that the networks approach. I do hope it backfires on them. They might think viewers won't care enough because they have other shows to watch, but people might stop watching their shows if they know Netflix will end them so soon and without a proper conclusion.

If Netflix wants to keep shows down to three seasons or less then I suppose that I have no strong objections to that, just as long as they tell the creative people involved that this is going to be your final season, we want to give you a chance to wrap it up. Don’t just leave the story half finished ffs!

So much this!

Stacey

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I think the backlash is already starting! People weren’t happy about some of the previous cancellations, but there was also a general acceptance that well Disney+ does make it more complicated to own the Marvel shows, and perhaps One a Day At A Time really did have horribly low views, but now more people seem aware of Netflix just having a policy of generally not letting shows run for too long because they can’t do what the networks do and make back the money in syndication. And having three seasons or less works for some shows sure, but it seems very uncreative to force that limitation on nearly all of your shows, especially comedies which can at least run for five seasons surely, especially when Netflix already have a standard of shorter seasons with 6-10 episodes?

A lot of people are also now feeling betrayed at the arbitrary cancellation right in the middle of the story, whether they watched the show or not, and are pointing out how much it will damage Netflix’s back catalogue if they have unfinished shows on there that people won’t then want to bother with

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I agree with you here :)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

:)

[malicat.livejournal.com]

I'm grateful that Netflix saved Lucifer but other than that I'm getting more and more pissed off with them. Granted,they have a lot of awesome shows but what's the point when they never make it past a third season,if the even make it that far???

If Netflix wants to keep shows down to three seasons or less then I suppose that I have no strong objections to that, just as long as they tell the creative people involved that this is going to be your final season, we want to give you a chance to wrap it up. Don’t just leave the story half finished ffs!

THIS! Although,at this point I feel like showrunners/writers should have realized now what's up and plan their season 3 finale accordingly ^^

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

And it’s not that Netflix aren’t bringing out fun and interesting shows, but in 20 years time I wonder how many people are still going to be watching and re-watching all ten episodes of Manic or The Umbrella Academy, or all 8 episodes of Russian Doll, in the way that viewers today are still re-watching shows that have stood the test of time like Friends, Supernatural, Gilmore Girls etc?

And I’m not necessarily saying that those particular Netflix shows need more seasons, but for Netflix to decide that hardly any of their shows need more than three seasons just on general cost saving grounds is just baffling to me, the shows with longevity are generally the shows that really draw viewers in and have you watching them on repeat

[sictransits.livejournal.com]

I don't get this at all. If they have these successful original shows, why keep cancelling them so soon? And without notice... Netflix is in real trouble anyway. They are upping their price and meanwhile, Disney+ will be out in November and available for half the price. I may be cancelling my Netflix subscription when that time comes.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It’s definitely not the best time for them to start pissing off their customer base! It’s just stupid to me that they will spend billions on new content, and yet when it comes to their existing popular shows is when they decide to get penny-pinching. They need to consider losing customer loyalty as well, not just just how many more subscribers they can draw in with flashy new shows

[silverusagi]

If Netflix wants to keep shows down to three seasons or less then I suppose that I have no strong objections to that, just as long as they tell the creative people involved that this is going to be your final season, we want to give you a chance to wrap it up.

THIS. There is nothing wrong with shows that are two or three seasons long. The BBC does it and does it beautifully. Sometimes a fantastic story doesn't need to run forever to be fantastic. But the difference is, those creators go into it knowing that the story is contained and will have an ending soonish. In some cases, the decision to only go two or three seasons comes from the creators (from what I've read). But if that's going to be your business model, you need to clue the writers in.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Hopefully at least more creators will be aware now that it’s no good going to Netflix with a five year plan for your show *sighs*

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw an article several months ago looking at the most popular shows on Netflix and how instead of being original, new content, they were all reruns of various other shows. Which is fine, but that seems to be somewhat at odds of what every other streaming service is trying to do now? Reruns is one thing, but that audience isn't going to be around forever, and it seems at odds with the weird inhouse productions Netflix had aimed to do at the start.

I think the problem is also in how they treat shows- they want you to binge watch them, talk about them on social media for a week, then move on. Except I think we're moving away from the bingewatch approach now, so...yeah. I dunno what they're looking at, but it isn't anything I can make sense of.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It’s interesting because I remember everyone being so against the idea of Netflix dropping episodes weekly, but lately I’ve seen a lot of suggestions that for some shows like Santa Clarita Diet then it might have been a better way to create buzz if they had released episodes on a weekly schedule, and that not every show needs to be binge-watched, especially comedies that aren’t so plot heavy and set out as a novel. That’s something that you wouldn’t really have heard suggested as a positive just a few years ago even, so it does seem like some people are recognising that perhaps binge-watching isn’t the best way of keeping the hype going and a fandom active. I remember that when the Gilmore Girls revival was released I agreed with the writer saying that her own preference would be for the episodes to be released weekly, they were an hour and a half long anyway, and I would have loved all four episodes to be released over a month so that we could spend plenty of time discussing each episode every week and drawing it out longer. But of course Netflix wanted all four episodes released as a six hour binge, and so I then I felt pressured to catch up with them all as fast as possible so that I wasn’t spoiled for the much hyped last four words

Of course anything like a weekly release would go directly again Netflix’s business model of establishing binge-watching though, and I’m sure there would be an outcry from a huge number of subscribers if Netflix did consider it, so I’m not sure if it would be the right decision for them or not. If anything at the moment they seem to want to encourage viewers to get through the episodes even faster! I remember that some viewers from One Day At A Time were talking about pacing the episodes out and making them last, and the people behind the show had to come out and say that we appreciate that you would enjoy the show more like that, but it’s actually really important that Netflix sees as many people as possible completing the entire season in the first weekend that it’s released, because that’s the numbers that they’re looking for