Netflix doesn't care if your favorite show gets canceled

If it ain't making money, it'll be gone in a hurry

(Credit: SOPA Images/Getty Images)

Netflix isn’t sentimental when it comes to canceling shows, and often its decision to do so can exasperate audiences. I’m still salty that Netflix canceled ‘Spinning Out’ and ‘Archive 81’ after one season, and yet somehow decided ‘Good Girls’ deserved four seasons. (Yes, I may have watched them all.)

If you’ve ever wondered why Netflix pulled the plug on your favorite series and tossed it aside like a used toothpick, the answer perhaps isn’t too surprising – it’s all about the company’s bottom line.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Netflix’s new co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos gave a candid answer to the streamer’s decision-making process. Interestingly, and perhaps controversially, Sarandos says the streamer has never axed a successful show., or at least, its definition of one

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Netflix show cancelations

• 🗣️ Netflix’s co-CEOs have revealed why shows get canceled

• 🙃 Surprise: it all comes down to money

• 😲 Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says the company has never canceled a successful show

• 🚫 Netflix recently canceled The Midnight Club, Warrior Nun and Archive 81

"We have never canceled a successful show,” Sarandos told Bloomberg. “A lot of these shows were well-intended but talk to a very small audience on a very big budget. The key to it is you have to be able to talk to a small audience on a small budget and a large audience at a large budget. If you do that well, you can do that forever.”

It might seem like a cutthroat approach – sometimes a series has to find its feet before season 2 arrives. And you could argue Netflix could easily afford to let some of its more niche shows continue if there’s a loyal audience there. But like all businesses, the numbers matter. And the bigger those numbers are, the more money Netflix makes.

For viewers, cancelations can sting, particularly if you’ve invested your time into watching an entire series or were enjoying what you’d seen so far. There’s no guarantee whether your next favorite Netflix show will be greenlit again, and as Sarandos says, the budget has to match the audience.

With competition the highest it’s ever been in the streaming space, Netflix has to make tough calls so it can keep investing in shows and even free mobile games – though 99% of subscribers don’t play them.