Do you know how many series ended up being canceled after just one season on major streaming services? And we’re not talking about horrible, low-budget shows, but major projects that managed to attract a lot of fans. Do you? The exact number is unknown, but it is quite large, and our colleagues from The Wrap have just written an interesting expose on how this might be an issue going forward.

Canceling a series is always a complex process and it is the result of a number of factors that are combined into one decision that will always make a lot of people sad, because however bad a series is, it will always have a fanbase.

As Lucas Manfredi says, it is difficult to actually measure the success of a streaming series as the numbers are hard to quantify objectives, but he assumes that modern cancel culture has done a lot of harm to streaming services as the post-cancelation demand for some series is truly stunning.

You will, of course, remember the controversy related to Disney’s The Acolyte, but there are also numerous other examples, such as Netflix’s The Brothers Sun, Obliterated, and Dead Boy Detectives.

All these series ended up being canceled after just one season, and based on the Netflix data we have, this is an increasing trend. While we know that some of these shows were very controversial, both The Acolyte and most of these Netflix shows pulled in some good numbers according to the data at the time, and here are some examples:
Source: The Wrap

Source: The Wrap

As it seems, a lot of these shows were canceled due to the the current cancel culture; people rally against a common “enemy,” generally an ideological one, and they start massive campaigns that, ultimately, lead to the platforms canceling some projects.

The Acolyte is a brilliant example. The series pulled in some solid numbers, the critics were satisfied, and a fanbase was there; and while the series did have some systemic issues, it got better as the season reached its final episode and the cliffhanger was praised by almost everyone.

And when it seemed that the series was ready for a renewal, news broke that it had been canceled and the haters were cheering, believing that they had caused that. Wile we will agree that some of this aggressive campaigning “helped” the show’s cancelation, it is definitely not the principal reason. But this hurts, and the post-cancelation numbers imply that as well:

Source: Parrot Analytics (via The Wrap)

As you can see, the post-cancelation demand for a lot of shows is increasing, significantly even, and that is a factor that definitely has to be considered going forward, as streaming platforms will have to find a new way to measure the success and profitability of their new shows. More information about the topic can be found in the linked article.

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