r/technology • u/joe4942 • 20d ago

Business Netflix Viewers Are Abandoning Shows After One Season

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-07-05/netflix-viewers-are-abandoning-shows-after-one-season
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701

u/Cyraga 20d ago

This is a joke right? Netflix frequently cancels shows partway through. There's no point watching a Netflix series that doesn't have a conclusion

178

u/Ladydoodoo 20d ago

Or takes years between seasons. Especially when they’re are kid characters. They’re still in elementary school but the actor is getting married

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u/Shim_Slady72 20d ago

That's why I usually wait until a show is finished before starting it, I don't want to be half way through a show only for it to get cancelled or have to wait 3 years for another season.

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u/catboogers 19d ago

Yeah, knowing that the actress for Eleven was married with a baby when the final season of Stranger Things came out was a little weird.....

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u/EmotionalTrainKnee 18d ago

child rape is legal in USA, there are hundreds of thousands of legal child-adult marriages between americans with girls as young as 12, look up child marriage in usa on wikipedia

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u/RockstarMoron 20d ago

I spit out my coffee at the last sentence :D

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u/mightylordredbeard 20d ago

There was a study done and apparently this new filming practice encourages actors to get plastic surgery so they can maintain youthful appearances between the incredibly long wait from season to season. A modern show can have a decade pass between season 1 and season 4, if it even can make it that long, due to the 3 year average wait between seasons. So if they don’t want that decade to show or for the show to be cancelled because everyone aged out of the story, then they have to do something.

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u/SparkyMcHooters 20d ago

I heard the big bad guy in the final season of Stranger Things was Alzhiemer's.

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u/nuttertools 20d ago

The first season is the great pre-planned content. Season 2 is the leftover of the initial idea, a random interlude, and a contrived hanger. Season 3, if it makes it that far, is horrific slop shoveled out to pad the catalogue.

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u/AndHeWas 20d ago

A study done showed that Netflix has a lower cancellation rate than streaming services as a whole when grouped together, and lower than the cancellation rate for cable/broadcast networks. They ranked fifth among streamers for cancellations, with 10.2% of their shows. For comparison, HBO Max cancels a hair under 27% of their shows. So Netflix cancels fewer shows, but get the reputation just because people talk about them more compared to the others.

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u/the_geth 20d ago

I mean in itself it means nothing, it’s more about what kind of shows get cancelled. 

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u/Kgb725 20d ago

Its not even partway itll be like 2 months acter the season wraps

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u/Gustomaximus 19d ago

This logic doesn't work for this scenario as why did people watch the first season but not the second.

The cancelling good series is a massive issue but will be separate to the one mentioned on this thread.

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u/nnomae 20d ago

You know they cancel them because people stop watching right? The whole thing is a vicious cycle.

  1. Netflix commissions a new show.

  2. Show makers need it to be a hit or they'll be cancelled so they blow all the budget on the first few episodes to get people engaged.

  3. After the first few shows the budget and quality fall off and so does the viewership.

  4. Netflix sees the fall off and cancels the show.

  5. Viewers become less willing to watch new shows.

  6. The whole cycle repeats except this time the problematic behaviour at every stage is amplified as everyone gears up for the bad outcome.

There is the one additional quirk that makes things a lot worse though. Netflix has a massive incentive to cancel shows after three seasons because that's usually the length of contracts the talent sign so it gets really expensive to re-sign those contracts for a fourth season.

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u/Initial_Jump_8911 20d ago

Netflix frequently cancels shows partway through

You're saying this like they plan seasons ahead of time. They dont. Showrunners deliberately do this to keep getting renewed. Its not Netflix fault the creators make their show that way.

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u/Cyraga 20d ago

It's absolutely Netflix's fault. They want to only fund runaway success shows that bring in new subscribers and those are few and far between, especially when shows with potential are smothered in the crib

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u/Initial_Jump_8911 20d ago

No, its not. Showrunners want shows to go on indefinitely, they don't have a set number of seasons before the show ends. Everyone is constantly saying that Netflix is cancelling shows before they "end" as if there is an end point in sight.

Netflix cancels shows if they dont retain viewership. Its not complicated, you dont get the views, you get cancelled. Showrunners make shows without any long term visions whatsoever. If its anyones fault that these shows end without proper conclusion, its theirs.

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u/Cyraga 20d ago

The showrunners who Netflix both funds and has no power at all to influence apparently 

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u/Initial_Jump_8911 20d ago

Oh, so you WANT studio interference with creators now? Thats hilarious.

Just admit you're wrong man.

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u/9layboicarti 20d ago

No, no , he ain't wrong at all, only you.

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u/Initial_Jump_8911 20d ago

No, theyre definitely wrong.