Netflix Cancels ‘Girlboss’ After 1 Season
‘Girlboss‘ has been fired by Netflix after only 1 season the streaming service announced today.
Inspired by Sophia Amoruso’ New York Times best-selling book #Girlboss, it tells the story of a 28yr old woman (Britt Robertson), who goes from selling vintage clothes on eBay to building a multi-million dollar fashion empire, Nasty Gal.
It used to be the case that getting cancelled by Netflix was a rare occurrence, but the streaming service has chopped down a number of high-profile shows in recent months. Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Get Down’ was binned after 1 season (albeit split into 2 halves), and The Wachowski’s ‘Sense8’ was not renewed after 2 seasons, much to the annoyance of fans.
As many of you will know, Netflix doesn’t release viewing figures, not even to the show’s producers in most cases. However, just because we don’t see the numbers, that doesn’t mean they ignore them. Speaking to the press last month Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer, commented on the recent cancellations. “Relative to what you spent, are people watching it? That is pretty traditional,” he said. “When I say that, a big expensive show for a huge audience is great. A big, expensive show for a tiny audience is hard, even in our model to make that work very long.”
‘The Get Down’ was costing an estimated $12 million per episode, and ‘Sense8’, $9 million. Much like HBO (or the BBC for that matter), a subscription model allows the network to take more risks than traditional network tv. Even so, $12 million per episode is a heck of a lot of cash to be dropping on a show people aren’t watching!
Having said all that, Netflix still has a pretty impressive hit ratio compared to other content creators. The critically acclaimed ‘House Of Cards’, ‘Orange Is The New Black’ and ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ have all recently returned, with the latter two already renewed for new seasons. ‘Stranger Things’, ’13 Reasons Why’, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, ‘The Crown’, and ‘Narcos’ are all due back for new series, with some already renewed for multiple seasons. I think it’s fair to say, Netflix subscribers aren’t going to be short of things to watch anytime soon!
