If online media publications are to be believed, Netflix has a cancellation problem. That is literally the headline of a Motley Fool article published after the streaming service dropped Santa Clarita Diet. E! News suggested Netflix is on a “cancellation spree.” If you scroll through Twitter you’ll find plenty of people making the same assessment. Clearly, the belief is Netflix cancels more of their shows than any network.
More specifically, Netflix is perceived as being most likely to cancel a show with three or fewer seasons. It is true that Netflix seems to have a financial bias to only produce three seasons of a show. Even with that stipulation, I wasn’t completely convinced Netflix is any worse when it comes to canceling shows than networks and other streaming services. I’ve been watching television for more than a few of Earth’s spins around the Sun and I’ve had my heart broken by cancelations more times than I can count. Cancelations simply seem like a fact of media consumption life, so why are people getting so specifically upset with Netflix?
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