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johnnyjay t1_j5txuam wrote

Reply to comment by WordsAreSomething in Testing the claim by Ted Sarandos that Netflix does not cancel "successful" shows by applying some actual numbers by [deleted]

No misunderstanding. Here's the quote:

We have never canceled a successful show. 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.

1899 was expensive to make. But it also performed better than the average Netflix top performer. So it was successful and did not have a "very small audience". If it was so expensive that it required a run at Number 1 for multiple weeks, then Netflix is greenlighting shows that are not sustainable, and that is on them.

Warrior Nun performed a little lower than the average Netflix top performer, but that show is less expensive to produce and the viewership should have been in line with expectations.

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laughland t1_j5tyncf wrote

Yes but HOW expensive was 1899 to make? It’s all relative, maybe 1899 necessitated an even bigger audience draw than other “top performers” because it cost that much more. Also as others have mentioned, hours watched isn’t necessarily the best metric because you could have a ton of people watching the first episode and only a few people watching the last; what does that mean for the viability of a Season 2? There’s been reports that Netflix values completion rates almost just as much if not more than hours viewed

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WordsAreSomething t1_j5tyryc wrote

>But it also performed better than the average Netflix top performer. So it was successful and did not have a "very small audience".

That doesn't mean it was successful. It's viewership and reportedly it's completion rate wasn't that good compared to 0ther expensive shows they produce. So it doesn't seem like it was successful.

This really comes down to you not really having the information to say if something was truly successful or not. If any of these shows were actually successful what does Netflix gain by cancelling them? Occam's razor my guy.

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