The Real Reason Netflix Cancels Your Favourite TV Shows

There's nothing more frustrating that seeing one of your favourite Netflix shows get unceremoniously axed, particularly if there seems no reason or rhyme as to why certain shows get cancelled while others get renewed for further seasons.

In a fantastic Reddit post from user jdbolick, there's a breakdown detailing how "completion rate" is the key to a series getting renewed or not.

By this, it means that the most important metric to Netflix is the number of people who start a show and continue through until the end of that particular season. So, if a series doesn't have huge viewing numbers but the bulk of those viewers watch every episode of a season, that particular series is more likely to get renewed than a show that brings in massive viewership figures but whose viewers ultimately don't stick around for the conclusion of that season.

Using What's on Netflix for specifics, First Kill and Hearstopper are thrown up as two examples of 2022 shows that had very different fates.

For First Kill, that vampire-centric offering amassed an impressive 97.66 million hours of viewership across the first four weeks it was on Netflix. In comparison, Hearstopper clocked in at 53.4 million total hours watched during its first four-week period. Despite those numbers, First Kill was cancelled after one season, while Hearstopper was picked up for another year.

This is where completion rate is key for a service like Netflix. To highlight this, 66.96% of people who watched First Kill's debut episode decided to watch the show's second episode. From there, 58.23% of that initial viewership watched the third outing, 54.43% watched the fourth, 51.44% stuck around for the fifth, 48.42% bothered with the sixth, and 44.32% watched the seventh episode. All in all, only 43.11% of those who watched First Kill's first episode ended up watching the entire season.

Where Hearstopper is concerned, the completion rate for that show's first season stands at 73% of those who watched the series' first episode.

For Netflix, a vital indicator of future viewing habits is the sheer number of people who stuck with a show throughout a season. If a high number of people bailed on a series midway through a season, it's unlikely that those lost viewers would return for a new season. On the other side of this coin, if a show managed to maintain a loyal fanbase and deliver a strong completion rate, it could be a case that the show in question simply needs to be marketed better in the future.

So, the moral of the story is, completion is king. If you want to see more of a certain show, but sure to stick with its most recent season through until the very end.