Netflix did something it’s rarely done in its four-year history of original programming Wednesday: It canceled a show. Bloodline, the Emmy-nominated thriller starring Kyle Chandler, will wrap up its run on the service following next May’s launch of season three. While not exactly shocking news — there’d been speculation the show’s future might be shaky for months — the demise of Bloodline is still a pretty big deal. Of Netflix’s dozens of original series, only two have previously seen their runs end prematurely, and neither of those programs (Hemlock Grove andLilyhammer) was nearly as high profile. Ending an Emmy-nominated series with such prestigious auspices represents a turning point for a company whose story has, until now, been almost exclusively about adding things: subscribers, shows, awards. So why did Netflix, with its hundreds of millions in annual revenue, decide to pull the plug? Other than a statement praising the show’s cast and creators, the company isn’t talking. So Vulture decided to check in with some of our best industry sources to get a better sense of what might have happened, and what it could mean for Netflix. Here are four reasonable conclusions to be drawn from this week’s news:
Bloodline’s audience probably wasn’t big enough to justify its cost.
Netflix famously refuses to release viewership statistics for its series, making it impossible to do anything but speculate about how many of its subscribers have watched the first two seasons of Bloodline. There is no reliable data on how its audience size compares to, say, House of Cards orUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And yet, we do know Netflix has been paying producer Sony Pictures Television a substantial sum of money for the series. As it does with many of its originals, the streaming giant covers the full cost to produce a show, then tacks on a substantial upfront premium — anywhere from 30 to 60 percent — to make up for the fact the studio can’t sell reruns to another network. The model means a studio such as Sony is guaranteed a profit in advance, but it also results in shows being much more expensive for Netflix compared to what an FX or HBO would pay. In the case of Bloodline, multiple sources tell Vulture Netflix was paying Sony somewhere between $7 million and $8.5 million per hour — or $70 million to $85 million for a ten-episode season. Spread out over the course of what will now be Bloodline’s 33-episode run, Netflix could end up investing in the neighborhood of a quarter-billion dollars on a show which, despite solid reviews and some Emmy nominations, never attracted the sort of buzz that a Stranger Things or Master of Noneachieved with just one season. This doesn’t mean plenty of Netflix subscribers didn’t watch and enjoy the show. (It also doesn’t mean they did; we just don’t have data.) But Netflix’s decision to end Bloodline next spring strongly suggests the streamer simply wasn’t seeing the sort of viewer engagement and enjoyment which would justify further investment in the asset, at least not at the price tag attached to the show.
Why Bloodline’s Cancellation Hints at a New Phase for Netflix
Sony came up
Bloodline’s audience probably wasn’t big enough to justify its cost.
Netflix famously refuses to release viewership statistics for its series, making it impossible to do anything but speculate about how many of its subscribers have watched the first two seasons of Bloodline. There is no reliable data on how its audience size compares to, say, House of Cards orUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And yet, we do know Netflix has been paying producer Sony Pictures Television a substantial sum of money for the series. As it does with many of its originals, the streaming giant covers the full cost to produce a show, then tacks on a substantial upfront premium — anywhere from 30 to 60 percent — to make up for the fact the studio can’t sell reruns to another network. The model means a studio such as Sony is guaranteed a profit in advance, but it also results in shows being much more expensive for Netflix compared to what an FX or HBO would pay. In the case of Bloodline, multiple sources tell Vulture Netflix was paying Sony somewhere between $7 million and $8.5 million per hour — or $70 million to $85 million for a ten-episode season. Spread out over the course of what will now be Bloodline’s 33-episode run, Netflix could end up investing in the neighborhood of a quarter-billion dollars on a show which, despite solid reviews and some Emmy nominations, never attracted the sort of buzz that a Stranger Things or Master of Noneachieved with just one season. This doesn’t mean plenty of Netflix subscribers didn’t watch and enjoy the show. (It also doesn’t mean they did; we just don’t have data.) But Netflix’s decision to end Bloodline next spring strongly suggests the streamer simply wasn’t seeing the sort of viewer engagement and enjoyment which would justify further investment in the asset, at least not at the price tag attached to the show.
Why Bloodline’s Cancellation Hints at a New Phase for Netflix
Sony came up
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why did the show cost that much? It's not like they were using CG or special effects every episode.
