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Netflix should cancel more shows, says CEO.

Fuzzy logic from founder and CEO Reed Hastings.

When Netflix cancelled The Get Down it took the market by surprise.

It was the first original drama the streaming giant had axed after just 1 season.

“Our hit ratio is way too high right now,” founder and CEO Reed Hastings said this week. “So, we’ve cancelled very few shows … I’m always pushing the content team: We have to take more risk; you have to try more crazy things. Because we should have a higher cancel rate overall.”

While Hastings isn’t looking to deliberately produce failures, his logic is that by taking big risks, “you get some winners that are just unbelievable winners, like 13 Reasons Why. It surprised us. It’s a great show, but we didn’t realise just how it would catch on.”

Ask any TV programmer and they will tell you: Risk is one of the most crucial ingredients of success in Television -otherwise we never get anything new.

The Netflix founder also offered a clue about how the company deems its programs failures.

“You can tell when we cancel a show,” Hastings said, adding that the company considers “a mix” of factors in its decision, including viewership and subscriber growth.

“Mostly, it is how many people watch. But those are very connected.”

Source: Vulture, Vanity Fair

9 Responses

  1. I wish they’d just continue with some shows they already have, for example season 2 of The Expanse. I know, not one of their productions, but a terrific series we’re still many months behind on.

    Netflix are becoming too obsessed with their in-house productions and are neglecting the shows they source from outside.

  2. Viewers go to Netflix because they’re unhappy with the TV Networks. Now Netflix is acting like a TV Network. Have the bean-counters taken over?

  3. “We have to take more risk; you have to try more crazy things.” Yet, they cancelled Sense8 which really pushed the envelope on so many levels as a tv series?! Not happy at all! I really hope there’s a movie or something to tie up the season 2 cliffhanger – I need to know what happens to Wolfgang damnit!

    1. Well I guess it’s time to go apeshit then, because that’s exactly what they have just done…I know it was an expensive show to make, but worth every cent in my opinion.

      1. There’s a huge social media movement to get the show back. Whether its fruitful or not is yet to be seen, but the amount of passion the fans have for Sense8 is incredible, myself being one of them.
        It was a very expensive show to make however the way season two ended meant season three could be much more cost effective to produce (without giving spoilers)

        Something just doesn’t add up with Sense8’s cancellaton.

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