LogFAQs > #970574128

Leanaunfurled posted...

Do you know what Netflix considers good or bad viewer ratings? Iirc 1899 had 80mil viewers and was charting in multiple countries and all that. I thought it did well and between that and with Dark preceding it, I didn't even consider 1899 getting the axe.

Nobody does. This is made worse by the fact that we barely have visibility of real viewership. Like a Nieslon program got instituted last year but that is still really new and really doesn't have the same value traditional TV ratings have since the primary users of Neilson ratings are advertisers, who want third-party viewership figures. Something less important for streaming services that have either no advertising or advertising with very different contracts.

So not only do we not know what Netflix bases it's decisions on (which I'm guessing involves engagement metrics beyond just volume of minutes streamed) but we really aren't even sure of what the viewership really is.

One other thing to consider, is that we are still facing some of the tail end of the industry wide production delays caused by COVID. Shows take a while to go from agreement to produce to airing on television in general. Then suddenly everything got pushed back because COVID. Finally things air years after the deal and even if it does well it's weird delayed production schedule could make filming additonal seasons tricky. And maybe one show didn't get specifically hit by the issues, but maybe Netflix had other popular shows that did so they are moving things around and reallocating resources and so the show gets screwed anyway.

All in all, the last couple of years have been serious chaos for show production and there are so so many factors that go into the renewal of even seemingly popular shows that it makes renewal decisions functionally opaque.