On Tuesday, comedian Hasan Minhaj announced that after two years and six seasons, Netflix canceled Patriot Act. Despite the unexpected axing, it is a symptom of a larger disease: streaming can do many things better than traditional broadcast television. Late-night shows are not one of them.
Patriot Act is different than a Evening Show Starring Jimmy Fallonprogram type or even some of the other temporary shows Netflix tried to get off the ground, including The Break with Michelle Wolf en The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale. It reminded me of great Comedy Central late night entertainment as well The Daily Show, and it existed alongside Netflix series as well Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee en My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. The Netflix development team claimed that this variation could work on the talk show format because it was not tied to the news of the day. It seemed like the first talk show on Netflix was breaking through.
“With Hasan, Dave and Jerry, we have three distinct and original styles that are thoughtful and current, but have longer shelf lives than traditional linear shows,” said Brandon Riegg, vice president of Netflix for nonfiction series and comedy specials. , told De New York Times last year.
At Netflix, Minhaj was left to explore. The streamer gave Minhaj a 32 episode from the start, and ordered an additional seven episodes in 2019. Like. Last week last night with John Oliver, Patriot Act took advantage of a late night style show without all the limitations of actually being a late night broadcast. The socio-political, often complex topics he decided to concentrate on won Minhaj (and Netflix, by extension) a Peabody Award, an Emmy, and endless critical acclaim.
What a touch. @patriotact has come to an end. I got to work with the best writers, producers, researchers, and animators in the game. My 2 babies were born and raised with the show. TY on @Netflix and everyone who watched. Now it’s time to give these screens back to Best Buy pic.twitter.com/4s4TrsKWe6
– Hasan Minhaj (@hasanminhaj) August 18, 2020
Why cancel a show that is so celebrated? Ratings. But Netflix is a shameful secret over its figures and often refuses to release statistics for its shows. The breakout hits act as good PR worthy of attention. For example, Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction nearly 100 million streams around the world in the first four weeks is a large number that Netflix wants to print. Other titles probably do okay of not great at all is what the streamer publicity wants to prevent. In other words, two things can be true at the same time: a performance like Patriot Act could be loved by people all over the world and performers can admire it, but if it does not draw in numbers, it becomes scarce.
With not much information from Netflix, it is the cancellations of the series that weave a story. The Break with Michelle Wolf, The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale, en Chelsea were all preserved after one or two seasons; Norm Macdonald Has A Performance, The Fix, en My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman have not generated the consistent kind of online hype Netflix needs for people to return to the streaming service for those specific shows week after week. Patriot Act generated conversations, and people seem to agree with Minhaj episodes. It just may not have been enough.
Herein lies the biggest problem: Netflix is trying to create a broadcast-specific genre of television for a streaming audience. They are two different animals. Riegg told the The time last year that “the topicality of the genre is a challenge for us as an on-demand service.” That is essentially true; talk shows are current in nature. Guests are often there to promote books or movies that are coming out or are being booked differently because of something that is happening right now. Getting daily brings in advertising revenue for a network and conditions an audience.
Even if they do not vote five days a week, people know that Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, en Ellen are on at exactly the same time every day. Talkshows are becoming a consistent, ad-generating networking company that needs to fill in time shifts 24/7. But Netflix is not a current, daily platform. People use it every day, but the algorithm serves sitcoms or movies in which they might be interested, and pushes them to continue the service by offering titles that they might stay an extra hour or two. It can be difficult for talk shows to break through the sound of thousands of other titles; some people might not see them on their homepage at all.
Talkshows also use YouTube to their advantage. Late-night hosts have become staples on YouTube, as well as their own networks, with clips appearing on the Trending tab or appearing on people’s homepages. Minhaj also appears here: Patriot ActThe YouTube channel has more than 1.3 million subscribers, and its videos routinely hit more than 1 million views. This includes full episodes that are uploaded to the site. However, whether those videos send people to Netflix and the streamers help grow subscribers is not known. And everything at Netflix is about growing subscribers.
This is the core dilemma of Netflix cancellations. Even if a show is good or necessary, it’s a business deal: does this series bring in new viewers and keep others out? Patriot Act ‘cancellation is then no comment on Minhaj’s show – objectively one of Netflix’s best. It’s a reflection on the current moment of Netflix, one where the streamer spent $ 18.5 billion a year on content, wading in new directions to see which sticks. Talkshows do not work. Their end is inevitable.
