The sci-fi mystery drama series 1899 won’t return for its second season. After only one season, Netflix decided to cancel 1899. The cancellation comes as a big shocker for fans as the first season performed well and received good reviews from critics.
The first season of 1899 did well on Rotten Tomatoes, scoring 76% score from 40+ reviews. On IMDB, the first season received 7.5/10 from 76K+ votes. As far as viewership is concerned, 1899 ranked number two on Netflix’s Top 10 TV English titles in its first week. In only four days, the show was able to generate over 79.27 million hours of viewership, according to Variety. In its second week, the series remained at the same position and garnered 87.89 million viewing hours.
Unfortunately, Netflix has not made a comment yet on the cancellation of the show. Fans are wondering why the streamer cancelled the show when the first season garnered such positive numbers. They are expressing their disappointment on social media.
Netflix will have 300 shows about people cooking and fuck boys on desert islands, but you cancel literally every original or good show? What is even the point #1899Netflix
— Emily (@ohholymountain_) January 2, 2023
Just canceled #Netflix. Tired of getting invested in good shows only to have them canceled after one season. #1899Netflix was the last straw. pic.twitter.com/AhxAGcT4C1
— The Homocracy (@ReasonPete) January 2, 2023
Why did Netflix Canceled ‘1899’?
Now the big question is why Netflix cancelled 1899 after just one season. Well, Netflix is yet to make a comment but as far as we understand it has something to do with the budget.
The budget for the first season of the series was at least €60 million ($62.2 million) with €2 million coming from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and €10 million coming from the German Motion Picture Fund. Netflix invested €48 million in the project, making it the most expensive German television series of all time.
Though 1899 Season 1 received a decent response, Netflix had more expectations from it as it was helmed by the creators of Dark which remained one of the most prolific shows on the streamer.
The first season of 1899 failed to even cross even 400 million hours of watch time in the first 28 days. Compared to it, low-budget shows like Inventing Anna (511.92 million hours), Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (856 million hours) and Wednesday Season 1 (1,196.15 million hours) garnered huge viewership.
At the end of the day, it’s all about ROI. It seems that the people at Netflix have made their calculations and decided that going ahead with the series would make big holes in their pockets.
According to Wired, this decision “comes down to the data”; what pulls in new subscribers and keeps them paying. This Vulture article explained how important the idea of a ‘28 day viewership’ is to a Netflix renewal, which refers to the number of people who watch an entire season of a show within a month.
What are your views on Netflix cancelling 1899? Let us know in the comments section.
