Netflix Just Canceled A Beloved Show After Only 2 Seasons
Netflix has canceled yet another critically beloved series after its second season, and we are seeing a troubling trend.
Netflix appears to be going on one of their periodic series-canceling sprees, and a fan favorite show just got the ax. The streaming giant has declined to renew The Baby-Sitters Club after two seasons and 18 episodes, just five months after the second season premiered. While the show has occasionally entered the top ten most-streamed shows on Netflix, it seems that it was not quite up to the numbers demanded by whoever makes these decisions. Netflix has quite the reputation for canceling shows after two seasons, so there must be some internal benchmark that series reach when they get to that point that very few can cross. The streaming platform notoriously does not make their actual viewing numbers public, so we will just have to assume The Baby-Sitters Club did well, but not quite good enough.
The Baby-Sitters Club was based on the long-running young adult book series of the same name by Ann M. Martin, which began all the way back in 1986. The series currently has over 130 entries, and is occasionally ghost-written in a similar fashion to The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, but still very impressive. It was also previously adapted as a series for HBO in 1990, but only lasted 13 episodes that time. Despite the incredible popularity and longevity of the book series, it just seems for some reason that it does not translate into success in another medium.
At least, not success as it comes to viewing numbers (and a third season on Netflix). The Baby-Sitters Club was critically beloved, achieving the rare 100% Critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes for its second season. It also had a 90% for audience approval, which only looks low in comparison to a perfect score. The series starred a number of up and coming young stars, including Momona Tamada as Claudia Kishi, Sophie Grace as Kristy Thomas, Shay Rudolph as Stacey McGill, Malia Baker as Mary Anne Spier, Kyndra Sanchez as Dawn Schafer (who was initially played by Xochitl Gomez in the first season). The Baby-Sitters Club also starred 1990s icon Alicia Silverstone as Elizabeth Thomas-Brewer, club president Kristy’s divorced mother.
Despite its overwhelming critical success, it looks like there will not be a last-minute reprieve for The Baby-Sitters Club. Netflix has never seemed to be particularly swayed by fan campaigns to save series, even when said fans mount an ambitious global campaign to save a song and dance show about ghosts. There does seem to be a tendency on Netflix’s part to cancel series starring and targeted towards young women, with Never Have I Ever, Julie and the Phantoms, and now The Baby-Sitters Club all being put on ice. Just noting the trend there. On the other hand, Netflix’s new number one most popular show, Vikings: Valhalla, has already been renewed for two additional seasons barely a few weeks after its premiere. It likely all comes down to the numbers, but it looks like Netflix is sticking with the violent screaming Northmen over the comparatively less violent and screaming Baby-Sitters Club.
