It should come as no surprise to anyone, but Netflix has canceled its live-action Cowboy Bebop adaptation after just one season. Announcing the news to The Hollywood Reporter this afternoon, the reason for the show’s cancelation likely isn’t what you’d expect. While critical and viewer reception wasn’t kind (on MetaCritic, the show has a 47 and 4.8, respectively), the cancelation has more to do with viewership plummeting just a week after the show’s debut.
According to the report, for the week of November 29 – December 5, viewership ratings dropped a total of 59% from the previous week. Cowboy Bebop had a strong debut, racking up a ludicrous 74 million viewing hours, but it seems negative word of mouth kept new viewers from tuning in. According to insiders close to THR, Netflix’s renewal rate for original shows -with two or more seasons- sits at around 60% and comes down to viewership and cost. With basically everyone jumping ship, it only makes sense that this sci-fi space opera would get canned.
We’ve written plenty about why we felt Cowboy Bebop was…bad, but this decision does seem to have been made rather hastily. I can’t say for certain if a second season would have improved anything, but I do have a feeling that people off for the holiday season may have tuned in for the hell of it. Wait, why am I complaining?
At any rate, I only hope that Hollywood gets the message that viewers really do not want live-action versions of anime shows.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
