Why do you think that CAOS got cancelled 😥
Hard to say, but I’ve no doubt it has to do with money in some capacity. The cast, crew, writers, and fans all expressed a desire for more seasons, so this was a business decision, not a “creative differences” one. I worked for an entertainment magazine a few years ago and from what I understand - views are not what drives Netflix’s decisions to renew shows. It’s the amount of subscriptions they can directly tie to the show and it’s impact. Which is incredibly difficult to quantify (if possible at all, really), so if Netflix FEELS the subscriptions coming in are not a result of Sabrina - or rather - could be achieved without Sabrina, they consider it an unecessary investment at that point.
The wild thing is - the way MOST major networks operate is by fronting 70-80% of production costs, with any remainder falling to the production team itself (it’s why you see gofundme’s to keep shows alive sometimes) but in exchange producers get to maintain most of the rights to their shows.
However, Netflix is insidious af. Because what they do is cover 100% of the production costs upfront. Sounds cool for the creative team ‘cause whew, they don’t have to worry about finding a lump sum of funds to fill in the gaps and can just carry on with producing the show at entirely the network’s cost. But in exchange - Netflix keeps an overwhelming amount of rights and licensing to themselves (as high as 90% sometimes). This then makes it extremely difficult to move the show to another network or platform. Some series contracts even have a clause that states production under a different network cannot be done “for several years,” even if Netflix cancels the series (see: Santa Clarita Diet).
Basically, they are fronting themselves to be this messiah of the television arts because “hey, we’re gonna give you everything you need to get this up and running, guys - we aren’t like those major networks who make you meet them halfway first, we’re gonna come ALL THE WAY to YOU ‘cause we believe in this project” but the minute that project becomes (perceivably) unprofitable - it’s “yeah so, we need you to leave... make sure to hand in your souls on the way out because you signed those over to us years ago, thanks. This is all ours now and no, we’re not gonna do anything with it, we’re just gonna demand you leave and watch it’s potential rot because we can. :)”
So... knowing that, if I had to guess... Netflix knew another season of Sabrina would mean a year of basically funding a small city, with moderately expensive post-production effects in having to translate for several languages + meeting whatever raises they anticipated the actors/writers requesting. And with covid making it uncertain as to when production could resume anyway, they might’ve thought it a futile effort to renew the show.
Which I, of course, disagree with entirely. Not only do I think subscriptions would rise/renew with the guarantee of another season of Sabrina (I would like to see their statistics that prove otherwise, this show is literally on everyone’s radar across the globe), I think netflix is sitting on a WEALTH of potential for profit since they own the LICENSING. That means every merch product, convention, novel, comic book, etc... Netflix gets a huge cut of ALL that. Why throw that away? You have a show that inspired a whole ass convention weekend for it alone when only two seasons were out!
My only other theory - and this is just me digging into my cynical well of bitterness - is that perhaps a big wig at Netflix is a born again Christian and said a big “nope” to teen dramas with Satanic themes. Which... ya know... I could also argue does little to serve their self-interests, but YA KNOW.
Anyway, I’m babbling now. But in conclusion - everyone working on Sabrina deserved better. We deserved better.
