Yes, Hollywood has new ideas. You just aren’t watching them

Did you watch “Kaos” on Netflix? “My Lady Jane” on Prime Video? What about “The Brothers Sun”? “Dead Boy Detectives”? “Constellation”? “The Girls on the Bus”?

Well, don’t bother. They’re all TV shows that were canceled by their streaming platforms after only one season. And there are many more — Vulture has a staggering running list of all the shows canceled in 2024 so far.

Audiences are somewhat to blame. Despite multiple public complaints that Hollywood has run out of original ideas, it seems like audiences aren’t actually willing to take the chance on new and fresh ideas.

Instead, it’s sequels, prequels, spinoffs and franchises that dominate the box office, as the Deseret News previously reported.

According to Box Office Mojo , the highest-grossing films of 2024 so far are:

1. “Inside Out 2″ ($652 million)
2. “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($635 million)
3. “Despicable Me 4″ ($361 million)
4. “Dune: Part Two” ($282 million)
5. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” ($275 million)
6. “Twisters” ($267 million)
7. “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” ($196 million)
8. “Kung Fu Panda 4″ ($193 million)
9. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” ($193 million)
10. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” ($171 million)

Streaming platforms, on the other hand, are notorious for canceling shows shortly after the first season.

According to Nielsen , a company that measures audiences’ watching habits, the top 10 original shows on streaming between Sept. 9 and Sept. 15 were:

1. “The Perfect Couple” (Netflix)
2. “The Rings of Power” (Prime Video)
3. “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” (Hulu)
4. “Emily in Paris” (Netflix)
5. “Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter” (Netflix)
6. “Only Murders in the Building” (Hulu)
7. “Outlast” (Netflix)
8. “Selling Sunset” (Netflix)
9. “Kaos” (Netflix)
10. “Futurama” (Hulu)

It’s worth noting that the majority of the shows in Nielsen’s top 10 have two or more seasons. Both “The Perfect Couple” and “Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter” were limited series.

“Kaos” was canceled by Netflix earlier this month, according to Variety .

It’s impossible to keep up with streaming TV shows

OK, it might not actually be audiences’ fault. As Ben Travis wrote for Empire , “Audiences can’t keep up with streaming shows — and they’re paying for it.”

“There’s something undeniably broken about the streaming model,” he wrote. “It’s the pressure, the rush, the whack-a-mole game of trying to watch something before it’s unceremoniously yanked, amid a deluge of never-ending ‘content.’”

He continued, “With so many high-profile shows culled after a single season ... it feels clearer than ever: you need to be an instant mega-smash to avoid the axe.”

Streaming services expect audiences to flock to new TV shows immediately “to prove their interest.” But as streaming platforms continue to be oversaturated with content, how can audiences be expected to keep up?

Short answer: They can’t. According to Entertainment Weekly , this year saw a long roster TV premieres — not that unusual — but roughly 200 season premieres came from streaming platforms. Netflix led the charge with 52.

And, according to Vulture , Netflix has canceled nine shows this year so far.

Keeping up with new streaming shows is impossible — and it might feel futile, when there’s a good chance that a new show will be canceled.

Depressingly, a good chunk of the shows Netflix canceled were based on original and fresh ideas.

As Travis wrote , “Services are over-feeding and starving their audiences at the same time — there’s way too much to watch, but none of it lasts.”

Not even good ratings can save a show from getting the axe. Prime Video’s “My Lady Jane,” a retelling of Lady Jane Grey’s life, was praised by critics and got a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes .

But the show was canceled only seven weeks after it premiered, according to Deadline , because “it didn’t find a broad enough audience, never landing on Nielsen’s Top 10 weekly streaming rankings for originals.”

Sometimes, the streaming model works — but a lot of the time it doesn’t

There are exceptions to the rule — we’ve seen a few original, fresh shows take off.

The latest is “Nobody Wants This,” Netflix’s rom-com series starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. The show was renewed for a second season quickly after the first premiered, as previously reported by the Deseret News .

But the show had the draw of major star power. Bell is an industry darling and Brody is a millennial heartthrob, thanks to his portrayal of Seth Cohen in the early-2000s teen show “The O.C.”

It also has the appeal of being a rom-com TV series, which has become the most popular rom-com format as of late, as the Deseret News previously reported.

Travis noted that it seems that streaming platforms are aware of pitfalls of the streaming model, and are attempting to amend the problem.

“Recently, Netflix promised to take both ‘3 Body Problem’ and ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ to some kind of conclusion,” he wrote, also noting that Max renewed “House of the Dragon” for a third season before the second even premiered.

“But those feel like the ones that got away, the exceptions rather than the rule,” he wrote.

“The current streaming landscape is a barrage of cancellation after cancellation — there’s little sense that the worst offenders have any conviction in the stories they’re telling, no long-game confidence that a compelling narrative will find an audience.”