Netflix’s cancellation spree continues with Space Force, Raising Dion and Pretty Smart

More of your favourite Netflix shows have been axed after the streamer lost tens of billions of dollars in the wake of a shock subscriber loss.

Netflix has continued its cancellation spree, taking the axe to two high-profile series and a one-season sitcom

Space Force, starring Steve Carell, has been grounded after two seasons, according to Deadline. The first season premiered in May 2020 following the second instalment in February this year.

The half-hour comedy had a stacked cast that also included John Malkovich, Lisa Kudrow, Ben Schwartz and Jimmy O. Yang with recurring guest stars such as Noah Emmerich, Jane Lynch, Patton Oswalt and the late Fred Willard.

The series was a workplace satire inspired by former US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new branch of the military, the Space Force. Headed by Carell’s well-meaning General, the comedy came from the clash of the near-impossible task and impossible expectations.

Steve Carell in a scene from the TV series Space Force. Picture: Netflix

With a well-known cast and established writers and producers, Space Force was likely an expensive production which may have swayed the streamer in its decision to cancel.

Carell co-created the series with Greg Daniels, his showrunner on the US version of The Office. Daniels also has the series Upload, currently streaming on Amazon Prime, and wrote for The Simpsons and King of the Hill and co-created Parks and Recreation.

Daniels has two other projects in the pipeline at Netflix while Carell has upcoming a Despicable Me sequel and a limited series from The Americans showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields called The Patient.

Netflix has also cancelled Raising Dion, a family-friendly superhero series centred on a young boy with powers. It had two seasons under its belt.

Raising Dion starred Alisha Wainwright, Ja’Siah Young and Jason Ritter and among the producers was actor and filmmaker Michael B. Jordan who appeared in a few episodes.

One of Raising Dion’s stars, Sammi Haney, posted the news of the cancellation on Instagram, “Sad to say that Raising Dion is cancelled. Thank you for all of the amazing support we got from all of our wonderful fans! Season 2 was a success, equal to season 1, even if just looking at how many people watched all of it and wanted a season 3.”

Haney’s contention that the completion rate for the second season was equal to the first means there were other factors for the series’ cancellation.

Netflix is notoriously opaque on why it cancels shows. It has said that one of the key data sets it looks at for a show’s success is the number of accounts that watched a series to the end.

Raising Dion was cancelled after two seasons. Picture: Netflix

The third show to feel the wrath of Netflix’s cancellation formula is comedy Pretty Smart, which starred Hannah Montana’s Emily Osment and Runaways’ Gregg Sulkin. It only managed one season and had ended that season on a cliffhanger.

The cancellations come off the back of a couple of terrible weeks for Netflix after it reported a declining subscriber base for the first time in 10 years and projected it would lose a further 2.5 million members in the current quarter.

The news sent waves through Wall Street with investors hammering the streaming company’s stock, wiping tens of billions of dollars off its market value in one day.

After its dire financial results, Netflix removed the head of its animation department and several staffers. It cancelled at least three in-production titles including an adaptation of Jeff Smith’s comic series Bone.

It also canned the sequel to Will Smith movie Bright.

In response to its woes, Netflix flagged it would introduce a cheaper ad-supported subscription tier and crackdown on password sharing.