This October, One Tree Hill, 30 Rock, and Friday Night Lights (among others) will be leaving Netflix.
And if you’ve spent any time on Twitter this past week, odds are you’ve noticed people griping more than usual about the impending exoduses.
But this outrage cycle happens every month to some degree with everything from Jennifer Love Hewitt's CBS show Ghost Whisperer...
...to the Fox animated series Futurama...
...to fellow Animation Domination series Bob's Burgers.
So we asked Netflix to explain how they decide which shows stay and which ones go. And this is what we found out:
When Netflix acquires a show, it’s typically for a specific amount of time and when that window is up, the company looks at a variety of factors to decide if they’ll renew the title. Some of the biggest ones are...
1. Member feedback.
2. How much a show is viewed.
3. And the number of similar titles still available on the service.
Sometimes the choice isn't even in Netflix’s hands, like when a show makes a deal with another TV channel or service, or when Netflix has a rotating content deal with a studio.
The good news is that even if your favorite show leaves Netflix, it can likely be found for purchase, rerunning on TV, or — potentially — on another streaming site.
And it's possible your favorite could come back to Netflix one day, too.