Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Amazon is not laughing.
For the second time in a month, the streaming service has severed their relationship with three comedy series. In a kinda surprising move, Amazon pulled the plug on One Mississippi, I Love Dick, and Jean-Claude Van Johnson all at once. This move comes just a month after Amazon passed on all three of their late 2017 comedy pilots (Sea Oak, The Climb, Love You More). One Mississippi, which starred Tig Notaro and was loosely based on her life, lasted two seasons while I Love Dick and Jean-Claude Van Johnson got just one each.
As an Amazon insider told Deadline when this news broke, “This is part of a move towards bigger, wider-audience series.” It would have to be, right? That’s three comedy series canceled and three more potential series all passed on in the last month, leaving Amazon with the newly-renewed superhero series The Tick, the beleaguered Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The latter three shows have all won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series, so at least Amazon has stuck it out with their award-winners.
But all of this speaks to Amazon’s larger problem when it comes to finding audiences for their comedies. Critics love these shows, but audiences aren’t flocking to them the way they do with Netflix comedy originals like American Vandal or even Disjointed. Google Trends, which monitors how much people search for the shows in question, illustrates this:
Even in their off seasons, the Netflix shows level out above all three of the canceled Amazon shows.
This also might be why Amazon is working hard to make The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel into a hit, offering it for free for everyone the weekend after it scored two Golden Globe wins. The move may have paid off, as Mrs. Maisel’s Google traffic is trending upwards and is now in American Vandal territory. It’s definitely doing better than the three canceled series, which also bodes well-ish.
Still, Amazon is looking for a big hit in any genre–and not just with critics and awards shows, but with audiences. That’s their mission right now, and it’s also why the service is courting The Lord of the Rings. 2018 is going to be a real year of change for Amazon. That’s already apparent, and we’re only a few weeks into the year.
