CBS All Access Reportedly Wants to Save ‘One Day at a Time,’ but It’s Not That Simple

The fight to save One Day at a Time continues, and a new, potentially major, ally has entered the fray. Following Netflix’s (I’m going to politely say deeply misguided) decision to cancel the show last month, fans and celebrities have rallied around the show via the #SaveODAAT campaign. Now, as Vulture has heard from two sources close to the situation, CBS All Access has put in a pretty darn formal invitation to pick up the series for at least one more season. Hooray! Consider ODAAT saved!

Except… there’s a catch. Of course there’s a catch.

The deal struck between Sony Pictures Television (which produces One Day at a Time) and Netflix years ago gave Netflix the right to nix any offer from a streaming service, should Sony decide to take the show elsewhere. Now that Netflix has canceled the show and Sony is indeed shopping it elsewhere, Netflix can totally exercise its contractual right to veto CBS All Access’ offer and force Sony to focus its efforts on traditional, non-streaming networks. The offer is apparently so real that living TV legend Norman Lear reportedly reached out personally to Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos to ask for his help! Can you just imagine saying no to TV’s Great Grandpa Norman Lear?! But even though Netflix doesn’t want One Day at a Time anymore, they still have the right to play keep-away from so far the only offer that could actually work just because it’s another streaming service.

The report points out that two of CBS’ smaller networks, the cable network Pop TV and broadcast network The CW, are also possibilities for ODAAT. Since they’re traditional networks, Netflix has no power to say “uh-uh” to those offers. The catch here is that both networks are too small and would need outside help from others to be able to afford the show. The CW has the additional problem of having zero half-hour shows to pair ODAAT with. So the problem here is that CBS All Access has the money to keep ODAAT alive but potentially not the right, and Pop TV or The CW have the right but potentially not the money.

As of right now, Netflix hasn’t indicated that they’re willing to let One Day at a Time continue–except for, you know, that tone deaf that simultaneously canceled and celebrated the show, calling for more diverse stories to be told.

Don’t think the One Day at a Time crew are forgetting this tweet, either. As Vulture pointed out, co-creator Gloria Calderon Kellett brought it up just last week while speaking at an event and talking about the show’s search for a new, potentially streaming, home. “We are hopeful that maybe there can be special dispensations made so that that’s not the case, especially given Netflix’s tweet about supporting this community and loving the show,” said Kellett. “You know, if you love us, set us free, I say.”

Yeah, Netflix! If it’s a bad look for Netflix to cancel One Day at a Time while acknowledging the need for diverse storytelling, it’s an even worse look for Netflix to kill the show’s best chance of survival just because it’s at another streaming service. It’s also not like CBS All Access is even remotely close to being on Netflix’s level; CBS All Access reportedly hit 4 million subscribers as of February 2019 while Netflix reportedly has 139 million as of January 2019. Seeing those numbers, this becomes a real David vs. Goliath thing–and naturally I want to root for David, because David is hanging out with Rita f’ing Moreno.

But contracts are contracts for a reason. Netflix clearly sets those non-compete rules in place because even though they don’t think One Day at a Time was successful enough to keep around for Season 4, they want whatever buzz the cancellation caused to direct the curious to their site and not a competitor (even if, again, Netflix’s subscriber base is almost 35 times that of CBS All Access’). There’s also the fact that Netflix probably doesn’t want to see CBS All Access look like the hero for saving the show they canceled, even if this overlooks the fact that Netflix is kinda the villain either way. It’s just in one scenario they’re the villain with no hero, and the other they’re the villain and a (teeny) rival is the hero. That 2-3 year exclusivity window is there so that if one of their canceled shows does go to another streaming service, it’s in a few years’ time when the buzz around the show has cooled off significantly.

It’s also likely that Netflix doesn’t want to weaken the cache of “Netflix originals” by having one go to another streaming service. Still, there’s a flaw in that as well, because that’s exactly what’s happening on April 7 when Season 6 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars–a season branded as a Netflix Original–leaves Netflix. Looking ahead to the future, it’s possible we’re going to see a lot of original Netflix content leave the service because of the very reason ODAAT was likely canceled in the first place; Netflix wants to produce and own all of their original content. They didn’t own ODAAT, so it was more expendable (like the Marvel shows, Fuller House, and American Vandal before it) even with a devoted fanbase and critical acclaim. Sure it would look bad right now for a Netflix original to suddenly go to another streamer, but what about in a few years if Netflix’s stable of original content becomes so solid that they decide they no longer wants to pay ABC Studios for the Marvel shows or Universal for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or Warner Horizon for Fuller House? Could all of those back catalogues vacate the Netflix library, similar to how a lot of legacy broadcast content keeps leaving Netflix?

That’s all in the future, though, and who knows what the state of streaming will be at the end of 2019, let alone 2022. Right now Netflix may not want CBS All Access to come out the hero in a story where fans have labeled Netflix the villain either way. Right now ODAAT’s best chance of survival is probably going to a network and not dealing with Netflix at all. There’s a nice symmetry to One Day at a Time airing on CBS proper, as that was the original series’ network home. I’m just saying, why can’t the Alvarezes find a network home on CBS’ legendary Monday night lineup?

Stream One Day at a Time on Netflix