Picture: Netflix
Freeridge is one of the first major comedy releases on Netflix of 2023, but it won’t be back for more as it was canceled a couple of months after its initial debut. Here’s why Netflix canceled Freeridge and what we would’ve expected from any future season.
Serving as a spin-off to On My Block, Freeridge shares the exact location as the mothership series but notably features a brand new cast. The show follows four teens working to reverse a curse after a peculiar old box seems to bring misfortune. The show takes place in September following Season 4 of On My Block ending in May.
So far, Freeridge has picked up good reviews from critics holding an 86% on RottenTomatoes, with The Daily Beast praising it as a “female-led comedy.” At the same time, The Hollywood Reporter concluded Freeridge is a “lighter show than its predecessor” but said “it shares the same empathetic heart” and “playful sense of humor.”
The response to the show from audiences has been mixed thus far, with only 5.7 on IMDb and a 75% on RT.
Freeridge Season 2 Netflix Renewal Status
Official Renewal Status: Canceled in April 2023
Our Renewal Prediction: Likely cancelation
Things weren’t looking too good for Freeridge from the get-go. Based on early stats (more on this below), it was hard to see how the show survives on metrics alone and the metrics were ultimately the killer blow.
Variety first reported the cancelation on April 12th, 2023 although it provided no additional context on its cancelation.
We’ve covered before how Netflix decides to renew or cancel its lineup of shows which looks at many metrics, including (but not limited to) completion rates, starters, and cost of the title.
Co-creator of the series, Jeremy Haft, was optimistic about the future of the show while talking to TVLine, saying:
“The world of Freeridge is very rich and vibrant, and there are tons of stories to tell. We’ve always had a tiny grain of hope — [co-creator] Lauren Iungerich, [executive producer] Jamie Dooner, Eddie [Gonzalez] and myself — always had a hope that we’d continue the stories of Freeridge. Luckily, and with great gratitude, we say thank you to Netflix for allowing us to continue telling those stories. More to come.”
Freeridge. (L to R) Tenzing Trainor as Cameron, Zaire Adams as Andre, Ciara Riley Wilson as Demi in episode 101 of Freeridge. Cr. Kevin Estrada © 2022
How well did Freeridge perform on Netflix?
Freeridge’s debut was one of the worst Netflix Original series debuts we’ve seen in quite some time, only picking up 8.27 million hours watched between January 29th and February 5th, 2023.
| Week Period | Hours Viewed(M) | Rank | Week in Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 29th, 2023 to February 5th, 2023 | 8,270,000 | 9 | 1 |
Freeridge did not feature in the top 10s for week 2, failing to get over 10.2M hours that would’ve beat out New Amsterdam season 4 that week.
Given the show has a shorter runtime, could that be part of the problem?
Well, according to CVE viewership data (Complete Viewings Equivalent – divide the hours viewed announced by Netflix by the runtime of the series), the show had a very weak debut.
Freeridge CVE Netflix viewership in week 1
So not a good start in the hourly global top 10s, but how well is the show performing in individual regions?
FlixPatrol measures the daily top 10s across close to 90 countries around the world, and they don’t paint a pretty picture thus far either.
Per their data, only 13 countries have seen Freeridge appear in the top 10s, and in many of those countries, it only popped up for a single day. As the graphs below show, the show only became the 15th most popular show on Netflix, and its strongest performance has been in the United States, South Africa, and some of the Caribbean Islands.
By day 8, the show had fallen out of all the Netflix top 10s altogether.
Flixpatrol performance for Netflix Top 10s
Finally, we’ll look at external statistics for the series.
Often referred to as “demand”, TelevisionStats.com states the show peaked online as the 36th biggest show in the world on February 3rd, 2023 but has since dipped dramatically. Not even ranking in the top 100 shows just a few weeks after launch. Their data sources information from Wikipedia, IMDb, Google Trends, Reddit, and more.
Popularity for Freeridge – Picture: TelevisionStats.com
One thing we should mention is reviews of the show. We’ve seen many reviews around the net criticizing the show for not being related enough to On My Block and the spin-off’s inability to capture the original series’s magic. As of the time of cancelation, its IMDb score sat at 5.7 out of 10 with only just over 800 reviews.
Does the end of Freeridge season 1 set up a season 2?
In true On My Block fashion, Freeridge ends with a big cliffhanger. The series concludes with episode 8, where the gang finds out the curse they’ve been suffering from was from Abuelita’s long-lost sister, Mariluna.
Mariluna gives the gang a task to spend a certain amount of money in a fixed period of time with nothing to show for it; they’d then walk away with even more money.
While they took the challenge, things went downhill when Mariluna is shot. The two shooters from the Santos gang accidentally mistook Mariluna for Marisol while seeking the Roller World money that Marisol and Jamal found in On My Block before her death.
The series concludes with Mariluna’s shot and the credits rolling.
Would you like to see Freeridge return for a second season on Netflix? Let us know in the comments down below.
Netflix Synopsis: "Four teen friends work to reverse a curse after a peculiar old box seems to bring misfortune — and more — into their lives.
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