Netflix has announced they have canceled comedy shows "The Break with Michelle Wolf," and "The Joel McHale Show." While the two shows gained a large audience at their debuts, they failed to gain much traction. According to Deadline, Michelle Wolf's show premiered just a month after her controversial performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner last April.
"The Break," was a politically driven comedy show that received much applause at its premiere. However, Wolf ended up pushing the boundaries when it came to comedy. In one episode, Michelle Wolf compared Ivanka Trump to herpes.
Netflix struggles with developing talk show driven content
The decision to cancel these two shows comes as Netflix works its way around the comedy talk show arena. Both shows were hosted by top comedy personalities with strong track records, with McHale as the former host of 'The Soup on E!' Wolf worked as writer and contributor on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah."
Talk shows have become one of the genres that Netflix has not been able to master. The streaming giant dominates all other genres from documentaries to comedies such as "A Typical", but they have fallen short when it comes to creating a strong variety sketch or talk show. Last year Netflix ended Chelsea Handler's two-season run of her own show.
The "Joel McHale Show" premiered last February with 13-episodes, with one episode released each week. Netflix later ordered six additional episodes. Netflix ended up releasing the extra episodes all at once on July 15. "The Break" debuted in May with 10 episodes and concluded on July 29.
Netflix underperforming shows faced fierce competition
These two shows have continued to face competition with other popular comedy shows such as "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" and "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction." This fall, Netflix will release multiple comedy talk shows including "Patriot Act" with Hasan Minhaj from "The Daily Show," and "The Fix" hosted by Jimmy Carr, Katherine Ryan, and D.L.
Hughley.'
The Hollywood Reporter said that Joel McHale was looking forward to starting a show on Netflix, saying he believed he had the freedom to poke fun at anyone and anything, including Netflix itself. Wolf also joked that viewers would tell jokes that her former bosses would not allow on television. While Netflix has admitted that viewership was down and the main cause for cancelation, they have not publicly released the viewing numbers.
