Is Sweetbitter renewed for season 3, canceled at Starz? Latest odds
Let’s start with a simple reminder that a lot of times, it’s often impossible to gauge what a premium cable network like Starz is going to do with their shows — especially when you’re looking at ratings data that is so incomplete. All of the episodes of Sweetbitter are available online prior to them airing on the network. With that, there’s little incentive for many tech-savvy viewers to want to go and watch them live. When you look and see that the show is averaging less than 100,000 live viewers an episode, that’s concerning; yet, you then remember that this show is not gauging its success via a traditional TV model.
Because you can’t gauge the live ratings easily here for Sweetbitter, you often have to think in terms of other factors. Take, for example, how the show compares to the season prior, and to seasons of other similar shows on Starz. Here’s where some of the concern lies. Compare Sweetbitter season 2 to another show in Vida, which premiered around the same time on Starz and has a similar format. Season 2 of Vida dropped less than 10% in the live ratings versus season 1, and brought in around 120,000 live viewers an episode. Sweetbitter, meanwhile, was down around 40% in the live ratings. That drop-off is concerning, given that a lot of people had the technology to watch new episodes via other means last year. It’s not like streaming is necessarily some phenomenon that has come on over the past 12 months. (One caveat here — Vida season 2 had a better lead-in than Sweetbitter season 2 has. Maybe that will end up having an impact on the decision in some form.)
So, for now, we have some uncertainty over the series’ future, and we imagine that Starz will announce a formal decision at some point over the next few months. We think it all comes down to the DVR/streaming numbers, and whether or not executives foresee there being some sort of future for the show creatively that can keep people on board in the long-term.
Do you want to see Sweetbitter renewed for a season 3 at Starz?
Be sure to share in the comments, and remember to stick around for some other news. (Photo: Starz.)