Yahoo Screen, the company’s experiment in original television content — and the home of Community’s final season — is finally dead.
What’s curious about the failure is that it comes just as Netflix (Jessica Jones, Daredevil) and Amazon (Man In High Castle, Transparent) are having hugely successful runs with their own original content, both in terms of viewership numbers and quality.
Picking up Community last year was a good signal that Yahoo could move in the same direction. But, while the episodes of Community produced under Yahoo Screen were quite good, it was really the only hit that the fledgling company had, and that wasn’t enough. Intriguingly, Netflix had similar problems with trying to bring another beloved, prematurely-cancelled comedy, Arrested Development, to the computer screen. Perhaps, beyond just the death of Yahoo’s foray into original content, it may also be a sign of the direction we can expect online-only television shows to go in.
[Variety]