‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ Canceled at Netflix

“Working on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has been an incredible honor from day one. The cast, beginning with Kiernan as everyone’s favorite teen witch, has been an absolute joy. I am beyond thankful to the crew, writers, editors, assistants and everyone for pouring so much love into this dark dream of a show,” said showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. “I’m also grateful to our partners at Netflix, Warner Bros., Berlanti Television and Archie Comics for letting us tell the story we wanted to tell, the way we wanted to tell it. We can’t wait for everyone to see part four.”   

 

The decision to end Sabrina wraps a particularly rough few days for Aguirre-Sacasa, whose Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene was canceled at The CW after one season and whose ABC pilot The Brides was passed over. The prolific showrunner and Archie Comics content chief still has a lucrative overall deal with producers Warner Bros. TV and the fifth season of Riverdale, his first series, coming back to The CW in 2021. 

 
Sabrina, like Riverdale, originally was created for broadcast. Riverdale was first developed for Fox and moved to The CW, while Sabrina was designed as a spinoff for The CW before it moved to Netflix with a two-season, 20-episode order. The series moved to Netflix after Riverdale became a monster hit for The CW thanks in part to new audiences finding the show’s first season on Netflix and returning to the broadcast network for its second.  

 

The show was renewed in late 2018 for “parts three and four” — aka seasons three and four — as part of a 16-episode order. Sources note that Netflix splits up seasons into two parts for select shows as part of a budget-conscious approach to select programming. While Netflix, like other streamers, does not release viewership information, Sabrina’s first “part” had a favorable 80 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (and a 90 percent among critics). After its first three parts, it now has an 84 percent rating among critics and a 69 percent with viewers. 

Sabrina is the latest Netflix series to come to an end. The streamer this month announced final seasons for hits Ozark, The Kominsky Method and Dead to Me — all of which are produced from outside studios. Sabrina is from Warner Bros. TV and super-producer Greg Berlanti. 

Berlanti holds the record for the most scripted series currently in the works across the TV landscape, though that has dwindled from 23 to 18 after Katy Keene, Arrow, Blindspot, God Friended Me and Sabrina are removed from the tally.