Will there be a second season of “Kaos”? The numbers behind the cancellation

Kaos may have an enthusiastic fan base, but that wasn't enough to save the dark comedy series from cancellation. After just one season, the show, which premiered on August 29, 2024, has already reached its end, despite spending several weeks in several top 10 rankings in several countries.

The series' ambitious attempt to retell Greek mythology in a modern setting won over many people and received great reviews, but in the end (as I'll explain in more detail in a moment) viewership wasn't enough to warrant a second and third season like it the series creator, Charlie Covell, intended.

The series starred Jeff Goldblum as the paranoid, insecure Zeus, who finds himself at the center of a power struggle between the gods and humanity – an endeavor led by Prometheus and a group of humans including Eurydice, Ariadne and Caeneus. Despite the star-studded cast, which included Janet McTeer, Cliff Curtis, David Thewlis and Aurora Perrineau, the series failed to get a second season, leaving fans disappointed.

The cancellation was first announced in a now-deleted Instagram post by Perrineau, who played Eurydice, confirming the show's fate to her followers. You can read the full post on What's On Netflix, but here's a small selection:

“For the first time in my life I was really proud. I'm obviously proud of everyone's work and the care they put into this project because I can tell you, they left everything on the floor. But I was also proud of myself, and that's something I've struggled with. When I was cast, I couldn't believe anyone saw me. A girl who is not only a minority, but also a survivor of the SA – and you're telling me that someone thinks I could be one of the leads of a show, have agency, pursue my own mission and be desirable enough to be the lover to be not just one amazing person, but two? Was I worthy of this? Everything that happened from that point on really changed my perspective.”

When someone asked in the comments section of her post if the show was canceled, Perrineau indicated that it was. Then, this morning, diversity confirmed the show's cancellation.

Kaos Covell originally envisioned a three-season story arc, stating in an interview that the season one finale set up several potential storylines for future episodes, including the weakening of Zeus' power and the emergence of Prometheus as the new leader. Covell expressed optimism that the first season, even if it did not end on a cliffhanger, would leave enough room for progression as the series would continue to develop its characters and story.

As always with these cult-obsessed shows, the sequel to Kaos relied on its viewership (What's On Netflix goes into this in great detail, by the way). While KaosThe first four weeks in the global top 10 charts were promising, but performance was ultimately inconsistent and did not show the sustained growth that Netflix expects from its multi-season shows.

In its debut week Kaos Ranked #3 on Netflix's English-language TV charts with 22.8 million viewing hours, which equates to approximately 3.4 million views. The second week was the best for the show as it was viewed for 39.2 million hours, i.e. 5.9 million views – a 72% increase from the previous week.

However, there was a slow and inevitable decline from there, with numbers dropping 43% to 22.4 million hours watched (3.4 million impressions) in the third week, and then 14.5 in the fourth and final week million hours viewed continued to decline (2.2 million views). Kaos In total, approximately 98.9 million hours were viewed, for a total of 14.9 million views.

While most shows are expected to see a steady decline, this decline is consistent with other shows recently canceled by Netflix. The streaming service's renewal decisions are based primarily on viewership in the first 28 days. Shows not only need to attract large audiences, but they also need to retain that audience in order for it to grow. And due to the decline in the second week of the show Kaos I didn't succeed in this. After peaking in the second week, the decline in viewership suggested that engagement was fading quickly.

In addition, Netflix has been reclassified “Kaos Season 1″ on only “Kaos“, signaling a shift in status towards a limited series. In the past, this has typically suggested (as we've seen in this case) that Netflix no longer views the series as a long-term investment.

Compared to other recent Netflix shows that have been renewed such as: Supacell, The gentlemen And My life with the Walter Boys, Kaos In the weeks following its debut, it consistently ranked lower and had less consistency. Meanwhile, shows have been canceled Dead Boy Detectives And Wiped outshowed a similar pattern as Kaos in light of the early decline in viewership and failure to maintain momentum.