Netflix Eyes Live Competition After ‘Star Search’ Falls Short
Netflix’s revival of Star Search concluded with a magician triumphing over another magician, but the series failed to captivate viewers, not making it into the platform’s top 10 chart during its run. It appears unlikely to receive a second season.
Despite the show’s lackluster performance, Netflix remains committed to exploring the live, unscripted competition format and gathered insights from the production.
At the Next on Netflix press event on Wednesday, Bela Bajaria, Chief Content Officer, remarked, “Live in general, I think is just really a very natural extension of what we do and there are certain things that have a kind of urgency, like Alex Honnold climbing Taipei 101. I thought Star Search was very interesting for us to actually learn a lot because that was the first time that we did voting. There was a ton of learning in it. It’s a great lever to have something that’s more exciting live. We’re going to continue to do that.”
Bajaria affirmed her uncertainty regarding the future of Star Search.
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“It was a talent competition and we haven’t done something like that [before], just unscripted in that format. I think we’re trying to figure out is that the right format for it. We really liked it. I thought it was great and there’s a lot of good things in there,” she added. “We’re always like ‘Let’s try something’ and sometimes you have to have patience and build something. We’re still sort of evaluating … there’s a lot of great creative in there.”
Hosted by Anthony Anderson, the series featured judges Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chrissy Teigen, and Jelly Roll. The five-week run premiered on January 20, with the second episode airing the following day.
The reimagining of Star Search was spearheaded by Empire star Taraji P. Henson, who collaborated with Village Roadshow, the previous owner of the Star Search intellectual property before its bankruptcy.
