Why Netflix Canceled That '90s Show

"That '70s Show" hasn't stayed quite as culturally ubiquitous as its fellow 90s sitcoms "Seinfeld" or "Friends," but that speaks more to how titanic its competitors were and remain. True to its name, "That '70s Show" was set from 1976-1980 (four years stretched out into twice as many seasons), following a group of six high school-aged friends growing up in Point Place, Wisconsin. The town is fictional, but the show's creators modeled "That '70s Show" and its characters on their real teenage experiences.

Running from 1998 to 2006, "That '70s Show" racked up an even 200-episode run. It's also the reason you know who Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace are — with its popularity, a revival was inevitable, especially because by the 2020s, enough time had passed to update the central gimmick.

Enter "That '90s Show," with the setting having caught up to the era when the original show aired. Set in 1995, the show starred Leia Forman (Callie Haverda), daughter of original leads Eric (Grace) and Donna (Laura Prepon). While her parents are busy (and only able to occasionally guest star), Leia is living with her paternal grandparents, original series supporting characters Red (Kurtwood Smith) and Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp). 

But the era where "That '70s Show" reigned, where sitcoms would produce 22+ episode seasons for syndication, is over. "That '90s Show" lasted only two seasons before getting its plug pulled like so many other Netflix shows before and since. The show's two seasons, making up 26 episodes, would be enough to fill one complete TV season back in '98. 

The cancellation of "That '90s Show" was confirmed by Kurtwood Smith in an October 3, 2024 Instagram post. Smith said there are plans to shop the show around to a new home for a potential season 3, but he didn't explain why Netflix is ending it. What's the story? 

Trigger warning: there will be references to sexual assault in the following slide.

There's an elephant in the room surrounding the legacy of "That '70s Show," a legacy that includes the very existence of "That '90s Show." That elephant is original cast member Danny Masterson, who played Steven Hyde, the surly, afroed pothead paranoid about the Man.

Masterson is also a convicted rapist. In May 2023, he was convicted of having raped two women in separate incidents in 2003, and subsequently (in September of that year) sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. (Masterson's attorney has filed an appeal as of December 2024.) Masterson is a Scientologist and many, including case prosecutor Ariel Anson, have alleged that he used his influence within the Church of Scientology to both assault and then silence the survivors.

The negative press got even worse after it emerged that several of the "That '70s Show" cast (namely Kutcher, Kunis, Smith, and Rupp) wrote letters testifying to Masterson's supposedly good character. Needless to say, the letters did not sway Judge Charlaine Olmedo. Kutcher and Kunis subsequently posted an on-camera apology for having written the letters.

Masterson was first publicly accused in March 2017, and the accusations saw him fired from the Netflix comedy series "The Ranch" (where he co-starred with Kutcher) later that year. It's no surprise that Masterson did not appear on "That '90s Show," and the show never even referenced Hyde. Did his conviction simply make continuing the show untenable? It's a natural assumption, but is it a correct one?

"That '90s Show" season 2 premiered (in two separate parts) in June 2024 and later in August 2024. It was then, again, canceled around October 2024, about a year after Masterson's conviction. So, it appears the show wasn't canceled directly in response to the conviction. Deadline reported that it was much simpler: "That '90s Show" season 2 didn't attract enough viewership to justify making more of the show. The first half of the season only broke into the Netflix Top 10 once, and the streamer even moved up the second half's premiere date (from October to August), which didn't succeed in boosting the numbers. This string of events doesn't sound like Netflix had written the show off as a lame duck going into season 2.

The storm of negative publicity could've had a roundabout effect, in that people didn't want to watch "That '90s Show" due to now spoiled memories of the original. "That '70s Show" was once one of my favorite sitcoms, but I can't bring myself to revisit it or watch "That '90s Show." That is all speculative, of course; it's also been reported that viewership dropped a lot between "That '90s Show" season 1 (which easily remained in the Netflix Top 10 the weekend of its premiere) and season 2. Maybe the Masterson conviction in between the two seasons soured viewers, or maybe a large chunk of viewers just didn't like season 1 enough to watch season 2. Whatever the reason, not enough Netflix viewers checked out "That '90s Show" for season 3.