Stalker Drama 'You' Season 2 Moving to Netflix After Lifetime Abandons It
Lifetime isn't that into "You."
The cable network is passing on airing Season 2 of the stalker drama starring Penn Badgley — despite announcing an order for it a month before September's series premiere.
Netflix, which already has second-window and international streaming rights, will pick up the show as an original and run the second season sometime next year.
The thriller is based on Caroline Kepnes' best-selling novel of the same name. "You" is described as a 21st century love story about an obsessive, yet brilliant twentysomething name Joe (Badgley) who uses the hyper connectivity of today’s technology to make the woman of his dreams fall in love with him. Season 2 will see Joe go to Hollywood to continue his search for love.
The first season experienced lackluster ratings, with a live-same-day average of 611,000 viewers. And Lifetime does not own the Warner Horizon-produced drama, and these days networks are favoring in-house productions.
Plus, Lifetime is moving away from scripted series to focusing on movies. The network ramped up its Christmas movie offerings and announced a huge slate of 75 original movies for 2019.
"You" is the second series ordered, developed, then discarded by a network that Netflix has rescued, following "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina."