PITTSBURGH — Yet another Pittsburgh-filmed television show won’t be getting a second chance to build an audience.
Netflix has opted not to go forward with a second season of “Archive 81,” according to a Thursday report from Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva. The show was based on the found-footage horror podcast of the same name and starred Mamoudou Athie and Dina Shihabi as two unlikely allies caught up in a decades-spanning mystery. Its entire first season has been available on Netflix since January.
This decision comes as somewhat of a surprise since it seemed like “Archive 81” had found an audience on the streaming service. Andreeva noted that the show cracked the weekly top 10 ratings and was briefly No. 1 on Netflix in the United States.
“With the streamer laser focused on analyzing viewing versus cost in their renewal decisions, the amount of eyeballs ‘Archive 81’ drew possibly did not meet the threshold Netflix had set for the series based on its budget,” Andreeva wrote.
“Archive 81” is the second western Pennsylvania-shot show to be canceled this year. The locally filmed drama “American Rust” met the same fate in January after airing only one season on Showtime.
“We are disappointed there will not be a season two of ‘Archive 81,’” Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer said in a statement to the Post-Gazette. “The show provided hundreds of jobs for local people.
“We are appreciative of all of the work we have done and will continue to do with Netflix in the future.”
———
