The Night Agent is the new popular TV series from Netflix. This gripping thriller inspired by the novel by Matthew Quirk starring an FBI agent, Peter Sutherland. The man, after being promoted, he unexpectedly finds himself at the center of an international conspiracy which leads him to the Oval Office of the White House. Apparently this seems to be an extremely canonical plot that unites several thrillers already on the platform, and yet The Night Agent has shown that it has an edge so much as to be able to conquer a large number of Netflix subscribers. In the first week of release, it achieved the first position in the chart of the most watched products and recorded the third highest debut for a new TV series on Netflix. Predictably, the streaming giant in the face of such numbers has decided to renew the TV series for the second season which will arrive in 2024. Someone though it seemed very strange that Netflix executives made a decision without even waiting the canonical 28 days from the release of the series.
Journalist Matt Belloni has revealed the real reason behind the flash renewal of The Night Agent.
The TV series developed by Shawn Ryan, recorded a whopping 168.71 million views in its first week. These are impressive numbers, which will certainly have played an important role in the decision made by the management of the streaming giant. According to what the journalist said during an episode of his podcast The Town with Matt Belloni there may be more to the sudden decision to renew The Night Agent. Here’s what she actually said:
“(The Night Agent) was just renewed by Netflix for a season 2 one week after its release. It was now show no. 1 on Netflix according to data the streaming giant released last week, but this rapid renewal is rather strange for Netflix. Generally, they like to see how the ratings go for 28 days to see if the success will last… But I think with the looming writers’ strikeor the possibility of a writers’ strike happening in late April or early May, they are trying to revamp things fast. And my prediction is that we will see a lot more of these flash renewals in the next 6 weeks. People trying to get shows into production. Or end conversations in the writers’ room. This whole situation will come to a head in the coming weeks, because everyone expects the writers to strike in early May.“
According to what he explained Matt Belloni, streaming platforms are very afraid of the writers’ strike, which, if it were to occur, could block all productions. So they are preparing, asking writers to complete the scripts of the next shows as soon as possible and quickly renewing the hit series. Indeed, thanks to the renewal the authors will be able to continue writing the screenplays which will then be produced even during the strike.