Netflix’s Star Search was won by a magician defeating another magician, but, despite that, it didn’t pull any ratings out of its hat.
The competition series failed to enter Netflix’s top 10 chart over its run and is unlikely to return for a second season.
Having said that, the streamer is still keen to crack the live, unscripted competition genre and learned a lot from the Jesse Collins Entertainment-produced show.
Speaking at the Next on Netflix press event on Wednesday, Bela Bajaria, Chief Content Officer, said, “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 said she didn’t know the status of Star Search.
“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.”
The series was hosted by Anthony Anderson and featured a judging panel of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chrissy Teigen and Jelly Roll. The show, which ran over five weeks, launched on Tuesday, January 20, with its second episode on Wednesday.
The Star Search reboot was originated by Empire star Taraji P. Henson, who was working with Village Roadshow, which owned the Star Search IP before it filed for bankruptcy.