Netflix cancels ‘Sweet Magnolias’ after 5 seasons as a new series takes its place
Pour one out for Serenity, South Carolina. Netflix has cancelled ‘Sweet Magnolias’ after five seasons, and the reason for the cancellation is nearly as dramatic as anything that happened at the Corner Spa. Season 5 premiered June 11 on Netflix, following the lives of Maddie Townsend (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Dana Sue Sullivan (Brooke Elliott), and Helen Decatur (Heather Headley) as they leave Serenity for adventures beyond. The streaming service took its time to renew the series, and per Deadline, never formally greenlit a Season 6 writers’ room the way it does for shows it intends to continue.
The numbers do not lie. Season 5 scored 2.8 million views during its opening week, a 30% decrease from Season 4’s opening week, before jumping to 3.5 million viewers in its second week and ultimately falling out of the Top 10. Netflix has to consider its cost versus reward when canceling or renewing series, and ‘Sweet Magnolias’ reported production budget was comparatively small for a 50-episode, five-season series. So that may not be enough to explain the cancellation. The issue stemmed from another project from the show’s creator, Sheryl J. Anderson, and star JoAnna Garcia Swisher that had been in development. Netflix opted to prioritize the new show over another season of ‘Sweet Magnolias.’
The timing truly was down to the wire because options on ‘Sweet Magnolias’ cast members were set to expire Thursday night, the same night the new series got its order. The show was canceled the following day. That leaves Season 5 as the unofficial finale, concluding the trio’s usual margarita toast without much of a twist and little of the beloved Anne-Ty resolution many fans wanted. The series’ creators have already shared the news on their Instagram accounts, celebrating with the cast, crew, and followers. Having launched in 2020, the series has amassed over 100 million views and has been in the Global Weekly Top 10 list of Netflix’s most popular shows 14 times in over 60 countries.
As for the future projects, Anderson and Swisher are currently working on ‘Ladies of the House,’ a series based on a book by Lauren Edmondson. It tells the story of a widow and her two daughters, who inherit the family vineyard and face family conflicts and business challenges following the husband’s untimely death. Swisher is set to executive produce the series and is being considered to star in it, with her friend Anderson repped as showrunner. The project, which comes from Swisher and Kate Gordon’s Rolling Clover production banner and Black Label Media, is in development, with Swisher claiming the source material is a modern-day ‘Sense and Sensibility’ focusing on the relationship between the three women: Daisy, Cricket and Wallis.
