American Vandal ran for two critically acclaimed seasons, so why did Netflix cancel the show before a third season could happen? Created by CollegeHumor alumni Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, American Vandal is a mockumentary series that satirizes the tropes of true crime documentaries like HBO’s The Jinx or Netflix’s own Making A Murderer.
The show follows a pair of aspiring teenage filmmakers – Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) and Sam Ecklund (Griffin Gluck) – who document their investigations into the perpetrators behind a series of high school pranks. The first season of American Vandal was set at Peter and Sam’s high school in Oceanside, California and saw the intrepid sleuths investigate who vandalized several faculty cars with crude images. The second season moved the action to Bellevue, Washington and followed the duo as they were invited to a Catholic high school to investigate the identity of a new prankster calling themselves “The T*** Burglar” who spiked the school cafeteria’s lemonade with laxatives.
American Vandal wasn’t just a laugh-out-loud mockumentary show but a hit with critics too, earning both an Emmy nomination and a Peabody Award for its first season. Ratings can be just as important as good reviews and though Netflix doesn’t release viewing numbers for most of its shows, the streamer did reveal American Vandal season 1 was one of its most-watched series of 2017. So, Netflix had a show that proved a hit with audiences and critics alike which begs the question – why isn’t American Vandal season 3 happening?
Just a month after American Vandal season 2 was released, the streamer confirmed it had opted not to renew the mockumentary for a third season. Netflix didn’t give a reason for the cancellation, but many suspect it’s because the series was produced by CBS Television Studios rather than Netflix itself. In recent years, the platform has been increasingly focused on producing content in-house in a bid to control the rights to its shows and make more money off them.
There was talk of shopping American Vandal to other networks but unfortunately, nothing seems to have come of that. All is not lost, however, as American Vandal creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault are set to fill the mockumentary-shaped holes in viewers’ lives with a brand-new show they’re producing for Paramount+. Titled Players, the series will see Yacenda and Perrault move on from lampooning true crime documentaries to parodying the world of eSports.