Pass the margaritas, and keep them coming! Sweet Magnolias fans, we're getting some less than thrilling news from Netflix out of the streamer's most recent Top 10 viewership report. While two of its most recent action-packed original series continued to thrive, the latest season of the fan-favorite romantic drama series returned from its two-year hiatus with less than stellar numbers.
In its first three days of release during the week of Feb. 3-Feb. 9, Sweet Magnolias season 4 (which premiered on Feb. 6) brought in 4 million views globally, which translates to 33.7 million hours viewed. The series ranked in fourth place for the week behind The Night Agent season 2, The Recruit season 2, and American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson.
While the opening numbers for Sweet Magnolias season 4 seem impressive at first glance, they're much lower than both The Night Agent and The Recruit, which are in their third and second weeks respectively. The romantic drama also opened lower than both of their three-day debuts, with The Recruit bowing with 5.9 million views and The Night Agent blasted in with 13.9 million views.
Those shows are different genres, so it's a bit of an unfair comparison. So, let's compare Sweet Magnolias season 4 to season 3. For the same timeframe, season 3's three-day opening saw the romantic drama arrive with 4.6 million views, which translates to 39.5 million hours viewed back in July 2023. It's a minor decline, but a decline nonetheless.
Sweet Magnolias season 5 in danger as viewership declines
Whenever a series marks a noticeable decrease in ratings, it's always cause for concern for its future. With Sweet Magnolias returning lower than its previous season, even in the initial opening three-day window, there's a slight cause for concern about season 5's renewal hopes. Netflix has canceled shows for much less, and this drop could put the hit show in danger of cancellation.
But there are a lot of things working in the favor of Sweet Magnolias season 5 getting a renewal, potentially for a final season. The series corners the market for comfort viewing and will always pick up viewership after the fact. In August 2023, the show topped the Top 10 original streaming series Nielsen charts with over 1.2 billion minutes viewed and was in the top 3 for overall streaming shows.
In addition, Sweet Magnolias isn't an expensive series to produce and doesn't require extensive visual effects, stunt work, location shooting, and other bells and whistles like other pricey Netflix original series. If the streamer can continue to make the series on a dime and bring in modest to sizable viewership returns, it might just be happy to give it a life as long as Virgin River.
However, it's still in the realm of possibility that after a disappointing fourth season and disappointing opening viewership numbers, Netflix could be mulling over the future of the series. If the streamer isn't excited about the numbers, I could personally see Netflix ordering a fifth and final season to send off the Magnolias and all the characters on a high note. The show deserves as much!
The Christmas-set season 4 finale marked some long awaited moments for the series and characters, such as Helen and Erik getting engaged and other characters finally getting together. Maddie also accepted a marketing job in New York City, which would seemingly take her out of Serenity in season 5 and make for an interesting storyline to really shake up the show with a change of setting. Let's hope she makes it to NYC!
Watch Sweet Magnolias only on Netflix.