A new season of XO, Kitty has arrived on Netflix and if you’re just sitting down to start your binge-watch of the show’s second season you’ve likely just come to the realization that season 2 is a tad shorter than the show’s first season.
While the first season of Netflix’s Too All the Boys spinoff series featured a more standard 10-episode season, the show’s second season comes in at just eight episodes. Although this isn’t a drastic reduction in episode count and the show most certainly makes good use of the eight-episode format, it’s definitely frustrating and likely surprising to many fans to see that the show’s already more limited season length has been redacted to make the show’s second season even shorter.
So what gives?
Well in the simplest terms, the decision was not one made creatively by the XO, Kitty creative team and instead came directly from Netflix. You see, rather than ordering 10 episodes for season 2, Netflix instead opted only to order eight episodes for the season which has become a running theme with the streaming service lately.
You see, XO, Kitty is the latest in a growing list of returning second-season shows whose episode count was cut ever so slightly resulting in a shorter second season. This includes the Noah Centineo-led spy thriller The Recruit which also returns this January for a new season and had its season order redacted by two episodes as well.
As for why exactly Netflix decided to reduce the episode count of XO, Kitty season 2, that is a bit more of a mystery; however, Deadline outlined a few possible scenarios in a December report exploring why so many popular streaming shows are seeing episode reductions in their second seasons.
In the report, Deadline hints that the key reason streamers such as Netflix have started ordering shorter second seasons is often due to budgetary concerns which comes with streamers looking to cut costs regardless of how popular a series might be. There is also the factor of timing with streamers such as Netflix requiring multiple months to handle the dubbing of a new season for international audiences which adds to the gaps between seasons which were already impacted by the 2023 writer and actor strikes.
Netflix opting to make XO, Kitty season 2 only eight episodes does make us wonder whether a potential third season could follow suit with a smaller episode order or if Netflix might choose to return to a larger 10-episode season pickup. It seems we’ll have to wait to see whether this becomes a new normal should Netflix renew XO, Kitty for season 3, which seems likely given the show’s season 1 success and the fact that season 2 ends with quite an open-ended cliffhanger which paved the way for at least two more seasons.