Peacock Original ‘Girls5eva’ Moving to Netflix Ahead of Third Season
In a somewhat stunning announcement, Netflix has announced that it has acquired the rights to the Tina Fey-produced comedy series “Girls5eva” from NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock.
It would seem unfathomable that Peacock would simply hand over the rights to one of its original shows, but according to reporting from Deadline, the series was recently canceled by Peacock, but now it will get new life on Netflix, where it has been renewed for a third season.
“Our deepest thanks to Peacock for bringing Girls5eva to life and supporting us creatively at every turn since the first pitch,” executive producers Meredith Scardino, Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond, and Robert Carlock said in a statement. “And we are endlessly grateful to our partners at NBCU for their boundless commitment. Today, we are thrilled to announce that our reunited girl group will be re-reunited at Netflix. We are so thankful to everyone at the streamer who fell in love with our music-filled comedy. We cannot wait to introduce Dawn, Wickie, Summer, and Gloria to the global Netflix audience. Well, not fully introduce, if you look closely, Girls5eva can be seen in the background of the Woodstock ’99 documentary setting a porta potty on fire.”
The series follows a one-hit-wonder girl group from the ‘90s who reunite to give their pop star dreams one more shot. They may be grown women balancing spouses, kids, jobs, debt, aging parents, and shoulder pain, but that doesn’t mean they have to hang up their microphones for good! “Girls5eva” stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell, and Busy Philipps.
Netflix has a habit of attempting to revitalize shows that other companies have given up on. The streaming giant also pulled “Lucifer” off the scrap heap when the show was canceled by FOX, and the series ran for three more seasons on streaming. Though the creators of “Girls5Eva” have a long history with NBCU from “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock,” they also collaborated on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” on Netflix, so this is a bit of a homecoming for the crew.
For Peacock, the move was likely in the name of streamlining. The service added 2 million paid subscribers in the third quarter of 2022, and its parent company Comcast is looking to increase its content spend on the streamer. The sale of “Girls5eva” to Netflix was likely done to make room for other projects that NBCU feels will gain more traction on Peacock.
It’s unclear if the show’s first two seasons will be available to stream on Netflix’s new ad-supported tier when it launches on Nov. 3. It is clear, however, that Netflix is still committed to adding more content instead of relying on its new, cheaper plan with ads to pull in new viewers.
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