Ballers, a bygone comedy sports drama Series from HBO, has recently aired on Netflix, leading to a lot of rumours and questions about what is going to happen to the series now that it is getting a second life on a different platform, and getting a good amount of love from fans who are rewatching it and new fans alike. Does Ballers being on Netflix mean it will get a new season? Let’s take a look.
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When the HBO show Ballers first debuted on the 21st of June in 2015, everyone was in love with the show. This new-to-Netflix sports drama/comedy told the story of superstar athlete Spencer Strasmore, who had passed his prime on the field and had to come to terms with being retired and living a new life as a financial manager for current and former players like himself.
The show boasts an all-star cast, including huge names like Dwayne Johnson in the central role of Spencer Strasmore. He is joined by Donovan W. Carter as Vernon Littlefield, Jazmyn Simon as Julie Greane, John David Washington as Ricky Jerret, London Brown as Reggie, Omar Benson Miller as Charles Greane, Rob Corddry as Joe Krutel, and Troy Garity as Jason Antolotti. On top of that, many real NFL players and athletes take their turns making cameos in the series, adding to the hype for all football fans who started watching the series.
The series had a good run but suddenly ended in 2019 after its fifth season. HBO has yet to come out with a specific reason for the cancellation. Still, according to Screen Rant, the reviews and the numbers speak for themselves in this regard and point out why the series ended.
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Season one started out well, getting tremendous hype and really great reviews. The first season was given an 81% rating by critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and each episode got an average of 1.7 million views. By the second season, the Rotten Tomatoes rating had already dropped to 70%. Season 3 rolled around with a minor dip in the rating, sliding from 70% to 67%.
The dip from the second to the third season seems alright, but what happened next is. When the fourth and the fifth seasons came, the critics on Rotten Tomatoes didn’t even bother rating them. By the time the fifth season aired, the viewers per episode had dropped to about a third of what the series had in the first season. Seeing that the series was going down the drain, HBO decided to cut the series.
All of this comes down to the question circulating around the internet: Why is Ballers on Netflix, and does this mean we are getting a new season? The first season of Ballers has been available for streaming on Netflix since the 15th of August. It has since made its way into Netflix’s Top 10, where it has lived for the two weeks it has been available for streaming.
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The show has garnered almost 4 million views in its first week, maintaining a healthy 2.2 million in its second week. The surge in popularity and new fans might trick viewers into thinking that the series is being picked up again or rebooted, but that isn’t the case.
Some HBO shows have been going over to Netflix’s streaming platform, not because they are buying the rights to continue the series, but because Warner Bros. Discovery has recently entered a licensing deal with Netflix that allows the streaming service to show some of their properties. WB has done this in the past, offering some of their content on Prime Video a while back.
In conclusion, it seems like something other than Netflix will renew Ballers for a sixth season or a reboot. The current hype is only about the first season, and if you remember, everyone loved the first season, so we will see what happens with the hype when the rest of the seasons come out on Netflix and see what everyone has to say about those. Will history repeat itself, or is now the perfect time and a better audience for Ballers?
Are you hoping for a reboot or another season of the sports drama Ballers on Netflix?
Will Moving To Netflix Rescue This Doomed Sports Drama? Written by Megan Oosthuizen for Fortress of Solitude
