Netflix will not produce a third season of its Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival, according to a series of tweets from the show’s star, Jonah Ray Rodrigues.

The text of his Twitter thread follows:

So, Netflix decided to not do another season of MST3K. We are off to Get Down in Lilyhammer while the OA helps us take it One Day At A Time. We will be in group therapy with Tuca & Bertie, Jessica Jones, & Lady Dynamite. The sessions will be run by Gypsy (w/ Naomi Watts.) thread

We don’t know what the future holds for the show, it always seemed to figure out how to survive. From Comedy Central to SyFy. Then kept alive by RIFFTRAX & Cinematic Titanic. whatever happens, I want everybody to know that getting a chance to be on this show was a dream come true

Getting to work with old friends while making new ones was a gift I didn’t take lightly. Collaborating with heroes from my childhood is something I’ll never stop beaming about.

So, Thank you Joel & especially all the MSTies who embraced me as a mug in a (yellow) jumpsuit. I know it wasn’t easy accepting a new guy, so I appreciate the warmth.

This is the fourth time in the series’ history that it has been canceled in one way or another. Fans have repeatedly rallied to bring it back on new networks or, in some cases, in totally new formats and spinoffs like RiffTrax. Also on Twitter, MST3K creator Joel Hodgson said, “It’s not the end of MST3K, It’s just the end of the first chapter of bringing back MST3K.”

The most recent revival started with a massively successful crowdfunding campaign before Netflix picked the series up. The first new season (season 11 in the grand scheme of the show) was released to critical acclaim, and it brought in some old series fans and attracted newcomers with a new cast that included Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt, among others. However, statements by Hodgson and others involved in the show indicated that Netflix was displeased that users weren’t binge-watching it in the same way that they do a show like Stranger Things or House of Cards.

The ill-advised answer was to bill the second new season as “The Gauntlet,” with a weak narrative framing suggesting that viewers should watch all of its 90-minute episodes in one sitting. Most fans of the series would acknowledge that this sort of bingeing is not really a fit for the show, despite a tradition of the most dedicated fans marathoning it on Thanksgiving. The Gauntlet does not seem to have worked to Netflix’s satisfaction.

This cancellation may hit diehard fans particularly hard, because as noted, Thanksgiving has become associated with MST3K enthusiasts in many viewers’ eyes. The first run of the show premiered on Thanksgiving in 1988, and networks that have carried the show (like Comedy Central and Netflix) have aired episodes on Thanksgiving before.

If you’re looking for an MST3K fix to make you laugh away the pain of the show’s latest cancellation, you can watch a marathon of old episodes tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, on MST3K‘s Twitch channel.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1624513