EXCLUSIVE: It is bad news-good news for Sweet Magnolia fans. Netflix has canceled the romantic drama starring JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Brooke Elliott and Heather Headley after five seasons.
At the same time, the streamer has greenlighted a new drama series from Sweet Magnolias‘ executive producer/showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson, with Swisher set to executive produce and eyed to star.
Like Sweet Magnolias, which Anderson adapted from the novels by Sherryl Woods, Ladies of the House is loosely based on Lauren Edmonson’s novel and has three women at its center.
In it, when the charismatic owner of a winery dies unexpectedly, his wife and two adult daughters must battle through their issues with each other in order to confront challenges with the business, their extended family, and the men in their lives. Good friends and good wine will aid in the journey to hang on to the winery, but what matters most is that they find a way to hang on to each other.
Anderson, who will again serve as showrunner, executive produces alongside Swisher and Kate Gordon under their Rolling Clover banner as well as Black Label Media.
Netflix took a wait-and-see approach with Sweet Magnolias whose fifth season debuted on June 11. It drew 2.8 million views in its opening week, ranking as No. 4 on Netflix’s Weekly Top 10 for English series. It was down 30% vs. the premiere week viewership for Season 4, which was on the more modest decline side for Netflix series this year. (The season rose to 3.5M views in its first full week before dropping from the Top 10 after 3 weeks.)
The streamer also did not commission a Season 6 writers room ahead of time the way it typically does for established shows.
Netflix makes its renewal decisions based on cost vs. performance. Sweet Magnolias is done on a modest budget, which would explain its five-season, 50-episode run with solid but not blockbuster viewership (and devoted fan following).
But this time, Netflix had another factor to consider, Anderson and Swisher’s new series in development which was heating up internally and ready to go. I hear the decision came down to whether to renew Sweet Magnolias for a sixth (and final) season or greenlight Ladies of the House, with Anderson and Swisher shifting their attention to the new series. Netflix ultimately went for the second option.
The call was made at the last minute — I hear Netflix ran out the clock, with the options on the Sweet Magnolias cast allowed to expire Thursday night which was also when Ladies of the House was picked up. Sweet Magnolias’ cancellation followed Friday.
This is a sad development for Sweet Magnolias fans who would’ve liked a proper conclusion with a final season for South Carolina drama. They aren’t left in the lurch — while there were several cliffhangers, there weren’t major jaw-dropping twists in the Season 5 finale, which once again ended with the eponymous Sweet Magnolias (Swisher, Elliott & Headley) doing a margarita toast. Deadline asked Anderson whether the closer was crafted to also work as a potential series finale in case there is no Season 6.“I actually think some of our cliffhangers are pretty big but, beyond the ritual of ending with a toast, we always strive to give our audience a balance between the tension of the open questions: Who’s leaving, Who’s coming back, Who’s staying together, all of those, with emotional satisfaction,” she said. “I think maybe in some cases, the emotional satisfaction and the joy is greater than the open questions, but the open questions are certainly there, and we certainly have big thoughts about, if we are lucky enough to get another season, the stories that we will tell.”
Sweet Magnolias was part of Netflix’s slate of comfort food, feel-good series. Since its 2020 debut, it has earned 100M views and appeared in the Global Weekly Top 10 14 times across more than 60 countries.
As Anderson and Swisher bid farewell to Sweet Magnolias, they are focusing on Ladies of the House.
“I’m thrilled to be embarking on this new adventure with JoAnna and Netflix,” Anderson said. “When Jo shared the novel with me, I immediately saw the foundation for a series centered on three women grappling with the complexities of family, friendship, and romance — the kind of stories Jo and I most enjoy telling. I cannot wait to share the Richardson women and their world with Netflix’s global audience.”
Swisher spoke about the reasons why she wanted to adapt Ladies of the House, considered a modern retelling of Sense and Sensibility.
“From the moment I read Lauren Edmondson’s Ladies of the House, I fell completely in love with Daisy, Cricket and Wallis: their relationships, their messiness, their strength, and most of all, their heart,” she sai. “I am beyond excited to continue to tell meaningful, female-driven stories alongside the incredible Sheryl J. Anderson, and to bring this to life through our production company Rolling Clover and with our wonderful partners at Black Label. Netflix has been my creative home for the past seven years, and I couldn’t imagine a better place, or a better team, to tell this story.”
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