Netflix has a talk show problem: The streaming service says it tried boosting Chelsea Handler's show by removing 66 episodes

The New York Times

Aside from David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction and Hasan Minhaj's Patriot Act, Netflix hasn't had much success with the talk show format. In fact, Netflix's first talk show, Chelsea Handler's Chelsea, had so much trouble finding an audience that before Season 2, the streaming service removed 66 Chelsea episodes. It is the only instance of the company’s having scrubbed content that it owned and created, a Netflix spokesperson tells The New York Times. Netflix executive Brandon Riegg explained that the decision to remove the episodes before the show’s second (and final) season was an attempt to provide “an easy way for viewers to catch up before the new episodes launched.” Riegg, who's in charge of nonfiction series and comedy specials, says of Netflix's struggles with the talk show genre: “The timeliness of the genre is a challenge for us as an on-demand service. We’ve worked with many talented artists to pioneer talk shows for streaming audiences, and although some shows ended, we hope everyone involved is proud of what they created.”