Why isn’t Nancy Drew on Netflix?
Created by Edward Stratemeyer, Nancy Drew is a fictional sleuth that first in 1930 as a counterpart to The Hardy Boys series. According to Book Riot, there are 56 original Nancy Drew books, which were ghostwritten by various authors and published under the name Carolyn Keene. There are several incarnations of the character, as she was developed and changed over time as U.S. culture evolved.
Nancy Drew is a well-known cultural icon. Even if you’ve never read the books or seen any of the adaptations, you still recognize the name. The famous character has solved plenty of cases over the course of her fictional career, which is one of the reasons why her popularity persists today.
Nancy Drew, a television series about the titular character, premiered on The CW in 2019. Kennedy McMann stars as Nancy, a curious and witty 18-year-old whose college plans are thwarted. After Nancy and her friends witness a heinous crime, they must work together to uncover the culprit before it’s too late.
The series also features Leah Lewis as George Fan, Maddison Jaizani as Bess Marvin, Tunji Kasim as Ned Nickerson, and Scott Wolf as Carson Drew. All of the roles named are reinventions of characters from the original novels.
Although there are several shows from The CW available to stream on Netflix, Nancy Drew is not one of them. As reported by Deadline, this is due to the fact that The CW’s parent companies, CBS and Warner Bros., decided not to renew their streaming contract with Netflix. CBS All Access initially won the streaming rights for the show, so that’s where it was said to be headed.
With a subscription to CBS All Access, viewers were supposed to be able to watch the first season of Nancy Drew 30 days before the second season premiered. However, that appears to no longer be the case.
According to Precinct TV, the show was very quietly picked up by another streaming service, and it cannot be watched via CBS All Access. As of right now, you can watch season 1 on HBO Max.
Nancy Drew season 2 debuts Wednesday, January 20 on The CW.