Did Netflix save Rebel?

Just when we thought our efforts would save ABC’s Rebel with the #SaveRebel campaign, we sadly fell short. In May of this year, ABC released a statement revealing that they’re canceling the legal comedy-drama series after just one season.

This caused an uproar among fans of Rebel and fans of Grey’s Anatomy because they didn’t understand how a TV series created by one of ABC’s most known drama showrunners, Krista Vernoff, could be canceled so quickly. Just five episodes in, and ABC gave Rebel the boot. With a powerful cast and an original plot, it just didn’t make any sense.

ABC’s reasoning for canceling Rebel was that the legal show wasn’t doing well in ratings. This makes sense because, at the end of the day, a show has to bring in high audience numbers to stay on a TV network, especially a top network like ABC.

However, this still didn’t sit well with fans, and even the leading star, Katey Sagal, had something to say about the cancellation. On her Instagram, she talked about how she was shocked by the series cancellation and that “things take time to catch on.” We can all agree that this is true because if you think about the fantasy show Lucifer, Fox canceled the show after three seasons, but when Netflix picked it up, viewership increased.

Sometimes TV shows need a wider audience, and Netflix was able to provide just that for Lucifer and Manifest. This is what led fans to believe that Netflix could save Rebel. So, did Netflix pick up Rebel?

Is Rebel going to be on Netflix?

According to TVLine, they reported that Rebel would not be back for a season 2 on any streaming service or network. The series creator Krista Vernoff revealed this bad news on her Twitter on Aug. 16.

After being shopped around and then closing on a deal with IMDb TV to stream Rebel’s first season on its platform, fans thought that Rebel was going to have a new home. However, IMDb TV decided not to add Rebel to its lineup.

It was still unknown if Rebel was going to get a second chance and get picked up by Netflix until Vernoff revealed that there was no possibility of there being a Rebel season 2 at all. Who knows, maybe in the future, a network or streaming platform will have a change of heart and pick up Rebel for a season 2.

We still see fans and popular authors like Stephen King petitioning and hoping for a season 4 of Manifest. But for now, Rebel will not be on Netflix or any other streaming service.