This festive edition of Ashley Garcia, however, will be somewhat of a mixed blessing for fans of the teen genius played by Paulina Chávez. On the one hand, it gives fans one more helping of the show, but on the other it is believed to be a standalone episode about the cast celebrating Christmas, meaning it is not likely to give proper endings to any plot points left hanging at the end of the last season.
Why did Netflix cancel Ashley Garcia?
Several factors seemed to be at play when Netflix decided to end Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love / The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia after just a two-part first season.
Firstly, the streaming service seems to be moving away from what are known as multi-camera sitcoms: Sitcoms filmed on fixed sets usually in front of studio audiences, filmed by several cameras in fairly fixed positions, like Friends or The Big Bang Theory.
Out of all the major multi-cam sitcoms Netflix has made, like The Ranch, One Day at a Time and Alexa and Katie, the network only has one left, Mr. Iglesias.
Though Netflix seemed to be heading away from multi-cam sitcoms in general over the last few years, especially after The Ranch ended at the start of 2020 after four seasons, the coronavirus may have been a factor in deciding to cancel Ashley Garcia.
The series was canceled in August 2020 alongside another multi-cam, The Big Show Show starring WWE wrestler Paul Wight. As both were shows filmed in front of live studio audiences, this would have made them very difficult to film in a COVID-secure way.
COVID-19 is also thought to be behind the cancelations of a number of other shows on Netflix, including I Am Not Okay with This and The Society.
However, Netflix may have already been unsure about what exactly to do with Ashley Garcia, as seen by the fact that it changed its name literally halfway through its first season.
Low viewing figures may have had a part to play in the show’s cancelation. Per FlixPatrol, it is only the 300th most-watched show on the streamer around the world this year according to the Netflix charts. In the U.S., Part 2 of the show only managed three days in the top 10.
Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love is streaming now on Netflix.
