‘American Vandal’ Canceled After Two Seasons at Netflix

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “American Vandal” has been canceled at Netflix, Variety has learned.

The half-hour mockumentary series launched its second season on the streaming service back in September. An individual with knowledge of the situation said that other platforms have expressed interest in continuing the series.

“‘’ will not return for a third season,” said. “We’re very grateful to the creators, writers, cast and crew for bringing their innovative comedy to Netflix, and to the fans and critics who embraced its unique and unconventional humor.”

A spoof of the true crime documentary genre, the first season of the show followed two high school students as they tried to determine if one of their classmates had in fact spray painted penises onto over two dozen faculty cars as he was accused of doing. In the second season, those same students traveled to a prestigious prep school in the Pacific Northwest to investigate a series of poop-related pranks.

The series starred Tyler Alvarez, Griffin Gluck, Jimmy Tatro, Melvin Gregg, and Travis Tope. It was created by Tony Yacenda and  Dan Perrault, who also executive produced along with Dan Lagana, Joe Farrell for Funny Or Die, and Ari Lubet, Josh Lieberman and Michael Rotenberg for 3 Arts Entertainment.  The series was produced for Netflix by CBS Television Studios, Funny Or Die, and 3 Arts.

The series received widespread acclaim upon its debut, currently holding a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “American Vandal” also won a Peabody Award for its first season and was nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding writing for a limited series category.

Part of the decision to cancel the series was no doubt because it was produced for Netflix by an outside studio. The streamer, like most in the TV space, is increasingly looking to produce things in-house in an effort to control the global rights to a project.