Start Petitioning Now, Because Fans Are Convinced 'Riverdale' Is Leaving Netflix Soon

Many Riverdale fans have depended on Netflix to stream the hit teen drama shortly after each season airs in full on the CW, but that will probably be stopping pretty soon. News out of the Television Critics Association press tour this week has fans very worried that Riverdale will stop being available on Netflix, possibly even as soon as this spring. So, is Riverdale leaving Netflix, and if so, will it move to another streaming service? Although fans will probably see the show leaving Netflix soon, there are still plans for it to be stream-able at another service later this year.

Oh, and this news should not only concern Riverdale fans who like to watch the series on Netflix — it sounds like Friends, Supernatural, Arrow, and every other show owned by Warner Bros. currently streaming on Netflix will be pulled from the streaming service soon. The reason for this mass exodus is WarnerMedia's new streaming service, which is on track to go online at the end of 2019. TV exec Kevin Reilly, who is in charge of the upcoming WarnerMedia streaming service, confirmed that he is working on securing all of Warner's best performing content from Netflix so that they can stream exclusively on Warner's new service. Reilly made it clear he intends on pulling Warner's best shows from Netflix very soon at the TCAs, as reported by Deadline:

I think you can expect the crown jewels of Warner will ultimately end up on our new service. Pulling it away [from Netflix]? It’s certainly something we’re willing to do. I think for the most part, sharing destination assets like that is not a good model to share — my belief is that they should be exclusive.

Sooooo, yeah — it seems pretty clear that Riverdale is going to be one of the several beloved shows that is on its way out from Netflix over the course of the year. It should be noted just how much of a positive impact Riverdale's streaming pact with Netflix has been for the teen drama. Though the show had a pretty buzzy premiere on the CW back at the beginning of 2017, it actually wound up underperforming in its ratings.

Riverdale's Season 1 finale thudded with less than a million viewers tuning in. But the show clearly developed a much larger fanbase once its first season became available to stream on Netflix later that year. When it returned for Season 2, its premiere garnered nearly two and a half million viewers, and the whole second season consistently outperformed Season 1 each week. The numbers show just how influential Netflix was in garnering a larger fanbase for the show.

But soon Riverdale fans will have to use WarnerMedia's streaming service for all their bingeing needs. Kevin Reilly even specified when fans can expect the show to depart from Netflix — this spring:

The CW with Netflix is not an output deal... There’s a new offering of content coming up in the spring. I think you can anticipate we’re going to be looking at that; we’re very interested in putting that [Netflix's CW series] on our platform.

So start re-bingeing all of Riverdale on Netflix now while you still can, because it might be gone in a matter of months.