Looks like the president won’t be binge watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
According to data research firm YouGov’s BrandIndex, Republicans are turning off Netflix (NFLX). The streaming giant’s favorability among conservatives has fallen 16 percent this year, while it’s risen 15 percent among liberals.
Republicans reportedly feel that Netflix is alienating them in favor of Democrats. As evidence, they pointed to the company’s multi-year agreement with Barack and Michelle Obama to produce content.
Netflix also features the late night show The Break With Michelle Wolf. The comic host was lambasted by conservatives after her performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Liberal comedian Chelsea Handler also hosted a talk show on Netflix until last year.
Netflix has not publicly commented on the YouGov study, and the company did not respond to an Observer request for comment.
But in the past, chief content officer Ted Sarandos has attempted to assuage concerns that Netflix caters to liberals.
“It’s not The Obama Network, it’s not the MSNBC shift,” Sarandos said last week. “There’s no political slate to the programming.”
But, he added, “it’s hard to argue there’s not a left lean to the creative community.”
This “left lean” has some conservative activists up in arms. They started the hashtag #CancelNetflix on Twitter in an effort to put a dent in the site’s popularity.
Some right-wing personalities are even proposing shows of their own.
Former Fox News host Eric Bolling was ousted from the network last year over a “pattern of inappropriate behavior.” He now hosts the show AMericA on CRTV, an online television network and offshoot of Mark Levin’s Conservative Review media company.
But now Bolling wants a bigger stage. On Twitter last week he petitioned Netflix to release AMericA at the same time as “Obama’s Show.”
“Our conservative viewers vs your liberal viewers,” he said.
Of course, this point of view ignores the fact that the Obamas won’t be producing political content. So it’s highly unlikely any of their programs would be called “Obama’s Show.”
Luckily, it doesn’t look like most people are taking Bolling’s idea (or the Netflix boycott) very seriously. Company stock is up, and the service recently hit 125 million subscribers.
So it looks like the Republican plan to topple Netflix’s house of cards hasn’t quite worked.
