The story
Tired of ruling Hell, Lucifer Morningstar takes an indefinite break in Los Angeles, where he runs a stylish nightclub and enjoys coaxing people into admitting their deepest desires. When a murder hits close to home, he charms his way into working alongside a no-nonsense LAPD homicide detective, and the Devil soon finds that chasing killers is stirring up feelings he never expected to have.
Why it matters
Lucifer shows how a streamer can turn a network cast-off into a bigger hit. Fox dropped it over ratings, but on Netflix it ran for three more seasons and drew consistently high viewership, including 1.8 billion viewing minutes in a single week in June 2021, enough to put it near the top of Nielsen's streaming chart.
How it was rescued
Fox cancelled Lucifer in May 2018 after three seasons, calling it a "ratings-based decision". After a #SaveLucifer campaign that trended on Twitter, Netflix picked the show up the following month, and its first Netflix season was released on 8 May 2019.
Filed under: Cancelled, then revived online
Notable facts
- The penultimate episode of season four, the first made for Netflix, is titled "Save Lucifer" in honour of the fan campaign. (source)
- Two episodes made for a possible fourth Fox season were broadcast as "bonus episodes" on 28 May 2018. (source)
- Netflix's fifth season ran to 16 episodes, released in two halves in August 2020 and May 2021. (source)