Having debuted on the Top 10 in an impressive 73 countries worldwide, there’s evidently a lot of Netflix subscribers out there hoping that new supernatural smash hit I Woke Up a Vampire would be renewed for a second run of episodes. The good news is that it has, just not in the way you might think.
It may have gone almost completely unnoticed by those who binged the family-friendly coming-of-age story with a bloodsucking twist as soon as it hit the platform, but the show didn’t just shoot 16 episodes at once to guarantee a second block of eight would arrive on Netflix eventually, but the latter half has already aired on another network.
I Woke Up a Vampire might have been billed as a Netflix original in the majority of markets where it aired, but that’s not technically the case given its status as a co-production with The Family Channel in Canada. As a result, the latter network has shown episodes 9 through 16 between July and September as part of an extended first season, but they’re being held off by the streaming service and will be rolled out as a brand new batch of adventures at a date yet to be specified.
Being handed an upfront order isn’t quite the same as a renewal, but when you remember that Melissa McCarthy comedy God’s Favorite Idiot was also picked up for 16 episodes and hasn’t been approved to shoot the final eight, then the differences are negligible when Netflix could have realistically abandoned I Woke Up a Vampire halfway through if it failed to perform.