XO, Kitty – ACE Entertainment / Netflix
After a romantic rollercoaster in South Korea, Kitty is returning to America, or is she? That’s what XO, Kitty fans, or hoping to learn from a second season that Netflix officially confirmed over the summer of 2023. What’s the latest on XO, Kitty season 2 and when will it be on Netflix?
Let’s quickly recap – XO, Kitty is a Netflix Orignal romantic comedy series created, written, and produced by Jenny Han and the spin-off series of the popular To All the Boys film franchise.
The series is based on teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey who thinks she knows everything there is to know about love. But when she moves halfway across the world to reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, she’ll soon realize that relationships are much more complicated when it’s your heart on the line.
XO, Kitty Season 2 Netflix Renewal Status
Official Renewal Status: Renewed
Just under a month after the series premiered on May 18th, Netflix officially confirmed that the show would be returning, and it came as no surprise given its viewing stats (more on this in a second).
The announcement came with a short video featuring Anna Cathcart (and a few other members of the cast) holding up a sign that the show had been renewed:
XO Kitty renewal sign
Jenny Han is confirmed to return as showrunner for the new season alongside Sascha G. Rothchild with both also serving as executive producers.
As the first spin-off show of one of its popular film franchises, it would always be interesting to see how XO, Kitty performs over the first few weeks, especially given the gap from To All The Boys – Always and Forever released in February 2021.
Netflix measures all of the analytics related to the series, such as weekly hourly viewing data, the percentage of subscribers starting and finishing the show, and more. We’ve covered how Netflix decides whether to renew or cancel a show here.
How well did XO, Kitty perform on Netflix?
Judging the performance of the show’s first four days and XO, Kitty has gotten off to a strong start on Netflix with 72,080,000 hours viewed. If it wasn’t for the success of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Series, then XO, Kitty would be top.
Let’s begin with the Netflix hourly numbers for XO, Kitty. Every week on Tuesday, Netflix unveils its top 40 shows and movies broken down into English and non-English language categories. In total, the show featured in the top 10s for four weeks picking up 180.15 million hours watched globally.
Here’s how that breaks down week-to-week:
| Week Period | Hours Viewed(M) | Rank | Week in Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 14th, 2023 to May 21st, 2023 | 72,080,000 | 2 | 1 |
| May 21st, 2023 to May 28th, 2023 | 63,780,000 (-12%) | 2 | 2 |
| May 28th, 2023 to June 4th, 2023 | 29,830,000 (-53%) | 3 | 3 |
| June 4th, 2023 to June 11th, 2023 | 14,460,000 (-52%) | 8 | 4 |
As you can see, the show put in a strong first week and even second weekend but notably dropped over 50% between weeks 2 and 3.
If we look at that number with the CVE metric (Completed Viewing Equivalent = taking the runtime of the show and divide by the number of reported hours) we can do an apples-to-apples(ish) comparison of how well the show has performed against other big Netflix shows in 2023:
As you can see, XO, Kitty is currently one of the better performing shows in 2023 thus far, pulling in a better CVE than That ’90s Show and The Diplomat, which were both renewed.
When we stack it all up, we can see that XO, Kitty, compared to other renewed shows, was a prime candidate for more, especially since it sports a smaller budget.
Looking at raw top 10s (captured by FlixPatrol), we can see the show is performing well around the globe, performing best in non-US countries such as India, Latin America, and the Nordics.
FlixPatrol points graph vs global heat map of popularity
How about online engagement?
Thanks to TelevisionStats.com, they measure several demand metrics like Google Trends, Twitter, IMDb, Reddit, and Torrents. They rank the show as having “Good” engagement, and when compared to other renewed Netflix shows in 2023 the show puts in similar performances to The Night Agent and Ginny & Georgia in the first week, although it has dropped off much faster.
The show, as of June 7th, also ranks as the 31st biggest show in terms of online engagement since January 1st, 2022.
Online engagement for XO, Kitty vs other renewed Netflix shows in 2023
What to expect from XO, Kitty season 2?
Kitty has a lot on her plate heading into a second season.
Kitty x Yuri
After going to Korea in order to be closer to her long-distance boyfriend Dae, by the end of the season, Kitty found herself with feelings for somebody else, Yuri.
However, before Kitty had the opportunity to reveal her feelings for Yuri, she was interrupted by the appearance of Juliana, the girl Yuri is in love with. Rather than confessing her feelings, Kitty boarded her plane back to the US.
With her expulsion from KISS, Kitty is under the impression she will never see Yuri again, but, little does she know that Yuri is trying to convince her mother, Jina, to reinstate her. If Kitty is allowed to reattend KISS then she’ll be reunited with Yuri.
Picture: Gia Kim (left) and Anna Cathcart (right) – ACE Entertainment / Netflix
Min Ho x Kitty
When Kitty boarded her plane, she was surprised to find she was on the same plane as Min Ho. Learning from Kitty that she and Dae were no longer together, and that Kitty was returning to America, the young man had nothing to lose and confessed his own feelings for her.
Kitty has feelings for Yuri, and she just broke up with Dae, so even if she returns to KISS it’s unlikely she’ll reciprocate Min Ho’s feelings.
Picture: Sang Heon Lee (left) and Anna Cathcart (right) – ACE Entertainment / Netflix
Who is Simon?
Jina gave the letter that Kitty’s mom, Eve, had written for her to Kitty. After reading the letter, Kitty discovered the name of the mysterious Simon, her mother’s potential first love.
Expect Kitty to go back to Jina and question her all about “Simon” and Jina’s friendship with her mother.
Will Dae lose his place at KISS?
Dae’s scholarship relies heavily on his performance at school, and he is expected to be the top-performing student. However, thanks to Florian cheating on his exams, Dae loses the top rank. Unless Florian is caught, or Dae can improve his grades to perfect levels, Dae’s scholarship at KISS is under serious threat.
Picture: Anna Cathcart (left) and Minyeing Choi (right) – ACE Entertainment / Netflix
When could we expect to see a second season of XO, Kitty on Netflix?
Filming for the first season occurred between March 28th, 2022, and June 7th, 2022. That means between the start of filming and the show being released was a period of fourteen months.
Now, sadly, despite an early renewal. No work is currently taking place on the show, given it’s covered by both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. As you may know, the former has been striking since May 2023 and the latter since July 2023.
XO, Kitty is among the dozens of projects currently on hold at Netflix due to the ongoing strikes.
As a result, we’re not expecting any production to get underway at this point until 2024. That means at an absolute push we could see the show return by the close of that year or more likely at this point, 2025.
Are you looking forward to the second season of XO, Kitty on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!