Shameless – Picture: Showtime / Warner Brothers Television
With the arrival of the eleventh and final season of Shameless on Netflix, that’ll now begin a countdown clock as to when the series will now depart Netflix. However, we don’t quite know when that will be but we do have some best guesses.
Based on the UK version of the show, the Shameless US adaptation has been one of the better examples of shows getting a US adaptation in recent years. That’s largely thanks to Paul Abbott being involved.
We’ve followed the Gallaghers for over a decade but their reign came to an end on April 11th, 2021 with the finale airing on the network Showtime.
Why will Shameless leave Netflix?
We often leave out this section in our posts as we often take for granted that people understand licensing so here’s a quick explainer.
As Netflix explains, much of their content is licensed which means they essentially rent the content from the people who own the show for a fixed period of time.
According to Netflix when it comes to titles expiring they take into account:
“Are the rights to the title still available?
How popular is it, and how much does it cost?
Seasonal and regional factors”
So, when will Shameless leave Netflix?
Exactly when the series will depart Netflix in full is yet to be announced and likely won’t be until a month before departure.
We do have a few ideas as to when the series could leave thanks to previous titles licensed by Warner Brothers Television to Netflix.
Netflix licensed a bunch of WBTV titles from The CW and we know from that contract that once the show’s final seeason gets added, it then takes 5 years for the show to depart in full.
But The CW was a separate contract so may not be the best to compare against. Gotham’s final season has now been on Netflix for two years as of September 30th and is still on Netflix. That suggests to us that the 5-year rule could be in place for Shameless as well as Gotham.
If that’s the case, it won’t be until October 2026 until Netflix US loses the show.
Elsewhere, Netflix seems to have access to WBTV shows for a much shorter period of time. Season 11 isn’t expected to hit Netflix until 2022 in most regions outside the US and many previous series from the distributor leave after 2 years. That’d mean most regions outside the US will lose Shameless in 2024.
Where will Shameless stream after leaving Netflix?
The logical conclusion as to where Shameless will stream after leaving Netflix is HBO Max. That’s where many WBTV produced television series get moved to after leaving Netflix and the likes.
With that said, given Showtime’s involvement in the show we could see it licensed to Paramount+ too.
Will you miss Shameless once it departs Netflix in the future? Let us know in the comments down below.