Netflix's first sort-of original series—Steven Van Zandt's Lilyhammer—will soon exit the streamer

The streamer's license on the series will expire next month without renewal

Netflix's first sort-of original series—Steven Van Zandt's Lilyhammer—will soon exit the streamer
Steven Van Zandt at the North American premiere of Lilyhammer in 2012 Photo: Jason Kempin

It’s been just a little over ten years since Netflix entered the film and television production business, completely transforming the media consumption landscape. Now, its first (and with saying this with a “well, technically”) original series, Lilyhammer, will officially leave the streamer platform at the end of November.

Per IndieWire, the 10-year lease on the streaming rights to Lilyhammer will expire without renewal. Though Netflix’s reputation has been built on series such as The Crown, Stranger Things, and in the early days, Orange Is The New Black and House Of Cards, it was (technically) Eilif Skodvin and Anne Bjørnstad’s Lilyhammer that started it all.

Steven Van Zandt (of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and The Sopranos fame) stars in Lilyhammer as the ex-mafia boss Frank Tagliano, who takes the stand against some members of the Mafia. After entering the Witness Protection Program, Tagliano ends up in Lillehammer, Norway, kicking off a fish-out-of-water story.

In a letter shared earlier this year, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Lilyhammer, reflecting on what it meant for Netflix at the time. Most importantly, it marked the first time Netflix would binge-release a series—an industry-shaking move.

“The meeting was great and Stevie loved every idea, except one,” Sarandos says. “When I told him that we would not be showing the episodes one per week, we would deliver the entire season all at once. That stopped him in his tracks. ‘You labor and suffer and someone can watch a year of your work in one night? That sounds a little weird,’ he said. ‘It’s not weird,’ I told him. ‘It’s just like working on an album.’ He laughed and agreed.”

“Looking back, Lilyhammer was perhaps an unorthodox choice for our first show,” Sarandos concludes. “But it worked because it was a deeply local story that we could share with the world. The jokes and references worked locally and the more universal themes of the shows traveled perfectly.”

For now, three seasons of Lilyhammer are available for streaming on Netflix.

 
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