Netflix Fires Kevin Spacey: How Much Money Did The Network Lose?

Netflix announced a $39 million write-down during their fourth-quarter earnings presentation.

While the company did not specify the exact reason for the accounting move, a source later confirmed with Deadline that it was because of their decision to remove Kevin Spacey from “House of Cards” and the feature film “Gore.”

The removal came after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct by several individuals, including the staff of “House of Cards.” The show was suspended in late October while stakeholders decided on their next step. In the end, they decided to move on with the series with Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) as the lead.

“These types of business write-downs are an ongoing facet of Ted [Sarandos’] world in terms of producing content,” said CFO David Wells, referring Netflix’s content chief. “We just hadn’t had one of this magnitude and related to the societal reset around sexual harassment, so it was somewhat unusual in that respect.”

Despite the loss, Sarandos said that they were happy with the decision they made. “I think it gave us all an opportunity to soul-search right away and I love that we were able to very quickly come to the conclusion,” he told the New York Daily News.

The exec added that employees have a right to “a workplace that is safe, where people are equal and respected and are judged by the quality of their work and not who they are — not to be in a position to be taken advantage of by people of power.”

So even though Spacey was the lead star, they will not tolerate his behavior. “The best way to set that environment is, no matter who it is, they’ve got to go,” he said.

“People love the show,” Sarandos added. “They love Claire (the First Lady played by Robin Wright). They love Francis, too, and everybody wants to see how this wraps up. Yes, this was a Kevin Spacey story, but there’s 340 people who make that show.”

The sixth and final season of the show will begin production in early 2018. According to Entertainment Weekly, there will only be eight episodes in the final run.