The Fate Of The Baby-Sitters Club Season 3 Has Been Sealed — Or Has It?

If you were a child of the ’90s, then odds are you fell in love with Ann M. Martin’s novel series The Baby-Sitters Club. The beloved stories take place in the fictional town of Stoneybrook and center around a group of friends who run their very own babysitting business called — you guessed it — The Baby-Sitters Club. It’s the perfect coming-of-age story and shows just how important childhood friendships can be. And while many iterations of the franchise have existed on both the big and small screen throughout the years, Netflix’s reboot of The Baby-Sitters Club has proven to be the most successful by far. (Seriously, just look at its stellar ratings on Rotten Tomatoes if you have any doubts.) If your family blew through the first two seasons as soon as they were released, you’re probably languishing in a showhole waiting for The Baby-Sitters Club Season 3 to drop.

The first season of the series was released in July 2020, while Season 2 dropped on the streaming platform back in October 2021. If that pattern had persisted, fans could have expected a third season sometime in 2022. Unfortunately, Netflix has announced that is decidedly *not* the case.

When is The Baby-Sitters Club Season 3 release date?

Alas, never. Despite how positively the show has been received by both fans and critics alike, Netflix decided to cancel The Baby-Sitters Club after only two seasons.

“I have wanted to be a part of the world Ann M. Martin created since I was 7 years old, and for two amazing seasons, I actually got to be. It was a dream come true,” showrunner Rachel Shukert told Deadline. “Although I am heartbroken not to be returning to Stoneybrook for 20 more seasons, I am so proud of the incredible show our amazing cast and crew created and the way it brought joy and comfort to so many people when they needed it most.”

Of course, just because a show is canceled doesn’t mean it won’t get picked up somewhere else. It’s impossible to say if that’s off the table entirely without knowing the details of Netflix’s streaming rights to the series. And, admittedly, Netflix is usually the one picking up shows that have been dropped by other networks. But... maybe? Either way, it doesn’t hurt for fans to express their disappointment in Netflix’s decision not to renew the beloved series.

Which cast members would have returned?

Although the show has been canceled, it’s still fun to speculate who would have made a Season 3 return. It’s probably safe to assume the main and supporting cast would’ve made a comeback, including Kristy Thomas (Sophie Grace), Claudia Kishi (Momona Tamada), Stacey McGill (Shay Rudolph), Mary Anne Spier (Malia Baker), Dawn Schafer (Kyndra Sanchez), Jessi Ramsey (Anais Lee), and Mallory (Vivian Watson) as they continued to juggle family, their growing babysitting business, and school all at the same time.

Other characters that likely would have come back are Elizabeth Thomas-Brewer (Alicia Silverstone), Watson Brewer (Mark Feuerstein), Richard Spier (Marc Evan Jackson), and Sharon Porter (Jessica Elaina Eason).

What would Season 3 have been about if it did return?

Before The Baby-Sitters Club was canceled, details about Season 3 were pretty scarce — as in non-existent. The good news is, though, there’s still room to fantasize about the content the show could have explored for a third, fourth, or even fifth season, thanks to all of the source material it has to work with. (The novel series the show is based on contains a whopping 213 books total.)

“The books are such a wonderful blueprint,” Shukert told Variety prior to the Season 1 release. “The first eight to 10 books, I would say, set up the world and the club, and their relationships get cemented, [as do] the bigger stories of what’s going on with their parents and how that affects them. It’s laying the architecture, so it felt like that was a good jumping-off point.”

Those words might not be quite as comforting as an official Season 3 pick-up would be, but it definitely provides some hope for the future that another streaming service might pick it up. The cast and crew know that the content is there, ready for the taking — they just need the green light to keep the fun and adventure going. In the meantime, you can currently stream all 10 episodes of Season 1 and all eight episodes of Season 2 on Netflix.

Here’s hoping the plug isn’t pulled on this show forever!