The way Netflix users rate movies and TV shows is set to change. The streaming service announced yesterday, March 16, that the five star rating system used since Netflix's inception, will be removed from April. In its place will be the option to rate titles with either a thumbs up or thumbs down, depending on what you thought of it.
Netflix executive Tod Yellin told a press briefing at the company’s headquarters in Los Gatos, California that they had found the star system had lost some use and noted that users would rank prestige documentaries highly, while popular rom-coms and action films were dismissed with a lower rating. Ratings increased 200 percent, Yellin claimed, when users were given the new system in a test last year.
A Netflix spokesperson told EW the company is also adding a percentage match score that’s based on compatibility: “For example, if you see a title has a 90 percent match, that means that based on your viewing habits and patterns, we think you are highly likely to enjoy that title.”
The change in the rating system comes in the same week that the new stand-up special from Amy Schumer was targeted by alt-right Redditors. An organized plan to downmark her Netflix rating saw the popular comic score just one star.