Hoax Alert: Orange is the New Black is Definitely NOT Cancelled

We're used to seeing The Onion post all matters of absurdity on our Facebook walls and Twitter feeds, but Saturday morning Empire News shared some updates many of us weren't quite sure how to handle at first. The headline read "Netflix Pulls the Plug on Orange is the New Black; the Reason may Shock You," and that was enough to get our hearts racing before cluing into the fact that, yep, Empire News is full of lies. The article claims Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings stated, "We regret to inform Netflix members that Orange is the New Black has been permanently cancelled. Also, starting September 1st, 2014, past episodes will no longer be available for streaming on Netflix,” then quickly takes a dive into pretty entertaining absurdity. The full article can be found here, and it actually gets some props for specificity. We especially enjoy this fake quote from Hastings:

"A woman’s place is in the home, in the kitchen, taking care of children.” Hastings told San Jose Mercury News reporter Noah Houpt as he was leaving Netflix headquarters Monday afternoon. “A woman in jail? How does anyone even watch this show in the first place? It’s like we took everything bad about OZ, and make this show with the leftovers.”

Even though OITNB earned 12 Emmy nominations and has been filming season 3 for a while, fans across the web still believed Empire News to be breaking some genuinly shocking news. But no worries, the official OITNB Twitter swooped in to clear everything up.

Orange Is The New Black has NOT been canceled. Whoever started this rumor will be spending some time in the SHU. pic.twitter.com/tslCdjBkht

— Orange Is the New... (@OITNB) July 12, 2014

So breathe easy, and fear not! We've definitely got at least one more season coming our way and endless binge-watching material that can't be taken away from us!