Being a TV show on a streaming subscription service is HARD. That’s because we’re in an era when very few shows even make it past their first season.

Although TV networks are also guilty of canceling TV shows, streaming seems to be canceling even more. We’ve even seen shows we thought were successful, like Amazon’s My Lady Jane, get the axe after just one season. Honestly, it’s hard to commit to a TV show these days because you just don’t know if it’s going to get renewed. Netflix is just as bad about canceling shows as everyone else, and we’re going to look at why it recently canceled eight shows.

Obliterated

According to Variety, Netflix canceled Obliterated after just one season back in February. The comedy from Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald, followed a special forces team celebrating a victory after thinking they’d stopped a deadly threat in Las Vegas. As they’re partying, they realize that the threat remains, and must overcome their drunkenness and personal issues to find the real bomb and save the city.

Let’s be honest: Have you even heard of this series? We don’t think Netflix even promoted it, so its fate might have been decided pretty early on. However, The Hollywood Reporter states that the series cracked Netflix’s Top 10 for six weeks, but reviews were not great for it: The series only scored a 45 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ratched

You might think a Sarah Paulson-helmed thriller/horror series would be a no-brainer, but according to Deadline, Netflix canceled Ratched after one season in February. This Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story)-helmed series was inspired by the terrifying Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It followed the nurse’s early days in her journey to become a head nurse, leaving bodies in her wake.

The series received four Emmy nominations, but even that wasn’t enough to save it.

Break Point

It’s no secret that Netflix isn’t necessarily known for its sports-related programming, so that could be why the streamer canceled Break Point, a docuseries that followed pro tennis players as they prepped and prepared for major tournaments. The series did get two seasons before Deadline reported its cancellation in March.

Deadline reported that producers became frustrated with what it took to feature tennis’ biggest names on the show and it failed to cover one of the biggest stories of the last few years when Novak Djokovic failed to enter the Australian Open after refusing the COVID vaccine. Viewing figures were also reportedly slow.

The Brothers Sun

The Brothers Sun certainly had a star-studded cast going for it with Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien, and Sam Song Li. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix still decided to cancel the series after one season. The series followed a Taipei gangster who moves to Los Angeles to protect his mother and younger brother after his father is shot by an assassin.

The show premiered well on the Nielsen streaming charts and in its second week, even grew by 38 percent. It also spent five weeks in Netflix’s Top 10. The reason for its cancellation isn’t known. It’s just one of those things.

Buying Beverly Hills

Buying Beverly Hills, a reality real estate show, got two seasons before Netflix decided to can it. According to Deadline, Netflix decided not to renew the series back in April. The unscripted series premiered in 2022 and followed real estate agent Mauricio Umansky and his staff at The Agency, which included two of his family members.

Deadline reported that sources confirmed that the cancellation was because of viewing numbers versus how expensive the show was to produce. Sometimes, those are just the breaks.

Everything Now

According to Tech Radar, Netflix canceled Everything Now back in April. The teen drama show was praised by critics and viewers, and there were even reports that a writer’s room was in place for season 2, but Netflix canceled after its first season.

According to one of the show’s stars, Dylan Brady, the show didn’t have the numbers Netflix wanted to see. “We had some great ideas,” Brady said. “But we are at the mercy of the algorithm, I’m afraid.” At the time, Brady shared thoughts about this kind of numbers-driven system, saying that TV had historically worked differently with a slow, consistent growth over several seasons as opposed to this kind of mentality we see now where it’s like, ‘if it doesn’t get 16 million views in the first 28 days, it’s not worth anyone’s while.”

My Dad the Bounty Hunter

The animated series My Dad the Bounty Hunter was also canceled by Netflix after just two seasons. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix quietly canceled it in June. The series was co-created by Pixar veteran Everett Downing, Jr., and followed two children who stow away on their father’s business trip only to discover he’s an intergalactic bounty hunter.

Although the series had “decent” numbers for Netflix and made the top 10 the week after its second season premiered, Netflix still decided to pull the plug. The Hollywood Reporter did suggest that Netflix has been slowly pulling back on original programming for kids and families over the past few years. 

Dead Boy Detectives

Perhaps the most shocking cancellation to come from Netflix was when the streamer canceled Dead Boy Detectives after just one season. The series, which followed two ghosts who run a detective agency for other ghosts, spent three weeks on Netflix’s top 10 and ranked among Nielsen’s top 10 original streaming series twice after it premiered. The reasoning behind this cancellation, though, could be more nuanced.

Recently, show creator Neil Gaiman has come under fire after sexual assault allegations surfaced, according to Rolling Stone. Since then, Variety reported that Disney+ has halted production on his movie The Graveyard Book. Another Gaiman-led show, Good Omens, which is on Amazon, has also had its third season pre-production paused, although Gaimam has since reportedly offered to step back from the series, according to Deadline. It’s unclear if Netflix canceled the series due to the allegations, especially with the second season of the Gaiman-led Sandman still in production for the streamer.

It just goes to show that you don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes with shows that get cancellations, but, as viewers, it does make it hard to commit to a show unless it already has a few seasons under its belt. It might be time that streaming services handle shows in a different way because otherwise, we’ll just end up with a rotating door of shows that no one wants to watch.

Stay tuned to DFB for more.

Why ABC Canceled 9 Shows

What do you think? Why do you think Netflix canceled these shows? Let us know in the comments!