{"id":712541,"date":"2026-06-19T00:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/712541\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T00:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:43:08","slug":"why-netflix-canceled-the-boroughs-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/712541\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Netflix Canceled ‘The Boroughs’ (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s not every day that a hit TV show gets canceled while it\u2019s on the streaming ratings charts<\/a>, but that\u2019s exactly what happened with the Duffer Brothers<\/a>\u2018 Netflix<\/a> series The Boroughs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Wednesday, news broke that Netflix has dropped the axe on the sci-fi series<\/a> less than one month after its release (and with mere days left in Emmy voting). The Boroughs had a strong cast \u2014 Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Denis O\u2019Hare, Clarke Peters and Bill Pullman \u2014 and even stronger producers in Matt and Ross Duffer, the Upside Down Pictures guys behind Netflix\u2019s Stranger Things. (The series was created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews of Off Franklin Productions.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Boroughs also super-served an overlooked demographic \u2014 especially for streaming \u2014 senior citizens. (The Boroughs definitely had Cocoon vibes.)<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the weirdest part of all of this is: The Boroughs worked.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn its first four days, The Boroughs was second place on Netflix\u2019s top 10 English-language TV chart with 5.6 million views. In its first full week, it jumped to No. 1 with 9.5 million views. The following week, it was fourth with 3.7 million views, and from June 8-14, The Boroughs tacked on 2 million views, ranking eighth. It would be canceled on June 17, the day after Netflix shared the fourth-week stats.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier today, Nielsen revealed its own streaming charts for The Boroughs\u2018 debut week. It ranked second, behind only fellow Netflix series Nemesis. (Nielsen\u2019s streaming ratings have a four-week delay.)<\/p>\n

\n\tCritics also loved the series: The Boroughs has a 97 percent \u201cCertified Fresh\u201d rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was 91 percent with \u201cTop Critics.\u201d (OK, so not all critics \u201cloved\u201d it: The Hollywood Reporter\u2018s own Angie Han referred to The Boroughs<\/a> as a \u201cclunky geriatric spin on Stranger Things.\u201d Han did, however, also call it \u201cperfectly watchable.\u201d) The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is a solid 79 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn a seemingly perfect retirement community, a grieving newcomer\u2019s monstrous encounter inspires him to join a misfit crew of unlikely heroes who uncover a dark secret that proves their \u2018golden years\u2019 are more dangerous, and they are more formidable, than anyone expects,\u201d the logline for\u00a0The Boroughs\u00a0reads.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Boroughs is named for its \u201cpicturesque retirement community promising its residents the time of their lives,\u201d the official synopsis reads. \u201cBut for new arrival Sam Cooper (Molina), paradise feels more like a prison. Everything changes when a terrifying nighttime encounter reveals that something monstrous is stalking the manicured cul-de-sacs. Dismissed by the powers that be as just another confused old man, Sam finds unlikely allies in a band of neighborhood misfits: a sharp-witted former journalist, a spiritual seeker, a cynical music manager and a brilliant doctor running out of options. Overlooked and underestimated, these unlikely heroes must band together to unravel the dark truth at the heart of The Boroughs before their time runs out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, the time on the series has quickly run out. Why?<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo sources tell THR that a problem with The Boroughs was its expensive production budget. That is true: The Boroughs costs about $10 million per episode, one said. Another said the real number is \u201cmaterially higher.\u201d Netflix weighs viewership directly against cost when making pickup and cancellation decisions, and though The Boroughs did well, it wasn\u2019t quite Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the quiet-part-out-loud here is that the Duffer Brothers ditching Netflix for a four-year deal at Paramount seems to have rubbed high-ranking Netflix executives the wrong way, the first source told THR. The relationship there has been \u201ctough\u201d since Matt and Ross \u201cembarrassed\u201d the streamer by leaving, the source said. A source close to Netflix denied the accuracy of that characterization, and says this was simply a business decision.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe current Netflix regime is not the one that greenlit The Boroughs \u2014 it was Peter Friedlander and Blair\u00a0Fetter, now both at Amazon MGM Studios, who gave the original thumbs up. Another pair of former Netflix executives, Cindy Holland and Matt Thunell, are tickled to be reunited with Matt and Ross at Paramount, where the Duffers\u2019 deal encompasses (linear) TV, streaming and film. Two days prior to the cancellation news leaking, Paramount publicly dated the Duffers\u2019 secret event movie<\/a>\u00a0for Nov. 3, 2028. But that\u2019s not why news of The Boroughs cancellation came 48 hours later.<\/p>\n

\n\tJune 15 was also the deadline for Netflix to extend the options on the cast of The Boroughs. It declined to do so, effectively killing the series. There won\u2019t be a rebirth, multiple sources tell THR. Netflix is both the studio and the platform here, with 100 percent ownership of the series. It is highly unlikely the streamer would sell the series to the competition, which includes Paramount \u2014 and now the Duffers.<\/p>\n

\n\tA source close to the Duffers says the brothers still have a good relationship with Netflix and have multiple projects in development there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not every day that a hit TV show gets canceled while it\u2019s on the streaming ratings charts,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,217,255025,64590],"class_list":["post-712541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-netflix","tag-the-boroughs","tag-the-duffer-brothers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}