The Netflix cancellation curse continues: despite it enjoying more than a month in the Netflix Top 10 list, drama series The Waterfront has been axed.
That's according to Deadline which has run a report saying that cast and crewing are being told about the cancellation of this series, which premiered on Thursday, June 19.
The Waterfront is about an embattled family which sees its rule over a North Carolina town dwindle due to mismanagement, external threats and heart attacks. Holt McCallany, Melissa Benoist, Jake Weary and Maria Bello star.
News of a cancellation may come as a shock to Netflix subscribers, because The Waterfront was in the streamer's top 10 most-watched series list for over a month.
For its first three weeks, it dominated the top spot, getting around 25,000,000 'views' in that time (what Netflix counts as a view is a little nebulous), before getting displaced by The Sandman's second season in its fourth week. In its fifth and final week it dropped to seventh place, and another US drama series Untamed was on top.
Evidently, solid viewing figures are no protection from Netflix's proactive cancel goblins, and we've already seen other 2025 US series on the streamer like Pulse and The Residence go the same way
However, it's not always the case, as the aforementioned Untamed has been renewed for a second season, and as another crime thriller set in a specific rural part of the US, they tread similar ground.
According to reports, viewing figures aren't the only thing that Netflix looks at when renewing a show, as its cost to produce is also something to factor in. Budgets for TV shows are rarely revealed, so it's impossible to say how The Waterfront compared to Untamed or the various other crime dramas Netflix is cancelling or renewing right now.
The takeaway from this news is that nothing is precious on Netflix, and anything can be cancelled, whether or not it's successful. It's not great news if you get attached to characters who get winked out of existence, but at least it solves that age-old cable TV problem of series getting endlessly renewed with nowhere for their stories to go!
