It’s not every day that a hit TV show gets canceled while it’s on the streaming ratings charts, but that’s exactly what happened with the Duffer Brothers‘ Netflix series The Boroughs.
On Wednesday, news broke that Netflix has dropped the axe on the sci-fi series less than one month after its release (and with mere days left in Emmy voting). The Boroughs had a strong cast — Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters and Bill Pullman — and even stronger producers in Matt and Ross Duffer, the Upside Down Pictures guys behind Netflix’s Stranger Things. (The series was created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews of Off Franklin Productions.)
The Boroughs also super-served an overlooked demographic — especially for streaming — senior citizens. (The Boroughs definitely had Cocoon vibes.)
But the weirdest part of all of this is: The Boroughs worked.
In its first four days, The Boroughs was second place on Netflix’s 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.
Earlier today, Nielsen revealed its own streaming charts for The Boroughs‘ debut week. It ranked second, behind only fellow Netflix series Nemesis. (Nielsen’s streaming ratings have a four-week delay.)
Critics also loved the series: The Boroughs has a 97 percent “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was 91 percent with “Top Critics.” (OK, so not all critics “loved” it: The Hollywood Reporter‘s own Angie Han referred to The Boroughs as a “clunky geriatric spin on Stranger Things.” Han did, however, also call it “perfectly watchable.”) The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is a solid 79 percent.
“In a seemingly perfect retirement community, a grieving newcomer’s monstrous encounter inspires him to join a misfit crew of unlikely heroes who uncover a dark secret that proves their ‘golden years’ are more dangerous, and they are more formidable, than anyone expects,” the logline forThe Boroughsreads.
The Boroughs is named for its “picturesque retirement community promising its residents the time of their lives,” the official synopsis reads. “But 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.”
Well, the time on the series has quickly run out. Why?
Two 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 “materially higher.” Netflix weighs viewership directly against cost when making pickup and cancellation decisions, and though The Boroughs did well, it wasn’t quite Wednesday.
But 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 “tough” since Matt and Ross “embarrassed” 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.
The current Netflix regime is not the one that greenlit The Boroughs — it was Peter Friedlander and BlairFetter, 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’ deal encompasses (linear) TV, streaming and film. Two days prior to the cancellation news leaking, Paramount publicly dated the Duffers’ secret event moviefor Nov. 3, 2028. But that’s not why news of The Boroughs cancellation came 48 hours later.
June 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’t 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 — and now the Duffers.
A source close to the Duffers says the brothers still have a good relationship with Netflix and have multiple projects in development there.