Netflix traditionally takes months to decide to cancel their television shows…so it was unusual when The Recruit was swiftly canceled just over a month after it premiered.
The Noah Centineo-starrer had a well received second season with a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, however, that wasn’t enough to save it.
Keep reading to find out more…
First, Deadline is reporting that there was a red flag even after the show was initially renewed for a second season. They reduced the episode count from 8 episodes to 6, which is not common at all.
As a result, showrunner Alexi Hawley and the team of writers “had to condense the story, trimming some arcs and backstory” to be able to tell the story in 6 episodes.
Deadline ultimately shared that “it was the decline on overall eyeballs that sealed the show’s fate,” and possibly, that it was competing with a similar spy show, The Night Agent, which debuted one week later. They also shared that it was not given a big promotional campaign, and The Night Agent was seemingly promoted more.
Furthermore, Netflix has very restrictive licensing term agreements where producers cannot shop canceled content to other streamers for 2-3 years following a cancellation, meaning that a third season elsewhere isn’t likely to happen.
If you didn’t see, Netflix canceled 1 other TV show this year.
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