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.
