Netflix cancels what could’ve been the next Virgin River even though the series had more views than Ransom Canyon

A still from The Waterfront showing Holt McCallany driving a boat

(Image credit: Netflix)

The reformed Oasis band are currently touring, and singing to Sally about how it's unwise to put your heart in the hands of a rock'n'roll band. Maybe they should write a sequel to warn her of something equally heartbreaking: getting too involved with season one of any streaming show. That's right: yet another promising streaming series has bitten the dust after just one season.

This week's casualty is The Waterfront on Netflix, which was getting decent viewing numbers (it was the most-watched show on Netflix for a week in April, outpacing the number of views that Ransom Canyon saw during its first week) but left many critics cold – although not at The Guardian, who described it as "Dawson's Creek for grown-ups" and "perfect summer nonsense". We thought it had the potential to be a new Virgin River, but just two months after it debuted on Netflix the show has been canned.

Why The Waterfront is getting washed away

As Variety reports, initial numbers were impressive: "The series spent over a week atop the streamer’s Top 10 before being overtaken after the premiere by the juggernaut Squid Game, which debuted its third season less than two weeks after."

Unfortunately Variety's prediction that the show had "set itself up to be yet another one of [Scream creator Kevin Williamson’s] long-running fan-favorite shows” and Williamson's own plans for a second season proved optimistic.

There's no official explanation for the cancellation but it's going to be the usual culprit: numbers. Not just the number of people streaming the show, but how much they streamed and how quickly they streamed it. It looks like from Netflix's perspective at least, The Waterfront simply didn't deliver.

Why The Waterfront is getting washed away

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