Netflix has canceled over 200 TV shows in less than 10 years

Netflix has pulled the plug on more than 200 TV shows since 2015, with subscribers fuming at the streaming platform over unresolved cliffhangers and shows seemingly canceled without just cause.

So far, 11 shows have been canceled by the streaming service in 2024: Buying London, Dead Boy Detectives, Buying Beverly Hills, My Dad the Bounty Hunter, Everything Now, That Girl Lay Lay, Barbarians, The Brothers Sun, Ratched (yes, it came out in 2020, but it was confirmed this year), Erin and Aaron, and Obliterated.

It’s par for the course for Netflix, having axed a lot of its programming in recent years. Some have been easier to stomach than others; people are still mad about The OA, and 1899 and Santa Clarita Diet’s cliffhangers will never be resolved.

Now, with #NetflixCancels trending on social media, the full extent of its culls has been revealed. There are a few errors, but since 2015, Netflix has canceled nearly 230 shows in nine years.

It started with Marco Polo, arguably one of Netflix’s earliest hits (even coming before Stranger Things), which was given the chop after two seasons.

Naturally, there’s quite a few shows you may have never heard of, but here’s a few of its biggest cancellations: all of the Marvel shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones et al.), Designated Survivor, Mindhunter, Criminal, Fate: The Winx Saga, Shadow & Bone, Archive 81, and Break Point.

You’re entitled to be angry, but as some viewers have pointed out, Netflix is still producing original content; as Richard Gadd noted in his Emmys speech, Baby Reindeer was a risk that may have not been given the green light by any other streamer.

“Now do any major network. Shows get canceled, at least they’re trying to make new content,” one user wrote, defending the platform.

It’s a fair point, but it’s harder to accept when co-CEO Ted Sarandos claims they’ve never gotten rid of a “successful” show (many of its canceled projects have high Rotten Tomatoes scores with critics and audiences).

“We have never canceled a successful show. A lot of these shows were well-intended but talk to a very small audience on a very big budget,” he earlier told Bloomberg.

“The key to it is you have to be able to talk to a small audience on a small budget and a large audience at a large budget. If you do that well, you can do that forever.”

In the meantime, keep up to date with Netflix’s shows that are still going with our guides on Stranger Things Season 5, Wednesday Season 2, and our breakdown of other TV shows on streaming this month.