Why Netflix Canceled The Waterfront After Just One Season
When "Scream" creator Kevin Williamson's latest television series, "The Waterfront," hit Netflix on June 19, 2025, it struck many critics as an entertainingly pulpy crime drama that would likely stick around for at least another season. The series stars Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley, the patriarch of a prominent North Carolina family that essentially runs the fictional coastal town of Havenport. A couple of heart attacks have forced Buckley to cede control of the clan's various businesses to his wife Belle (Maria Bello) and son Cane (Jake Weary), but they have only succeeded in accruing crushing debt. So, Harlan risks his life to step back in and right the ship, which entails dealing with some remarkably shady figures (like Topher Grace as a drug cartel kingpin named Grady).
The show drew mostly positive reviews (it holds a 68% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and evidently performed well for the streamer. "The Waterfront" did not look expensive, nor did it boast a cast of hugely costly talent (though McCallany, Bello, and Grace are established TV and film performers who are worth every penny they receive). Nevertheless, Netflix has announced that the first season of "The Waterfront" will be its last. Why is the streamer cutting bait on a relatively promising series after it seemed primed for an easy renewal? Netflix isn't explicitly saying, but Deadline's sources suggest that the show fell short by several crucial metrics.
People might've watched The Waterfront, but did they complete full episodes?
On the surface, "The Waterfront" looked like a modest hit. It ranked first in Netflix's global, English-language Top 10 for three weeks, which, Deadline noted, placed it well above the renewed-for-a-second-season Western drama "Ransom Canyon." But Netflix has been on a cancellation spree this year when it comes to new shows, as the creators of the freshman dramas "Pulse" and "The Residence" discovered.
What gives? While those Top 10 ratings are very good for a new show with modest star power, Netflix takes budget, awards potential, social media activity, audience demographic, and episode completion rate into consideration. The streamer is notoriously secretive when it comes to disclosing some of these numbers, but, judging from the good (but not stellar) reviews, "The Waterfront" seemed unlikely to get Primetime Emmy consideration. And while Deadline's sources told the outlet that the completion rate for Williamson's series was good, it sounds like those numbers weren't up to snuff for Netflix.
So, another quality Holt McCallany Netflix series bites the dust (though the "Mindhunter" faithful have not given up on the possibility of a movie). Williamson fans can take heart knowing that he has several shows in development at Universal Television (including series adaptations of "Rear Window" and "The Game"), but they will not be making a return trip to "The Waterfront."