Picture Credit: Netflix
It’s been a tough pill to swallow for fans of The Waterfront. As we covered in our original report, the series was quietly axed after just one season, marking one of the most-watched cancellations in Netflix history. Despite pulling in massive viewing hours, the show ultimately didn’t get a season 2 order—and now, creator Kevin Williamson is shedding some light on exactly why that happened.
In a recent interview with The Ankler, the prolific showrunner discussed his life post-Scream and got incredibly candid about his time working on Netflix’s The Waterfront in addition to talking through subjects like Rotten Tomatoes, his creative process, and what’s coming next. It’s a great read!
He was specifically asked what lessons had been learned from The Waterfront, given that it was not renewed for season 2, making it one of the most-watched cancellations of all time. Despite the heartbreaking outcome for his deeply personal project, Williamson holds no ill will toward the streamer. In fact, he praised the collaboration: “It was a great experience and Netflix was awesome to work with. They canceled my show, but it was the best experience for a canceled show I’ve ever had. It felt complete. We did a whole season. It had a beginning, middle, and end.”
So, if the relationship was great and the viewership was high, what went wrong? As regular readers of What’s on Netflix will know, Netflix’s renewal decisions often come down to one crucial metric: the completion rate.
In the data we got from Netflix, which covers the weekly viewing numbers, things looked strong. It spent 5 weeks in the top 10s, picking up 200.1M viewing hours, equating to 31.2M views. Expanding through the rest of 2025 (the show debuted on June 19th, 2025), the show went on to get 258.5M viewing hours and 40.3M viewing equivalents, so the viewership was definitely stacked upfront. Still, the show was tracking above Ransom Canyon, which did get a season 2 renewal, and above Obliterated, another highly-watched series that sadly was canceled after one season.
Still, we didn’t have an official reason from Netflix other than confirmation from the trade it wouldn’t be happening. According to Williamson, the show’s audience simply didn’t finish the season fast enough within Netflix’s required decision window. The culprit? The audience’s age.
“I learned a lot about ‘completion.’ They can really pinpoint exactly who watched the show, how many minutes they watched it, how many episodes. It’s fascinating the way that they can measure the success of the show.
What happened was the median age was 52 for The Waterfront. People in their 50s and 60s don’t binge the way that younger people do. So meeting the metrics takes longer. My contract says you have to make a decision in this amount of time. It ultimately met the completion rate, just not in the amount of time they allow for it. I don’t know if that’s the reason or not.”
This is a fascinating peek behind the curtain. We’ve mentioned before how the “binge model” can sometimes punish shows that appeal to older demographics, who prefer to savor episodes over several weeks rather than devouring them in a single weekend. The Waterfront eventually hit its required completion milestones, but only after the contractual window for a renewal decision had closed.
The Waterfront. Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley in episode 102 of The Waterfront. Cr. Dana Hawley/Netflix © 2025
Another major factor that we frequently highlighted is the studio behind the series. The Waterfront was produced by an outside studio rather than Netflix in-house, which changes the economics of a renewal.
“I thought they would have given another swing to a second season because it did so well,” Williamson told The Ankler. “It was an outside studio, so the bar might have been a little higher.”
The cancellation still comes as a shock to many viewers who aren’t tuned into industry news. Williamson noted that fans are still approaching him to ask when season two is dropping, completely unaware that the show won’t be returning.
Despite the disappointment of closing the book on a show he described as “my life” and “my family story,” Williamson is looking at the silver lining. “Maybe you have to think, ‘The world took care of that and now I can go do something else.’ Because the good news is it did allow me some freedom. I didn’t have to jump into another writers room for season two. I get to write something new and fresh.”
Are you still bummed about The Waterfront getting canceled? Do you think Netflix needs to adjust its completion metrics for shows with older audiences? Let us know in the comments down below.
