Netflix's cancellation policy explained as The Boroughs is latest show to be axed

Anyone who is a fan of the TV shows that Netflix produces knows a very simple rule with the streamer: never get too attached to a show.

Whilst series like Stranger Things, Wednesday, Monster, and Bridgerton are all so successful that they’ll run for as long as they want, when even series like Mindhunter have ended up cancelled it set a tone that outside the absolute biggest around: no show is safe.

The Boroughs in theory should have been a slam dunk for Netflix to renew for a second season. It had the Duffer Brothers coming off the end of Stranger Things, an incredible cast including Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman, and Alfre Woodard, and it was released to a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Despite this, it has been quietly cancelled by Netflix yesterday, 17 June. When you look into what Netflix have actually said about why they cancel shows however, it makes a bit more sense.

Netflix’s CEO claimed they have ‘never cancelled a successful show’ when explaining how they judge cancellations

The Boroughs only made it through one season (Netflix)

Netflix’s CEO Ted Sarandos addressed claims they wrongfully cancelled series that were popular, but clarified that it was all about comparing the budgets of the shows to how much viewership they were actually getting.

He told Bloomberg: “We have never cancelled a successful show. A lot of these shows were well-intended but talk to a very small audience on a very big budget.

“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.”

Even David Fincher, when discussing the cancellation of Mindhunter, said: “I’m very proud of the first two seasons. But it’s a very expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we didn’t attract enough of an audience to justify such an investment [for season three].”

As a huge fan of Sense8 (a series with a record-breaking high budget that did not have viewership to match) this at least explains that heart-breaking cancellation after two seasons, but there is another factor which Sarandos did not address.

There is a hidden stat viewers can’t see which plays huge part in which shows get cancelled

When a show on Netflix is cancelled, fans will often rush to the proof that the show was watched millions of times and that it sat top of the streamer’s charts. Whilst these stats, and even sometimes the budget of a show, are publicly available, there is one important stat that isn’t.

Completion rate plays a huge part in Netflix’s decision making around cancellation, the majority of shows that do not have a completion rate of 50% or higher are often not renewed.

A Netflix exec, Peter Friedlander, told Vulture: “We certainly know when people are completing, and it’s great to know when they complete, because that’s often a sign that they’ve loved every minute of it.”

Netflix shows get cancelled if they don't have high enough completion rates (Netflix)

Placing weight on Completion Rate does unfortunately make perfect sense though – as much as we may love shows like The Boroughs if you aren’t making it through the entire first season it seems quite unlikely that you will be continuing on with season two of the show.

Friedlander also clarified regarding the process that this is not the only factor, saying: “I get that you hear the same answer from us, and it still continues to be that: It is not metrics alone.

“You can’t apply the same analysis to every title. We have to look at every title specifically — what are the creative hopes for the project? What is the opportunity for the future of the storytelling? It’s more complex than it’s often painted to be.

“It’s obviously the most painful decision to not move forward with a show when there’s been the investment in time — not just from the storytellers and the artists but from the executives and the folks at Netflix.”