Fans of The Recruit are disappointed the show has ended, and it turns out there may be some particular reasons why Netflix canceled the popular spy series.
By now, it’s almost a joke how Netflix can hand out random cancellations to shows after just one or two seasons. Sure, the streamer can do some quick renewals, such as a second season for the comedy series Running Point just a week after the show debuted. However, if we were to talk about all the great shows Netflix canceled after a short run, we’d be here all day.
That said, it was still unexpected for Netflix to cancel The Recruit just a few weeks after season 2 premiered. The spy thriller with Noah Centineo as a lawyer thrust into crazy CIA adventures dropped its six-episode second season on January 30. Thus, being canceled after only a month and a half was surprising as Netflix generally waits a few months to make such decisions.
There have been exceptions, such as the Jeff Goldblum fantasy series KAOS, which was canceled less than two months after its premiere. Generally, however, Netflix does wait longer and sometimes takes into account factors like the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
Those strikes were a factor in The Recruit season 2, which was cut from a planned eight episodes to six, necessitating shifting plotlines. However, an in-depth Deadline article sheds light on the surprising reasons why The Recruit may have met its premature end.
Why was The Recruit canceled?
The article details that the obvious issue was the viewing numbers weren’t what Netflix had hoped for. Perhaps a major mistake was the show premiered just a week after the second season of Netflix’s other spy thriller, The Night Agent. Many had questioned Netflix airing two spy thrillers in consecutive weeks rather than spreading them out.
Those fears appear to have been well-founded. The Night Agent had a larger fanbase, more episodes, and thus more eyes on it. In contrast, while The Recruit had great reviews, it ranked second behind The Night Agent in its first two weeks and only spent a total of three weeks before dropping out of Netflix’s weekly Top 10 rankings for English-language series.
Per Deadline, season 2 amassed 15.3 million views or 58% of the 26.4 million views the show collected in its first three weeks of season 1, when it spent five weeks in Netflix’s Top 10 under different methodology, based on total hours viewed. In comparison,The Night Agent season 2 garnered 36.6 million views.
In short, The Recruit was a victim of Netflix’s strange scheduling decision as viewers weren’t keen on two espionage series in back-to-back weeks. It wasn’t helped that Netflix gave the show far less promotion than its competitor, which had already earned a third-season renewal.
More baffling is that The Recruit has a much smaller budget than The Night Agent, and Centineo has become a popular actor thanks to his role in the All The Boys I’ve Ever Loved films. It could have gotten more eyes on it as nothing kills interest in a show more than the word it's already over. Instead, rather than let the show build up more interest over time, Netflix axed it for some nutty algorithm data.
Can the spy thriller be saved?
Naturally, there’s a question of whether the show can be saved. It’s owned by Lionsgate which theoretically could shop it around. The problem is that Netflix has infamously strict licensing terms that keep studios from shopping a series around for years, according to Deadline.
After the cancellation news came in, showrunner Alexi Hawley teased the idea of a movie to wrap up the story. While rare, Netflix has done this a couple of times in the past, and it would be the best way to finish the show on a good note.
The Recruit did nothing wrong with its second season. It had a great cast, plot, a lower budget and could have gone longer. Its fast cancellation is because it was a victim of poor scheduling and Netflix’s bizarre algorithms to cut another fun show far too short. And that's just disappointing.
The Recruit is streaming on Netflix.