Why was The Waterfront canceled after one season? Details explored

Kevin Williamson's crime saga about the dysfunctional Buckley family will not return with Season 2 as Netflix has canceled The Waterfront.

Starring Holt McCallany, Melissa Benoist, Mari Bello, and Jake Weary, the family drama series is set in the fictional seaside town of Havenport, North Carolina, and follows the Buckley family's foray into the illicit world of drugs. After the major fishing dynasties of Havenport crumble, they enter into a dangerous world of illegal activities to stay afloat and survive.

The Waterfront, which was hailed as an Ozark replacement on Netflix, premiered on June 19, 2025, with a score of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite good viewership in its first week of release, it failed to garner audience attention and social media buzz, which likely led to its cancellation.

More on this in our story.

Why was The Waterfront canceled after one season?

Buckley's illegal foray into Williamson's crime drama universe was abruptly cut short after Netflix recently canceled The Waterfront after just one season. With streaming becoming increasingly unpredictable, especially with Netflix, the cancellation news is not rare. However, fans are still certainly disappointed, since the series did fairly well in its premiere week.

The Buckley family drama spent five weeks in Netflix’s global Top 10 for English-language series, peaking at No. 1 with 11.6M views in its first week. The series was only overthrown by the highly anticipated final season of Squid Game, which premiered a week after the Williamson-created show.

The future of a show is decided by several factors at Netflix, including Completion rates, number of views, overall performance, and potential. While The Waterfront performed better than many other freshman series at Netflix, a Deadline report suggests that the viewership and the completion rate were not high enough to secure a Season 2.

This is especially shocking as Netflix renewed another freshman family drama series, Ransom Canyon, for Season 2. The Western drama spent four weeks in Netflix's Top 10 charts, peaking at No. 2 with 9.4M views.

This suggests that lack of social media buzz and online chatter were likely defining factors that led to the show's cancellation. Recently renewed Netflix freshmans like Forever, Ransom Canyon, and A Man on the Inside ruled people's social media, likely earning another run, which The Waterfront failed to secure.

Kevin Williamson had plans for The Waterfront Season 2

While The Waterfront will not return with Season 2, the cast and creator of the series were looking forward to exploring more of the Buckley family tale, which would have likely featured a civil war between Harlan and Belle in Season 2. Following the shocking death of Bree's drug-lord abductor, the stage was set for a grittier and darker family drama, with the lead couple at odds with each other.

The Season 1 finale saw Belle making a deal with her husband's enemy (the Parkers), who likely orchestrated Harlan's father's execution. A sophomore season would have explored Harlan's backstory as he investigated his father's death, while navigating his wife's betrayal.

After lurking behind the shadows throughout Season 1, it was time for Belle to shine, as Williamson had teased in an interview with Netflix Tudum:

“This season was about Harlan and Cane — how they reconciled their differences and how they’re going to move forward. Now Belle is a little more front and centre. She’s not living in the shadows...She’s too smart and levelheaded for that. They see a true partnership with her in a way that they’ll never have with Harlan.''

Unfortunately, none of this will materialize as The Waterfront will not return with Season 2.

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