Netflix Quietly Canceled One of Its Most-Watched and Highly-Rated Shows

While television shows can be canceled for a variety of reasons, it's not often that a Network cancels one of its most-watched and highly-rated shows. However, that's exactly what Netflix did last year. Now, as viewership numbers and award nominations come out, the decision should be revisited.

Last year, Netflix quietly canceled its show Boots, which follows a gay teenager who enlists in the United States Marine Corps. Since then, however, the show has received high praise from critics, been submitted for Emmy consideration, and ranks as one of the most-watched shows in Netflix's entire catalog.

What is 'Boots'?

Based on the memoir The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White, the show follows a teenager by the name of Cameron Cope as he decides to join the Marines with his friend Ray just as he's struggling to figure out his own identity and sexuality.

The show takes place in the 1990s, right before the Gulf War and even before "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Varietypraised the show for doing an "outstanding job of not only depicting what it's like to live through three months of boot camp, but also the bonds that form and the sacrifices that are made when training to serve our nation."

However, not everyone saw it that way, as the Pentagon voiced strong criticism of the coming-of-age story that was based on real events.

'Boots' Was Quietly Canceled

The show ended on a cliffhanger with Cope finishing boot camp just as President George H.W. Bush announced that the United States was set to go to war with Iraq. However, fans will not get a second season as the show was quietly canceled in December of 2025, with Deadline describing it as "not a straightforward cancellation."

Netflix did not officially announce the cancellation or issue any sort of statement at the time to explain why it was canceling the show, but Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos later insisted that the decision was a "business decision" and was not the result of political pressure.

"Absolutely not," Sarandos told Variety. "These are all business decisions based on audience relative to the cost of the show. Do the people who push play watch it till the end? Do they give it a couple of thumbs up? Does it keep growing? All of those things. That decision is made every day.

"The beauty of why people get upset when you cancel a show is because they love them. That's the best part about our business, it's that people really love the product. And it's heartbreaking to cancel any show, ever, particularly a show that Norman Lear brought to me. It was his last show."

Executive producer Brent Miller revealed that those behind the show were told that Boots was canceled due to "financial reasons."

"It's disappointing that the decision, whatever the reason being, was to not continue," Miller told Variety. "We were told what they've told the public, which is the decision was for financial reasons, and that is all. I can only assume that that's the reason behind it. But, you know, it was … interesting timing when they said no more."

High Ratings, Strong Reviews

Whatever the reason for the cancellation, it's now becoming clear that Netflix canceled one of its highest-rated and best-reviewed shows of the year.

Even at the time of its cancellation, it was clear that Boots was successful, peaking at No. 2 on Netflix's most-watched list and spending four weeks inside the streamer's top-10. It was also a rare series to score high on Rotten Tomatoes by both audiences and critics, receiving a 90% score from both. In fact, it was so well-received by audiences that it ranked No. 7 amongst all shows in terms of audience score in 2025.

Since then, the success has only become clearer. When Netflix recently released its viewership numbers from the second half of 2025, it boasted strong viewership numbers from its top comedies, including season 2 of Nobody Wants This, which got 30.4 million views, as well as season 5 of Emily in Paris, which received 30.3 million views. Boots topped both of those with 30.7 million views. It was also among the top-100 most-watched shows of 2025-26, and was the most-watched show on the list that was canceled.

In addition to the strong ratings from both fans and critics, Boots was recently submitted for Emmy consideration, even though it was canceled. Miller is even hopeful that an Emmy nomination could save the show, and it sounds like there is already a plan for what a follow-up season could look like.

"Maybe [an Emmy nomination] will change the minds of some of the people that have the power to make those decisions to bring us back to war - if that's where we're going to go for a second season," he told Variety.

For now, though, it seems that Netflix has canceled one of its best-performing and best-reviewed shows.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 8:01 AM.