- Netflix has decided to cancel the Texas-set romantic drama Ransom Canyon after two seasons, with the streamer opting against a third season.
- Season 2 of Ransom Canyon saw a 43% drop in viewership from the first season, with the new episodes drawing 4.1 million views in their first week.
- Despite a creative reset and better critical reception for Season 2, Netflix decided not to renew the show due to the decline in viewership not justifying the sizable budget and big-name leads.
Netflix has decided to end one of its Texas-set romantic dramas after two seasons. The streamer opted against a third season, closing the book on the series at 18 episodes.
Netflix just canceled Ransom Canyon after Season 2
Netflix made the call about six weeks after Ransom Canyon Season 2 dropped on July 23. The romantic drama, based on Jodi Thomas’ novels, had been on shaky ground for a while. Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly led the cast.
Season 1 pulled in decent numbers, but not enough to make the show a sure thing. Netflix renewed it more than two months after the premiere, though with a shorter eight-episode order instead of ten. The renewal also came with a creative reset that reshuffled the supporting cast.
Deadline insiders claim Season 2 landed better creatively. Viewers, however, didn’t show up in the same numbers. The new episodes drew 4.1 million views in their first week, a 43% drop from the 7.2 million that the 2025 premiere week brought in. Season 1 briefly returned to Netflix’s weekly Top 10, but the next one lasted just three weeks on the chart, one week less than its predecessor.
Netflix weighs cost against performance when deciding on renewals. With big-name leads and a sizable budget, the Season 2 numbers simply didn’t justify another round. Several other sophomore Netflix shows have survived similar or worse drops and still got to third seasons.
Running Point fell 43%, The Four Seasons dropped 63%, The Gentlemen slid 45%, Avatar: The Last Airbender declined 59%, and A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder plummeted 76%. Netflix also recently renewed Tires, My Life With the Walter Boys, Free Bert and Big Mistakes.
Ransom Canyon centered on Staten Kirkland (Duhamel) and Quinn O’Grady (Kelly), childhood friends whose romance never quite lined up. Season 2 tested them again when Quinn got briefly engaged to another man. By the finale, the two were together and on solid ground, a gentler ending than Season 1’s breakup. The closer avoided any shocking cliffhangers, which gives fans some closure.
