The Recruit is ending. Netflix has canceled the Noah Centineo-fronted drama series after two seasons. It comes less than six weeks after its second season premiered at the end of January. The news was revealed by Colton Dunn, who played Lester Kitchens, a colleague of Centineo's, on social media. Netflix confirmed the cancelation.
The spy series, which premiered in December 2022, followed Owen Hedricks (Centineo), a CIA lawyer who becomes involved in international conflicts with dangerous parties after an asset tries to expose her relationship to the agency. It was created by Alexi Hawley and produced by Lionsgate (after its acquisition of eOne) and Hypnotic.
The Recruit was one of many shows that were hampered by the writers strike with a two-year gap between seasons. It's somewhat of a surprise given that the show made it to No. 2 on Nielsen's streaming charts and No. 2 on Netflix's own charts in the week of its release with 5.9M views and 31.8M hours viewed. It also grew in its second week with 6.1M views and 33M hours viewed, though couldn't compete with the second season of The Night Agent.
The Recruit spent five weeks on the Netflix TV Global Top 10 (English), reaching the Top 10 in 88 countries.
Season 2 also only consisted of six episodes, rather than eight in its first season.
Fivel Stewart, Vondie Curtis Hall, Kristian Bruun, Aarti Mann, Daniel Quincy Annoh also starred, while Kaylah Zander, Maddie Hasson, Parker and Yoo starred in Season 2. James Purefoy was a guest star in Season 2, while Nathan Fillion played CIA director Alton West.
Hawley served as showrunner and executive produced alongside Centineo as well as Hypnotic's Doug Liman, Gene Klein and David Bartis; Adam Ciralsky (P3 Media) and Charlie Ebersol.
How does a show have a great fanbase and come out #2 on Nielsen's and gets cancelled? Welp, yet less tv I will be viewing as my reason to watch tv continues to shrink at an alarming rate. If I was into reality tv I would likely be happy but never have and never will.
Is Netflix TRYING to actively drive away viewers? I mean they have bolluxed up The Witcher to where I literally tuned out the last season with an episode or two to go and definitely won't be watching the next season. I can't believe they gave it another season then they cancel The Recruit? Yeah Ima thinkin I should get invested in Netflix series in the future. I have already jettisoned Disney and especially Their Marvel and Star Wars fare.
Too bad. I thought Season 2 of The Recruit was much better than Season 2 of Night Agent. I loved Season One of Night Agent, but I only made it halfway though Episode 4 of Season Two. I thought the Recruit easily had enough of a story for another couple of seasons.