‘The Residence’ and ‘Pulse’ Canceled at Netflix
Netflix has canceled a pair of first-year series, The Residence and Pulse.
The two shows both premiered in the spring and had four-week runs in Netflix’s internal, worldwide top 10 rankings, with The Residence lasting a bit longer than than in Nielsen’s U.S. streaming charts. As usual, Netflix does cost-benefit analysis in making renewal or cancellation decisions.
The Residence is a White House-set murder mystery starring Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp, the “greatest detective in the world.” The series hails from Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland and creator/showrunner Paul William Davies (Scandal). Had the series gone forward, the plan was for it to become an anthology with Cupp taking on a new case each season.
The cast for the first (and now only) season also features Randall Park, Giancarlo Esposito, Susan Kelechi Watson, Edwina Findley, Bronson Pinchot, Mary Wiseman, Julieth Restrepo, Al Mitchell, Mel Rodriguez, Ken Marino, Jason Lee and Jane Curtin, among others.
Davies executive produced the series with Shondaland principals Rhimes and Betsy Beers.
In its four weeks in Netflix’s global top 10, The Residence had 177.4 million hours of viewing, equivalent to 22.9 million full runs of the season (“views” in Netflix and other streamers’ parlance). In those same four weeks, Nielsen recorded about 83.1 million hours of viewing, about 47 percent of the worldwide total. The Residence spent two additional weeks in the Nielsen rankings, adding 15.55 million more hours just above 2 million more views.
Pulse was Netflix’s first take at a medical procedural. Over its four weeks in the streamer’s worldwide rankings, it drew 20.2 million views and 162.1 million total viewing hours. Its release also coincided with growing momentum for Max’s hospital drama The Pitt, which had its first season finale the week after Pulse debuted. In the United States, Pulse spent just two weeks on the Nielsen streaming charts.
Willa Fitzgerald, Colin Woodell, Justina Machado, Jack Bannon, Jessie T. Usher, Jessy Yates, Chelsea Muirhead, Daniela Nieves, Néstor Carbonell, Jessica Rothe, Santiago Segura, Ash Santos and Arturo Del Puerto starred. Zoe Robyn created the series and served as co-showrunner with Carlton Cuse; they executive produced with Bradley Gardner, Emma Forman, Michael Klick and Kate Dennis.
In addition to the cancellations, a third Netflix rookie, No Good Deed, is on an indefinite hiatus following its first season, released in December 2024. There is still a chance that the dark comedy from Liz Feldman (Dead to Me) could return as an anthology, but nothing is planned at the moment.
Deadline first reported the news.
