Prime Video Cancels ‘Ride or Die’ Despite Strong Streaming Performance

Prime Video has decided to end the ride.

Ride or Die, the action comedy starring Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham, has been canceled after just one season. And yes, this is one of those cancellations that makes you look at the streaming charts and ask, “So what exactly are we doing here?”

The eight-episode series debuted July 15 and appeared to do what streamers supposedly want their shows to do: people watched it. Ride or Die climbed to No. 1 on Prime Video’s U.S. rankings after its premiere and also landed in Nielsen’s weekly streaming Top 10. Apparently, even that isn’t enough to guarantee another season these days.

Created by Tessa Coates, the series followed longtime best friends Debbie Claybourne and Judith Burton, played by Spencer and Waddingham. Debbie thinks she knows everything there is to know about Judith until she learns her best friend has somehow left out one tiny detail: she’s secretly an international assassin.

You know, normal friendship stuff. That discovery sends the pair on the run across Europe after a mission goes sideways, with law enforcement, assassins and criminals all coming after them. The series mixed action with comedy while leaning heavily on the chemistry between Spencer and Waddingham, who also served as executive producers.

Prime Video has not publicly offered a specific explanation for why Ride or Die will not return, which makes the cancellation even more interesting considering its early performance. Of course, streaming success has become increasingly difficult to read from the outside. A show can crack a Top 10 list, generate buzz and still somehow end up on the cancellation pile before viewers have even finished recommending it to their friends.

But fans should not completely bury the series just yet. Paramount Television Studios is reportedly shopping Ride or Die to other networks and streaming services in hopes of finding it a new home. That does not mean a rescue is guaranteed, but at least somebody is still trying to keep Debbie and Judith’s very complicated friendship alive.

So, for now, Ride or Die is canceled at Prime Video, but perhaps not completely dead. Because in the current streaming era, apparently even cancellation comes with a cliffhanger.