Scott Foley expressed disappointment Wednesday after Prime Video canceled "It's Not Like That" following its first season. The actor posted an Instagram video responding to the streaming service's decision, noting that the drama series had spent roughly six weeks in Prime Video's top 10, climbing as high as number three or four in viewership rankings.
Foley's reaction underscores a recurring frustration in the streaming era, where strong audience engagement often fails to guarantee renewal. Despite demonstrable viewership numbers that would have secured multiple seasons at traditional networks, the show fell victim to Prime Video's increasingly stringent renewal metrics. Streaming platforms have shifted strategy away from volume-based cancellations, prioritizing subscriber conversion and retention calculations that remain opaque to creators and audiences alike.
The cancellation reflects broader instability across prestige television on subscription services. Networks like Prime Video, Netflix, and HBO Max have become notorious for swift cancellations even when shows demonstrate cultural resonance and solid numbers. "It's Not Like That" joins a growing graveyard of promising series terminated prematurely, leaving casts and crews stranded mid-narrative arc.
Foley, known for roles in "Scandal" and "The Resident," carries significant television credibility. His casting suggested Prime Video committed to the project. Yet the platform's behavior reveals the hollowness behind such commitments. Streamers greenlight prestige dramas with franchise ambitions, then pull the plug when quarterly performance metrics fail to align with internal profit models that remain deliberately obscure.
The actor's measured disappointment captures what many industry professionals privately express. The work exists, the audience watched, yet business logic divorced from traditional viewership mathematics determined the outcome. For performers, writers, and production crews, streaming's unpredictability now represents a genuine career hazard that traditional television networks, whatever their flaws, had largely contained through transparent syndication and licensing models.