NBC has produced a number of crime drama series, many of which have run for several seasons. However, unfortunately, this isn’t the case for “The Hunting Party,” which premiered on the network in January 2025 to rave reviews from fans and high viewership. However, there are plans to shop it around to other networks.
Variety broke the news on June 2 that NBC had decided to cancel “The Hunting Party,” which wrapped its second season on May 7. The cast includes Melissa Roxburgh, Patrick Sabongui, Josh McKenzie, Sara Garcia, and Nick Wechsler.
In the series, Roxburgh stars as a former FBI profiler tasked with leading a small investigative team. According to the show’s tagline, the team is “assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers the world has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from ‘The Pit,’ a top-secret government prison that’s not supposed to exist.”
It continues, “But as Bex races to catch these killers before it’s too late, she’ll discover that the one thing more twisted than the dangerous fugitives she’s chasing is the prison itself that they just escaped from… because ‘The Pit’ wasn’t just a prison.”
Fans Raved About ‘The Hunting Party’
GettyOftentimes, critics and fans don’t see eye to eye about many of the most popular shows. This was the case with NBC’s “The Hunting Party, which was created by JJ Bailey, who also served as the showrunner and co-executive producer alongside Jake Coburn.
Overall, on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences have the Roxburgh-led show an impressive 81%. However, the short-lived series couldn’t win over critics, who gave it only an 18% positive rating, earning it a “certified rotten” distinction on the platform.
The now-canceled NBC series had a similar reaction on Metacritic, where audiences gave it a “generally favorable” 7.1 rating based on 21 reviews. Still, critics didn’t love the show, awarding it a “generally unfavorable” 34% positive rating based on 7 official reviews.
Regarding viewership, The Hollywood Reporter reports the series averaged around 3.7 million viewers, including DVR viewers. Unfortunately, this number represented a 13% decrease from the show’s first season. However, the show really took off on streaming, particularly on Netflix, where it arrived in February 2026.
Jeff Bader, president of program planning and strategy at NBC, previously addressed the series being left out of the schedule at upfronts. He said, “We have a very tight schedule. We had to look for opportunities where we could grow, so there are shows that we love that just didn’t make the cut.”
While noting the show’s popularity on streaming, he acknowledged that “it really did not perform well enough on linear.”
Could Netflix Save It?
According to Deadline, Universal Television, the studio behind “The Hunting Party” and NBC’s sibling, hasn’t fully given up on the series. Now that it has been canceled, the powers that be plan to shop it around to other networks. Namely, one they’re expected to explore a future for it with is Netflix.
As fans know, Netflix has saved a number of other shows that other networks had canceled. Some include “Arrested Development,” “Manifest,” “Designated Survivor,” “Lucifer,” and “The Killing.”
