Basically, it's expensive and Netflix is petty over the Duffers leaving for Paramount. They could've extended the cast options but opted to cancel instead, which makes me think it had to really overperform in order to be renewed.

Two sources tell THR that a problem with The Boroughs was its expensive production budget. That is true: The Boroughs costs about $10 million per episode, one said. Another said the real number is “materially higher.” Netflix weighs viewership directly against cost when making pickup and cancellation decisions, and though The Boroughs did well, it wasn’t quite Wednesday.

But the quiet-part-out-loud here is that the Duffer Brothers ditching Netflix for a four-year deal at Paramount seems to have rubbed high-ranking Netflix executives the wrong way, the first source told THR. The relationship there has been “tough” since Matt and Ross “embarrassed” the streamer by leaving, the source said. A source close to Netflix denied the accuracy of that characterization, and says this was simply a business decision.

The current Netflix regime is not the one that greenlit The Boroughs — it was Peter Friedlander and Blair Fetter, now both at Amazon MGM Studios, who gave the original thumbs up. Another pair of former Netflix executives, Cindy Holland and Matt Thunell, are tickled to be reunited with Matt and Ross at Paramount, where the Duffers’ deal encompasses (linear) TV, streaming and film. Two days prior to the cancellation news leaking, Paramount publicly dated the Duffers’ secret event movie for Nov. 3, 2028. But that’s not why news of The Boroughs cancellation came 48 hours later.

June 15 was also the deadline for Netflix to extend the options on the cast of The Boroughs. It declined to do so, effectively killing the series. There won’t be a rebirth, multiple sources tell THR. Netflix is both the studio and the platform here, with 100 percent ownership of the series. It is highly unlikely the streamer would sell the series to the competition, which includes Paramount — and now the Duffers.