Why in the world did Amazon cancel their #1 sleeper hit show ‘Ride or Die’?

Last month, I gave Ride or Die a decent shot – I watched about three episodes before stopping, and I haven’t picked it up again. I liked parts of it, including the two leads, played by Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer. I started to lose interest because, in my opinion, it had big tonal problems and it couldn’t decide if it was a buddy-action series or something altogether darker. Still, people enjoyed the show – it hit #1 on Amazon Prime and people logged millions of hours watching it. Well, sad news for those fans, because Prime could not care less about the show’s popularity or the story. Prime canceled a show starring two fifty-something women. Because Hollywood’s gonna Hollywood.

This is a shocker — one of the streaming hits of the summer will be no more, at least on its original platform. Prime Video has opted not to renew Ride Or Die starring Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer for a second season. The lead studio behind the buddy spy comedy, Paramount Television Studios, is shopping the series to other buyers, I hear.

The lack of quick renewal should’ve been a sign. Still, the cancellation has taken everyone involved in Ride of Die by surprise. That is because the action comedy has been well received and, according to available data, it has performed well.

Part of the current wave of “white wine thrillers” — series featuring adult female leads — Ride or Die launched on July 15 with a fraction of the marketing money Amazon put behind its YA summer lineup that got a big Obsession Is In Session promo campaign, including Elle, Off Campus, Every Year After and Sterling Point, all of which have been renewed.

Ride Or Die snuck up under the radar to immediately hit the No. 1 slot in the daily U.S. rankings, eclipsing even big-budget film Masters of the Universe. The action comedy made Luminate’s weekly US rankings with just two days of release logging 927K views, twice as many as Elle drew for its first two days in the U.S. (477K) and almost four times Off Campus‘ 245K views back in May. Ride Or Die zoomed to No.1 in U.S. minutes watched in its first full week on Luminate, also doubling Elle‘s and almost tripling Off Campus‘ haul over the comparable periods, a trend that continued in Week 3.

The strong domestic performance carried onto the Nielsen Weekly Top 10 where Ride Or Die debuted at No.8 on the overall streaming chart and at No. 3 among originals with 869M minutes viewed. It climbed to No. 4 overall and No. 2 on the streaming originals charts in its second week with 922M minutes. Over its first 14 days of release, Ride Or Die is said to be Prime Video’s most watched new scripted series in the U.S. from 7/30/25 to 7/29/26.

Globally, Ride Or Die was the No.1 most watched Prime Video original series for the its first three weeks. Elle held the No.1 slot for two weeks, Off Campus for five. More than two months later, Ride Or Die remains in Prime Video’s weekly Global Top 10, most recently at No.8. Completion rate-wise, Ride Or Die is believed to be in the range of several renewed Prime Video series, including Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Scarpetta and Elle.

[From Deadline]

I really don’t get why streamers do this. Yes, it’s just plain old sexism and ageism. But it feels like terrible business for Amazon? Like, “what should we choose, making money or clinging to our closely-held belief that no one wants to watch a buddy-comedy show starring two 50-something women?” Also, it’s worth noting – Amazon barely spent any money promoting Ride or Die. Yes, they promoted it within Prime, but they only did a couple of screenings and maybe a one-day junket? I kept waiting to see more promotion for it over the summer, but there was next to nothing. So the show basically became the undercover hit of the summer with barely any buzz or promo, and Amazon was like “well, we can’t have that!”

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.