Netflix is taking its ball and going home, or maybe leaving its ball and going home without a ball, or maybe… destroying the ball so nobody can ever have it again? Whatever metaphor makes sense, Variety says Netflix has canceled its animated basketball comedy Hoops after only one season. The show starred Jake Johnson as the kind of cranky sad-sack that Johnson is usually so good at playing, but this time as a cartoon coach of a high school basketball team, alongside Ron Funches, Celo King, Natasha Leggero, A.D. Miles, and Rob Riggle. It was created by Ben Hoffman (who also did a voice) and even had Phil Lord and Chris Miller on board as executive producers, which should’ve helped it more than it evidently did—though they do have a bit of a history with short-lived animated shows, recent live-action and big-screen success aside.
Anyway, Hoops just premiered back in August, but Netflix reportedly puts a whole lot of value on a show or movie’s initial weeks more than its longterm shelf life, so the streaming service presumably figured that if it wasn’t a hit right out of the gate—and, based on our review, it did have some issues—it was never going to be a hit.