La Breaended after three seasons on NBC because of a combination of falling viewership, high production costs, and the disruption caused by the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Season 3 was cut to just six episodes, airing its finale on 13 February 2024. There is no new season of La Brea — Season 4 was never greenlit.
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Key takeaways
- NBC confirmed the cancellation of La Brea in November 2023, making Season 3 the final season of the sci-fi drama.
- Ratings fell sharply across the show’s run, with the Season 2 finale drawing only 1.77 million viewers, down from a 6.37 million debut.
- Season 3 was shortened to just six episodes partly due to strike-contingency planning around the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA stoppages.
- La Brea was one of the most expensive series filmed in Australia, and high production costs made renewal increasingly difficult for NBC.
- Despite its NBC cancellation, all 30 episodes landed on Netflix on 1 May 2026, where it quickly hit the platform’s Top 10.
Why was La Brea cancelled after Season 3?
NBC cancelled La Brea after Season 3, with falling viewership and expensive production playing a major role in the decision. The network never issued a formal statement citing a single cause, but the combination of factors that accumulated over three seasons made it very difficult to justify a fourth.
Created by David Appelbaum, the series built a loyal audience early on and held enough momentum to run for three seasons. However, the numbers told a difficult story by the time Season 2 wrapped.
The ratings decline
The premiere pulled in roughly 6.37 million viewers and ended its first season with nearly 5 million. The drop-off became noticeable in Season 2, where the finale drew around 1.77 million viewers. Season 3 saw a slight increase to roughly 2.42 million, but that bump was not enough to offset the overall downward trend.
That viewership slide was reflected in the key demo figures too. La Brea‘s 18–49 demo average cratered 36% to a 0.38 through the first seven episodes of Season 2.
NBC never said publicly why it cancelled the show, but declining viewership and consistently bad reviews certainly did not help.
The production cost problem
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that La Brea was the most expensive series filmed in Victoria, Australia. NBC could have cancelled it due to a combination of its viewership numbers and its high budget.
During the first season, COVID-19 bumped up the cost by $300,000 per episode. Series creator David Appelbaum always knew the show had a short leash because it was costly for a broadcast network entry.
Critical reception
The show also struggled to win over critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported a 38% approval rating with an average rating of 5.4/10, based on critic reviews. The series currently holds a weak 45% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.8/10 on IMDb.
Why are there only 6 episodes of La Ba Season 3?
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The shortened episode count was not purely a creative decision. NBC’s La Brea was likely to end with an abbres’ and actors’ strike, with the six-episode pickup influenced by that threat
With the WGA contract expiring on 1 May and the DGA and SAG-AFTRA contracts up on 30 June, a potential work stoppage could have impacted the start of production on the new broadcast season.
Because the TV series regulars had a ten-episode minimum guarantee, the network and sister studio Universal Television asked the cast to reduce their contractual minimums to six episodes. In exchange, the actors were offered a release from the show after Season 3 — which they accepted — making them available to take other jobs.
La Brea had a solid launch in autumn 2021 with a 10-episode first season, earning a 14-episode second season renewal. It was then affected by the impending WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, leaving NBC to opt for a shorter season and release actors so they would be open to take other work.
Was La Brea a hit or a flop?
The answer depends entirely on where you watched it. On NBC, it was a show in steady decline. The series had a solid debut on NBC but lost half its audience by Season 2 and was included in Netflix cancellations with an abbre
However, its streaming performance tells a very different story. La Brea topped Netflix’s streaming charts with 1.28 billion minutes viewed after all 30 episodes landed on 1 May 2026.
The show had a five-week run in the Nielsen streaming rankings, approaching 1.3 billion minutes viewed at its high point and averaging 889 million minutes per week. For a show with only 30 episodes, that was certainly impressive and proved it had built a following the original linear ratings did not reflect.
Is there a new season of La Brea?
There is no La Brea Season 4 release date, as the series concluded after three seasons. The La Brea Season 4 release date question is one fans keep asking, but the show wrapped up its story in February 2024 and there are no confirmed plans from NBC or any other network to revive it.
Creator and showrunner David Appelbaum was given the opportunity to end the story by providing closure to all of the leading characters.
Appelbaum told Collider in January 2024:
“We knew before we began writing that this was gonna be our last season, so we wrote towards that to make these endings for the characters as compelling and cathartic and emotional as we could.”
As for whether he was satisfied with how La Brea ends, Appelbaum told Collider he was “100 percent” satisfied with the series finale.
Appelbaum also teased the idea of potential spinoffs and other ways he would be excited to expand the story. While the show did wrap up its storylines, the creative team has ideas on where it could go if given another season.
NBC may have cut this one short, but the streaming numbers prove there is definitely an audience out there, and perhaps Netflix or Peacock could consider bringing it back.
Will there be a La Brea Season 4?
La Brea was renewed for a third season, but that season was confirmed as its final chapter. The show has officially ended after Season 3, with no plans for a continuation.
Why did La Brea end so abruptly with only six episodes in Season 3?
Season 3 was ordered as a shortened six-episode final run, largely shaped by strike-contingency planning before the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA stoppages. The shorter order also helped release cast members from longer contract obligations.
Is La Brea available to watch on Netflix?
La Brea officially hit Netflix on 1 May 2026, and after a single day on the streamer, it rose to nearly the top of the charts. All 30 episodes across three seasons are available to binge.
Could another network revive La Brea?
There is little to no chance for La Brea to be saved or renewed by another network for Season 4. The story has been given a conclusive ending by Appelbaum, making a full revival unlikely.
When did La Brea’s final episode air?
The series finale of La Brea — Season 3, Episode 6, “The Road Home, Part 2” — aired on Tuesday, 13 February 2024.
Final word
La Brea was not cancelled because of one single failure. A perfect storm of declining live ratings, sky-high production costs in Australia, mixed reviews, and the upheaval caused by the 2023 Hollywood strikes all pushed NBC towards an exit. In November 2023, NBC pulled the plug on Season 4 and confirmed that Season 3 would be the final one. The show’s remarkable Netflix debut in 2026 — topping the global charts with over 1.28 billion minutes viewed — proves the audience was always there. It just took streaming to find them.
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Dalphyne Peterz (Lifestyle editor)Dalphyne Peterz is an award-winning writer, editor, and content strategist with more than eight years of experience in digital publishing. She joined Tuko.co.ke in 2017 and has since built a career spanning editorial management, content strategy, and research-driven publishing across diverse niches, from psychics and lifestyle to audiophile equipment and other specialized subjects. Her strength lies in taking complex or unfamiliar topics and turning them into clear, engaging, and authoritative content for broad audiences. She was named Managing Editor of the Year in 2024 and 2025.
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