Peacock Cancels 'Ponies' Despite 94% Rotten Tomatoes Score
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Peacock canceled Cold War spy thriller "Ponies" after one eight-episode season, Variety has learned
- "Ponies" debuted its full first season on Peacock on Jan. 15, starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson as CIA operatives in 1977 Moscow
- Critics gave the series a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, yet it failed to appear on the Nielsen streaming top 10 charts following its release
- Peacock does not regularly release ratings information, making exact viewership performance difficult to assess
- David Iserson and Susanna Fogel co-created the series and served as executive producers, with Fogel directing four of the eight episodes and Iserson co-showrunning alongside Mike Daniels
- Universal Television produced the series, with Clarke also serving as an executive producer alongside Jessica Rhoades
Why it matters: For Peacock, "Ponies" illustrates the gap between critical acclaim and audience reach — a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score couldn't save a show that never cracked Nielsen's streaming top 10. The cancellation underscores how the platform weights viewership metrics over reviews when deciding renewals, even for star-driven projects with prestige casts.
