‘The Hunting Party’ Journey Officially Ends As Cast Options Expire

The Hunting Party is done hunting. The options on the cast expired yesterday and were not extended by series producer Universal Television, Deadline has learned. With the actors released, the efforts to extend the show’s life are officially over.

The same applies to the NBC drama pilot Key Witness, starring Emily Deschanel, also produced by Universal Television. The project, which narrowly missed the cut for a series order at the network, also was taken out and drew some interest from ABC, I hear. It’s the end of the road for the pilot too, as its cast options lapsed.

The only NBC 2026 pilot not picked up to series that is still alive is drama What The Dead Know. As Deadline reported last night, the option on star Taylor Schilling has been extended, and the project will be redeveloped with a new writer.

NBC took extra time to decide The Hunting Party‘s fate before canceling it on June 1 after two seasons. At the time, Universal Television launched a campaign to try and find a new home for the drama procedural.

The prospect did not seem that daunting as The Hunting Party had done well on not one but two streamers — NBC sibling Peacock, which has the full series, including next-day episodes, as well as Netflix, which had licensed previous seasons in the U.S., providing additional revenue to NBCUniversal.

Season 1’s strong launch on Netflix in the U.S. in February further boosted viewership on Peacock, where The Hunting Party already had been a solid performer.

In the end, that turned out not to be enough, with neither Peacock, nor Netflix — or anyone else — stepping in to save the series.

Created by JJ Bailey, The Hunting Party, which debuted after an NFL game, follows a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist.

Nick Wechsler, Patrick Sabongui, Josh McKenzie and Sara Garcia star alongside Roxburgh. Executive producers included Bailey, Jake Coburn, Thor Freudenthal and Keto Shimizu.