Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj has been canceled at Netflix, after six seasons on the streaming service. The news was shared by Minhaj, who took to Twitter to praise the show’s crew for being “the best writers, producers, researchers, and animators” that he’s ever worked with. He also noted that during the shows run, he and his wife had two children, who’ve grown up around Patriot Act.
Minhaj also thanked Netflix, as well as the show’s viewers. He concluded his message by joking that he was going to have to return the set’s many TV “screens to Best Buy.” Patriot Act is an informative comedy-news series that covered a range of topics from social and cultural issues to politics. It debuted in October 2018, after Minhaj had left another comedy-news series, The Daily Show, where he was a regular correspondent. During its run, Patriot Act produced 39 episodes that were spread out over six seasons. The most recent season had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but eventually premiered in June.
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What a run. @patriotact has come to an end. I got to work with the best writers, producers, researchers, and animators in the game. My 2 babies were born and grew up with the show. TY to @Netflix and everyone who watched. Now it’s time to return these screens to Best Buy 😎 pic.twitter.com/4s4TrsKWe6
— Hasan Minhaj (@hasanminhaj) August 18, 2020
It’s unclear what led Netflix to end the series, as the service is notorious for not releasing its streaming numbers, but often the company sites low viewership as the reason why it ends a series. On occasion, the reasoning given is due to a show having a high cost to produce. There is no word on if either of these played a role in Netflix ending Patriot Act.
In June, Minhaj sat down for a virtual interview with Variety and spoke about a number of things related to the show, including how they pulled off filming during the pandemic. “Right across the street, there was an outbreak at CBS. Right next door to us, at 60 Minutes, there was an outbreak, and at John Jay College right down the street, there was another outbreak,” he shared. “And so we had to shut things down.”
Minhaj went on to share, “We had to set up the green screen, do lighting, be grip, be PAs, running and getting coffee. We were just doing everything. That’s the thing that amazed me the most is the fact that, in these circumstances, we leaned into the urgency, not only tonally with the scripts, but also just the style of the show. Like, I go right to camera one, and we just go.” All six seasons of Patriot Act are currently streaming on Netflix.
