Why Fox Canceled The Cleaning Lady After Four Seasons

Fox crime drama series "The Cleaning Lady" aired its season 4 finale on June 3, 2025. The series' fans didn't have long to savor the episode or guess what would come next, because mere days later, on June 6, Fox canceled the series, citing low ratings. 

In fact, ratings for "The Cleaning Lady" had been declining consistently. The first season generally enjoyed around three million viewers (give or take) per episode back in 2022, while by the fourth season, it was down to one million. It's possible that the decline just has to do with fewer people watching all network TV, but the end result is the same.

Created by Miranda Kwok, "The Cleaning Lady" is a remake of an Argentine TV series, "La Chica que Limpia" (Spanish for "The Cleaning Lady"). The series starred Elodie Yung (best known as Elektra Natchios in "Daredevil," which she could play again) as Thony De La Rosa, a Cambodian-Filipino surgeon living in Las Vegas. On an expired visa and with an ill young son, Thony puts her talents to work as a cleaning lady for the mob.

The phrase "cleaning lady" typically suggests a maid, but not here. A "cleaner" is someone who cleans up crime scenes of incriminating evidence, like Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel) in "Pulp Fiction" or Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) in "Breaking Bad." To put this in Martin Scorsese mob movie terms: Thony doesn't clean (or paint) houses, but she does do her own carpentry.

The double entendre of "The Cleaning Lady" title is intentional because initially, Thony is an actual cleaning lady, but then she witnesses mobster Arman Morales (Adan Canto) commit a murder. Instead of just disposing of her as more evidence, Arman recruits her as a mob doctor and cleaner. Thony has to maintain a double life as a criminal, a la "Dexter" or the aforementioned "Breaking Bad." "The Cleaning Lady" flips the formula of prestige crime TV on its head by putting a woman in the lead role, the same way that "Yellowjackets" gave women their own Walter White with Shauna Shipman (Sophie Nélisse/Melanie Lynskey).

So why did "The Cleaning Lady" bleed interest despite a novel and politically timely premise? There was a disruption beyond the show's control. Adan Canto came down with cancer and ultimately died in January 2024. Arman, who was set up as the co-lead in the first two seasons, was abruptly written out, first temporarily and then permanently.

"The Cleaning Lady" had to uproot the show's defining relationship because of this; a recast would have also been in bad taste. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if this hurt the show's ability to build long-term fans (not that anyone who worked on the show is to blame here). Something else that probably hurt the show's fandom is that it took a long hiatus between seasons 2 and 3. "The Cleaning Lady" season 1 aired from January to March 2022, then season 2 aired from September to December that year. Then, season 3 didn't come until March 2024, stalling out the momentum.

The winner of "The Cleaning Lady" ending might wind up being "Daredevil" fans. Now that Elodie Yung is open for different acting opportunities, her schedule is clear to play Elektra. "Daredevil: Born Again" season 2 is already confirmed to be bringing back Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones. With the way that season 1 ended, don't be surprised if Elektra comes to "Born Again" sooner or later.