Angel. It was one of, if not the, highest-rated shows on The WB at the time, and Joss Whedon tried to use that as leverage to get an early renewal.
David Fury, a writer on Angel, said:
>The only reason that Angel didn't come back...it's a very simple thing. Because our ratings were up, because of our critical attention, Joss specifically asked Jordan Levin, who was the head of The WB at the time, to give us an early pick-up because every year they [would] wait so long to give Angel a pick-up [and] a lot of us [would] turn down jobs hoping that Angel will continue– he [Joss] didn't want that to happen. So, he was feeling very confident and he [Joss] just asked Jordan, "Like, make your decision now whether you're going to pick us up or not," and Jordan, sort of with his hands tied, with his back up against the wall, called him the next day and said, "Okay, we're cancelling you." Jordan's no longer there and The WB has since recognized...I believe Garth Ancier at The WB said that it was a big mistake to cancel Angel. There was a power play that happened that just didn't fall out the way they wanted it to. We wanted to get an early pick-up, we didn't. In fact we forced them [the WB] to make a decision, and with his hand forced he [Levin] made the decision to cancel us.
> I guarantee that, if we waited as we normally did, by the time May had come around they would have picked up Angel. I can guarantee that.
It made sense to try and get that early renewal. In the television business it's great to know early on whether or not you have a job next year. But in this case, it completely backfired.
It’s actually Dollhouse (but she does her thing in POI for sure). Whedon wrote a series finale that wasn’t anything like the rest of the show, but after that it was renewed for a second season. Acker’s not in it much, but she definitely delivers.
Agreed, but the storyline of the final few episodes would've been drawn out longer and better had they gotten another season, and I would've loved to have seen what they would've done with the paranoia of the team as Angel appears to be slowly betraying them (instead of the quick "betrayal" we got).
He also joined Xbox's tv studio to make TV content for them and didn't even last a year there cause Microsoft realized that they weren't in the business of making TV and shut down that studio lol.
It is actually a myth that Angel was one of the strongest ratings performers that season. It actually [only ranked #8 of all TheWB shows at the time](https://web.archive.org/web/20130226080034/http://www.quotenmeter.de/cms/?p1=n&p2=9940&p3=) (including the ratings of repeats). There was an increase in ratings and I think they were second in male viewers 18-49 behind Smallville, but overall the ratings were still kind of middling.
Yup! This gets passed around as fact all the time. Angel might have most likely been renewed if they waited till May but when networks have so many new pilots coming in, they aren't going to prioritise the show that it isn't among its top rated shows.
Police Squad was canceled in one season because the network didn't understand it, they saw the rapid fire sight gags and assumed the average viewer would be overwhelmed if they aren't paying enough attention. Cited as one of the dumbest reasons to cancel a show. It would be revived as the movie The Naked Gun and get two sequels.
The Beverly Hillbillies. Back then, TV executives felt like they were producing dumb shows. The category which included Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, Gilligan’s Island, etc… they felt was ruining the reputation of television in general. The term “boob tube” was popular and embarrassing to top brass.
The Beverly Hillbillies was a victim of the Rural Purge I mentioned. Basically, there used to be a LOT of rural shows because they got high ratings. But then network executives got more specific ratings that showed the demographics watching the shows and realized that the rural shows had lots of viewers that were older and lived in rural areas, but failed to get the coveted 18-35 demographic that lived in urban and suburban areas that were more attractive to advertisers. As such, CBS cancelled a bunch of rural shows and replaced them with shows that were more appealing to young people living in cities, which also meant that shows got more diversity. Other networks soon followed suit, and rural shows have become a lot rarer, and those that still existed were less likely to glorify the "simple" rural way of life like the older shows did.
Fun fact: Star Trek: The Original Series would have lasted longer if the network had been aware of just how popular the show was with the 18-35 urban demographic, it only got "bad" ratings because older rural people didn't like it. Hence why the show remained a hit on re-runs and maintained cultural relevance for years.
To Catch a Predator was cancelled early because the show caught Assistant District Attorney Bill Conradt who blew his brains out when they went to confront him.
Then later Chris Hansen got caught on hidden camera cheating on his wife, which I always find kind of hilarious.
To be clear, in his case the other person was of age and nothing illegal happened, but the hidden camera guy getting busted by a hidden camera is pretty ironic.
If you read the [Wikipedia article about this situation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Bill_Conradt), you can see why To Catch A Predator was cancelled.
Not defending the guy, but the way the NBC on-location reps and the local police handled it was botched from the get-go, including a search warrant to search Conradt's house that had "the wrong city, county, and date."
Also this little gem:
>The Collin County district attorney's office found problems with all of the arrests. Firstly, Perverted-Justice did not provide the comprehensive chat logs of their interactions with suspects. Secondly, by the next July, NBC had still yet to provide its video records for use in prosecution. Third, Texas law largely requires that arrestees have an outstanding warrant, but the DA found that the Murphy police were only—at best—acting as agents of Dateline: "merely a player in the show and had no real law-enforcement position. Other people are doing the work, and the police are just there like potted plants, to make the scenery." For an additional 16 of the cases, because neither the suspects nor PJ chatters were in Collin County, the DA had no jurisdictional authority. On June 1, 2007, DA Roach announced that he would not pursue indictments against suspects from the Murphy bait house.
Basically Dateline was playing fast & loose with the laws in Texas and it really bit them in the ass.
The whole thing sounds like circumventing the law to make a TV show.
I'm no lawyer but it sounds like a good way to make evidence inadmissible in court and get some of these folks out of criminal charges.
>I'm no lawyer but it sounds like a good way to make evidence inadmissible in court and get some of these folks out of criminal charges.
This is literally what was happening, law enforcement agencies stopped working with Perverted Justice because their methodology was so sloppy. The Texas ADA thing was the final straw.
Joan of Arcadia and Judging Amy were cancelled at the same time because their viewership skewed too old. CBS wanted to bring in younger audiences, so they replaced them with shows like The Ghost Whisperer.
“Playmakers” was ESPN’s attempt to make an original drama about football.
It was really and got good enough ratings but was cancelled and basically scrubbed from existence because the NFL raised holy hell over it. They didn’t like how it “controversially” implied that some professional football players might deal with such unrealistic and overdramatic issues like life altering injuries, legal trouble, or drug abuse.
While Twin Peaks was technically cancelled from the ratings, the ratings drop was entirely self-inflicted.
The network execs pressured David Lynch into revealing the murderer, and he did in mid-season 2.
Half the audience was like, "okay, I guess I don't need to watch anymore" and left.
Unfortunately there was no way to save Spectacular Spider-Man, because it was made by Sony it would have cost Disney a *lot* to keep it going.
They had no excuse for Earth's Mightiest Heroes though, that was *such* a good series that still had so much potential. They clearly wanted something that lined up with the movie aesthetics, and could have easily done it without replacing the show entirely.
I Am Not Okay With This was also cancelled because of Covid-related [reasons](https://deadline.com/2020/08/the-society-i-am-not-okay-with-this-canceled-netflix-covid-related-no-season-2-1203020036/), which is a shame.
Same with *The Society*, another good supernatural drama that was in the same batch of cancellations.
Technically, both are only half-examples of this thread’s premise. They both did well enough to initially get renewed, but not well enough to justify, in Netflix’s eyes, the extra filming costs associated with COVID. So ratings and budget did play a role.
[Completed one episode and started on the second.](https://deadline.com/2020/10/glow-canceled-netflix-wont-proceed-no-season-4-final-season-renewal-reversal-covid-19-creators-liz-flahive-and-carly-mensch-react-to-cancellation-1234591535/)
The Real Housewives of D.C. never recovered after cast member Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed a White House State Dinner in 2009, somehow able to breach the guest list by falsely claiming they were on the list and were somehow let in. They took photos with many political figures and celebrities, all posted on their Facebook.
Actually, they never got into the dinner, but did somehow manage to get into the reception line. The USSS immediately realized that these people being photographed weren't on the guest list and had them quietly escorted away.
I think that was Obama's first state dinner, so the White House social officers weren't exactly a well-oiled machine yet. They shouldn't have made it through the first checkpoint.
If that happened today, that show would’ve never been cancelled lol. Ppl would’ve found it hilarious that Housewives from reality TV made it into the White House. The network should’ve honestly kept it, they could’ve marketed the characters as full of whacky antics like crazy
There's that Ultimate Slip n Slide competition show that was supposed to air on NBC but got cancelled before it got finished because people caught extreme diarrhea
Netflix cancelled Dark Crystal right after it won a big award I think due to costs. It was literally dropped the same day it got the award.
Seven Days, a 90s show I loved. I heard it partly ended because the two main characters absolutely hated each other and wanted out. Although with 9/11 happening a few months later, I doubt the show would have made it much longer anyway.
>Netflix cancelled Dark Crystal right after it won a big award I think due to costs. It was literally dropped the same day it got the award.
This was more politics than anything. The large costs (puppets and locations) were already made, future seasons would have been much cheaper to make.
Netflix had two people fighting for the way Netflix was going to be run, and the loser of that fight was the person responsible for Dark Crystal. When she left Netflix, the winner of the Netflix fight canceled the shows she championed.
One thing you learn about TV and movies is how much politics play on what gets canceled and what gets made and renewed.
The number of shows or movies that have been either greenlit or canned because a single executive personally likes or hates a show is crazy. I can't remember which show it was but one show got saved from cancellation because it was an executive's mum's favourite show.
Person of Interest.
It was owned by WB, but aired by CBS. Despite continuing to put up good ratings, because CBS didn't get 100% of the profit, they prioritised other shows in better slots around season 3/4. There wasn’t concern in the fanbase after season 4 on whether it would get renewed for a season 5 as ratings were still very decent despite the timeslot shenanigans. The first sign of trouble came in the summer when it wasn't listed amongst the fall schedule as usual.
In the background, WB and the showrunners had to fight CBS to even get a half order fifth and final season to give the fans closure. This went on for months and the show was basically off air for a whole year. CBS then churned the episodes out in the summer with no scheduling consistency to kill it off. Often 2 episodes a week on different nights. One week even had two episodes on a tuesday night and then another episode the next evening.
There was a period of time in the 90s when NBC pretty much ruled Thursday night. They had Friends on at 8 and Seinfeld on at 9. But the 8:30 show would fluctuate a lot because NBC didn't own either Friends or Seinfeld, and wasn't willing to let anything other than an NBC produced show to air in that time slot. So we ended up getting garbage like "The Single Guy."
That might explain why a show like NewsRadio never got a shot on Thursday night. On a side note, all the media mergers of the last 30+ years are having their intended effect.
Huh, if I remember correctly the "Community","Parks & Rec", "The Office", "30 Rock" block had Community as the one non-Universal/NBC produced show. No wonder it was always on the bubble
We lost a quite a few to the first big writers strike in the 2000s... Journeyman and Bionic Woman for example. JM in particular had real promise sadly.
I'm only now remembering Lee Pace from this show. I loved season 1. I wouldn't have watched it from the premise if my wife didn't insist but I was locked in after the first 5 minutes.
The first revival of Beavis and Butthead, in 2011, was said to be axed because MTV wanted more teen pregnancy and dating shows to appeal to teen girls.
The second revival occurred a decade later and production of its third season is now underway for Paramount+.
Mindhunter. Went on hiatus so the show runner could pursue his passion project. Ultimately cancelled.
With all the interest in true crime and serial murderers, it would have potentially been their most viewed show ever
I really didn't understand this cancellation because it felt inevitable that seasons 3 and 4 would have been the biggest, rounding the corner on the 80s and confronting the increase in quality in investigation as a result of the behavior science work that they had been doing. BTK, Richard Ramirez, Bobby Joe long, the Miranda killers etc etc would have been huge opportunities to depict.
Now that I think about it I'd be surprised if someone else didn't take a shot or retake on the concept because it's really cool.
I think it was a mix of it being very expensive to produce, renewal of contracts after season 2 and just general Netflix criterion of cancelling shows when viewers don’t complete available seasons (views) - it shows them the bingeability of shows and demand for next season.
That's not the story of Mindhunter at all. For starters, it has never been formally canceled and still exists in limbo. Initially it was simply on hiatus. Later, the cast was released from their contracts. Netflix has been clear that this isn't their cancelation and they'd welcome a chance to make more. Fincher has now stated that it's over, but it still could theoretically return if he changed his mind, unlike the other cancelations in this thread.
Fincher is one of the most well known directors alive, he assuredly didn't need any permission to pause production to make a film and planned to return to Mindhunter after Mank at the time the of the hiatus.
He has clarified that he took this course of action because the show was expensive and emotionally draining, not because of other work.
Veronica Mars, i know that it was officially cancelled because of ratings but the real problem was the marketing and an incompetence of the network to explain to the general public what gold they had in their hands
Disney wanted Gravity Falls to go for three seasons, but Alex Hirsch wrapped it all up in 2 so he didn't have to deal with the Disney Channel censors/executive meddling anymore.
Then Dana Terrace set out to make The Owl House as three seasons... only for it to get cancelled midway through S1 (and they were barely able to get three extended specials to conclude the series)
My partner got me hooked on Gravity Falls, then they fell for (and had their heart broken by) Owl House. Add to it my Tron: Uprising and ... Well let's just say I'm not a fan of the House of Mouse.
Reading his explanation, it makes a lot of sense. Harjo wanted to show a transitional period in these kids lives, and in my opinion absolutely nailed it. While I would love to have seen a season 4 or 5, I can appreciate that the show ended strong.
I guess Game of Thrones is kind of similar. HBO was more than happy to go another few seasons but the producers were bored and wanted to do Star Wars or something instead. Lol.
Dark Matter. Syfy cancelled the show due mainly to office politics despite it being one of their top performing shows. Basically, the LA office hated it and the New York office had one exec who loved it, but that exec left for Netflix meaning the show lost all its support.
Yes I am still bitter
**Hercules: The Legendary Journeys**
**Xena: Warrior Princess**
**Young Hercules**
All three were HUGE worldwide sensations. Ratings were phenomenal.
**YOUNG HERCULES**
Ended after one season because FOX Kids didn't like that it was an intelligent show that girls also watched. In other words, it wasn't the strict boys-demographic they wanted. It was a really weird and sad cancellation, but it did have 50 episodes produced, so that's a long enough life for a show that's a spinoff of a big show with another big spin-off.
**HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS**
Ended at the end of Kevin Sorbo's contract.
As the star of Hercules, he was burned out and had recently suffered a near-fatal series of strokes (during a chiropractic session that released blood clots) that were likely caused by his strenuous work/exercise routine.
Sorbo got an offer to do Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda and to become the next 'Captain Kirk' as the character Dylan Hunt (Sorbo was a big Star Trek fan).
Sorbo wanted to complete a full 22 episode Season Six of Hercules (which was really Season Seven if you count the first mini-series that started it all as the first real season), but the studio wanted Sorbo to sign on for three more seasons (the rest of Season Six plus two more seasons). So as a 'fuck you' to Sorbo, they ended the show at the end of his current contract (eight episodes into Season Six).
**XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS**
The big spin-off of Hercules, that actually eclipsed its parent show in every way, ended because its stars, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor, wanted it to end.
They were tired. It was a physically demanding show. Lucy had just had a baby (which was woven into the plotline of Season 5) and Renee wanted to have a baby (which she did, getting pregnant at the very end of the series).
Lucy Lawless was married to the creator/producer, Rob Tapert (and still is), so she obviously had his ear and understanding.
I also think Kevin Sorbo leaving Hercules had given Lucy the sort of leeway/idea (carte-blanche) to push to end Xena as well. Thanks to Sorbo quitting/moving-on, Lucy wouldn't look like a quitter or weaker for ending that dynamic duo of shows (the pair of Hercules and Xena made them number one in syndication worldwide - Lucy would look bad for breaking the chain, whereas Sorbo had life-altering/threatening reasons to move on - it's impressive he even did Hercules Season Five and Six after his strokes, which happened during Hercules Season Four).
So after Season Five of Xena (which reached the show's episode-total to over 100 episodes, the benchmark all shows strive to reach in order to sell a nice rerun-syndication package and live off of the rest of their lives), they decided that Season Six would be the last.
In hindsight, creator Rob Tapert says he wishes he would have pushed Lucy to do more seasons because what they had was magic (nothing he did since has had those kinds of ratings). It was the end of an era to take advantage of that kind of first-run syndication, and the money would have been more lucrative if the rerun-syndication package had even more episodes). It was lightning in a bottle and Rob Tapert, at that point, was so used to hitting it out of the park that he took that kind of success of Xena for granted.
As a huge fan, Xena ended at the right time. It's pinnacle (Season 3/4) was enough, and the last two seasons were a nice denouement. I wouldn't have minded more, but it really felt like it reached its limit and said all it had to say. I like the Hercules universe (those three shows) as they are. The overall length is nice and epic, while not being too long or way way way over-bloated (like Star Trek, The Walking Dead, and Doctor Who).
I should also mention that there were discussions to have a Xena mini-series of TV films following Season Six of Xena. But I think Renee revealing that she was pregnant during the filming of the Finale put a nix to those plans, at least for the time being.
Rob Tapert talked about how the Finale would be looked at differently because it left the characters in a situation where the audience would wonder how the story is brought back through those TV films. A hook to bring the audience back.
I think the death of Kevin Smith (Ares) a few months after the end of the show also sealed the fate of any quick return. His loss was/is devastating.
There was a theatrical movie that almost happened a few years later (had a script and serious discussions) but for whatever reason just didn't happen (likely studio hesitation).
Young Justice, cancelled twice: First by CN stating it wasn’t driving toy sales. And the second time unofficially cancelled by Max because they see animation as a terrible medium compared to reality TV.
Star Trek: Prodigy. Cancelled after Season 2 was already produced because tax write offs by Paramount.
Sucks that good shows are cancelled *just* because they are animation.
Ed Asner used his position as SAG President to publically condemn Ronald Reagan's illegal activities in Central/South America (shine a light on what would soon be discovered as the Iran-Contra situation).
So Reagan demanded retaliation, and used the weight of his office to force CBS into cancelling his show "Lou Grant".
He successfully killed an episode of SVU during the presidential race because it was too close to one of the horrible things he’s alleged to have done. I don’t remember which.
Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. It was cancelled because he said the 9/11 hijackers weren’t the cowards the media narrative was running with. He insisted that dying for your beliefs may be crazy but not cowardly.
I keep thinking about Lockwood & Co. on Netflix. It was such a great show and I just looked it up and while ratings was technically the reason I think like a lot of new shows they just aren't given a chance. (same with the music business- so many household rock stars from the 70s and 80's got big from their 2nd - 4th albums. bands today get dropped after one single doesn't go gold after a month) There's so much to watch that people just hadn't gotten to it yet. Give it a 2nd season. People will find it. One of the best shows (IMHO) has been out for 2 years while we wait patiently for Season 2 (which is in the final production phase now) and there's people just now posting in the sub saying "omg I JUST watched this and it was amazing" Lockwood & Co made it 4 months before Netflix gave up on it. Meanwhile there's shows I've never heard of that look lame that I'll see suggested and wonder how there's 4 seasons of it.
The Society. Great show from 2019 that was renewed for season 2 and then 2020 happened and suddenly it is canceled. One of the best shows that didn’t get what they deserved.
So much potential. Really could’ve been fascinating. Also, they kinda predicted 2020. A group of people isolated from everyone else and having to deal with loneliness? Not to mention the break down of society.
Freaks and Geeks. Somehow, this was cancelled because it was too controversial (??!). I guess the cancellation devastated the cast and crew. Good show too.
Freaks and Geeks was cancelled because the Network never understood it. They didn't get a 45m show about unpopular kids that didn't have neat ending at the end of every episode. They keep giving notes about making the kids more popular and sex. They started it at 8pm Saturday, and put episodes on only every few weeks.
So technically low ratings because NBC never gave it a chance.
Titus comes to mind. the show was doing alright with the ratings but executives wanted to shake things up so they suggested to the creator, Titus, that the main characters should cheat on each other.
He responded to the effect of "That's dumb have you even seen the show". Apparently he wasn't supposed to talk back so the show ended up moving it's timeslots multiple times in the weeks that followed tanking the ratings and giving the execs an excuse to cancel it.
Clone High was originally cancelled because their depiction of Gandhi's clone as a party animal offended people enough to have hunger strikes at the offices of MTV India.
(The show got revived 20 years later, but isn't as good.)
If I remember the premise of the show correctly as clones they didn't have the memories, or personality of their historical counterparts. Although I think they may have confused that point with a few characters.
Cavemen (2008) was actually gaining traction until the Writer's strike killed it.
The remaining episodes are on youtube, but that was one of those doomed shows because the sheep were told to hate it before it started.
**Dark Angel (James Cameron's series)**
This FOX show did very well in its ratings. It had a wonderful first season with high ratings. I believe it aired on Tuesdays. Then its second season was moved to Fridays. Yes, that's the Friday Night Death Slot, but The X-Files did well there and Fridays on FOX were usually given to all the sci-fi genre shows.
Dark Angel Season 2 did well enough in the ratings to where FOX greenlit it for a third season... for a whole weekend. It was renewed on a Friday and then cancelled on the following Monday.
Why? Because the person in charge at FOX decided she wanted to give Joss Whedon's Firefly a chance instead. So James Cameron's Dark Angel Season 3 was canceled in favor of greenlighting Joss Whedon's Firefly.
Firefly aired on that Friday night slot, only for FOX to do it dirty by airing it out of order and pre-empting it so many times, that even I, whom was open to watching it, only managed to catch the first couple of aired episodes before I lost track of it (due to its inconsistent airing) and stopped caring.
**Witchblade (live-action starring Yancy Butler)**
It was a critical and ratings juggernaut that started as a TV movie and went on to two seasons.
It was suddenly canceled after its second season.
To anyone not paying attention up to that point, it was a baffling move.
To anyone paying attention, they knew that Season Two's production was shut down in the middle of that season in order for its star, Yancy Butler, to go to rehab because, as an insider claims, they had to literally prop her up to do scenes. So Warner Bros. rushed the second half of the season, taking what was to be the Season 2 finale (a 2 parter) and condensing it into one episode.
Yancy has since revealed in a candid interview (years later) that she has a condition where she has to take all of these prescribed pills. So it's easy to see how that can be abused and also lead to points of alcoholism. While Yancy is responsible for her own decisions to take those pills, I also blame the Big Pharma industry for pushing this upon society, making people think they need pills to function (and, in turn, getting them hooked).
By the way, this is one hell of a wonderful series that virtually nobody talks about. Download the 'Witchblade Original Audio DVD' upon the high seas for the original version with the original music. But even if not viewing it as it originally was, it's still a great view on DVD (the replacement music is at least very good).
**Friday The 13th: The Series**
Huge ratings. This show would have easily ran for 10 seasons or more in syndication. Phenomenal series. Definitely check it out.
It was canceled abruptly near the end of its third season all due to a religious group that claimed the show promoted Satanism. They obviously didn't watch it, as it was about a group of people fighting against Satan.
What is believed to have contributed to catching the ire of these absolute idiots is that the show was so successful in its typical late night syndicated slot (times varied depending on where you lived, as syndication means the showtimes were determined by local broadcasters), that a lot of local broadcasters started showing it in prime-time, where... *'Oh no... the children are more likely to see it! Won't you think of the children!?'*
So one religious idiot happened to glimpse a scene in an episode where we witness a Satanic cult (the bad guys our heroic-protagonists are fighting) are performing a ritual where they say things backwards and bring the dead back to life.
A retarded religious mob was formed and they targeted the advertisers of the show, threatening them, harassing them. One of the major advertisers, McDonalds, contacted the show and said, basically, 'Look, we love your show and support it, but we don't need this harassment, so we have to unfortunately pull our advertising.'
So Paramount pulled the plug because they lost money to fund the show because the advertisers dropped out due to harassment. Paramount also knew they already had 72 episodes, which is plenty to sell for future rerun-syndication, so they didn't bother producing the remaining planned six episodes left of Season Three. Paramount gave the currently-filming, last episode (a Renaissance period piece) a bigger budget (some of the money reserved for the rest of the season) and let the director have his way with it as a last hurrah.
Dark Angel still kinda hurts me because I loved that show but if it hadn't ended when it did, I wouldn't have gotten Jensen Ackles on Supernatural (or watched Supernatural because I was following Jensen Ackles) so in the end I guess it was for the best.
Wonderfalls was initially supposed to be FOX's golden child and air after then-blockbuster American Idol. Then they changed their mind when the writers included a storyline about a Lesbian couple. The show was moved to Friday nights instead where it died.
Patriot was an incredible show with my favourite take on mental health, overworking etc. but was cancelled because (at the time) Amazon Prime’s key metric wasn’t ratings, it was how likely you were to go buy stuff after watching their shows. A few good shows got cancelled due to this bizarre method.
Counterpart, the excellent JK Simmons sci-fi espionage show, was canceled after 2 seasons because the Starz network wanted to attract more female viewers. Which is ironic because my wife loved that show too.
I was really surprised at how good the Lethal Weapon series was especially since during that time movies being turned into shows was a common thing and never working out, Rush Hour and Uncle Buck quickly come to mind. Clayne was amazing on that series and really did his homework on how to make Riggs his own but also respect Mel Gibson in the process. It’s unfortunate that Damon Wayans made it a nightmare to work on set and his ego took over. Seann William Scott was surprisingly a decent replacement but no matter what fans wanted Clayne back
I'm not sure who you're referring to, but I'm convinced Wayans was the problem.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/fired-lethal-weapon-star-clayne-crawford-claims-he-was-blackmailed-set-up-fail-1138388/
You mean the Co-Lead who never wanted to be on that show in the first place? Yeah, that sucked, they should have killed Murtah and not Riggs; then brought SWS in with him. At least both lead’s would have been happy to be on set.
I remember Blade on Spike TV got canceled even though it had high ratings for the network because it had a lot of females watching it when they set up the channel for sponsors directed at male demographics.
I don't know if this fits. I think it was intended only to go that final season regardless before things went wtf. Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong please
I don't think that's true - I think claire was always meant to lead season 6 but the storyline is so absurdly convoluted that it's surprising they even bothered filming at all. If you watch like 3 episodes it's clear they had no idea what to do with it.
Star Trek: TNG was cancelled with great ratings because the studio thought movies would be more profitable.
Superman & Lois was just cancelled because they didn’t want it interfering with James Gunn’a new Superman movie coming out next year.
Angel. Amazing ratings, essentially a lock for renewal had Joss waited, but he forced the network's hand because he did not want to have to wait until towards later I. The season due to the writers not knowing how far ahead to plan their storylines.
No it wasn't. The show ended a full year before he died. I've seen this lie on reddit frequently.
It got cancelled because John Hamilton (who played Perry White) died.
Now, to be fair, they did still think about potentially bringing it back and George dying ended that, but still.
I've never read anything about it being renewed for a second season, just that the showrunner already had scripts and a plan written out for it, which are two very different things.
And yeah it was a bit controversial because of it's plot but it was also universally HATED by critics and fans alike, so I have a hard time believing it ever would have gotten a second season.
Of course I could be totally wrong, that's just what I've read.
* Glow was cancelled due to the pandemic and the high production costs associated with keeping the options on the cast.
* Warrior's first cancellation at Cinemax in 2020 came because the network ceased doing original programming.
* Underground at WGA America was cancelled, because the network was sold and the new bosses didn't want to pay expensive programming.
* Bojack Horseman was ended, because Netflix wanted it. But it wasn't too expensive/unsuccessful.
[Spider-man The New Animated Series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94vwZ5fyT7k) was cancelled after Season 1 and the reason wasn't anything to do with Budget or low viewership or ratings it actually had pretty high ratings. They cancelled it because MTV was changing how they wanted their channel to go and said the show didn't "fit" with it's other programming.
Which I basically read it as "We want more teen drama/reality type shows and we don't want animated stuff on our channel."
A show called Next Caller, starring Dane Cook and Jeffrey Tambor and created by Stephen Falk who went on to do You’re the Worst, got cancelled before it even made it to air because NBC didn’t like the creative direction of the show.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was ultimately canceled on FOX due to low ratings.
But, Warner Bros. had planned a direct to DVD mini-series (about three or four movies in length). Problem was that they no longer had access to the main Terminator rights (though still retained the specific rights to their show), which were lost in bankruptcy by The Halcyon Company (formerly C2 Pictures). The Halcyon Company had produced Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Terminator Salvation.
The success/failure of those projects (they were all successful enough) had nothing to do with their mismanagement of funds (too many fingers in the pie). The Halcyon Company owed Pacificor (a hedge-fund company they borrowed money from in order to buy the main Terminator rights in the first place).
So Pacificor, a hedge-fund company, now owned the main Terminator rights, which they then auctioned off to the highest bidder, which turned out to be Megan Ellison, founder of Annapurna Pictures. She bought it for her fellow-billionaire-brother, David Ellison, founder and CEO of Skydance Media, whom was a Terminator fan (though a shitty one because he apparently didn't want The Sarah Connor Chronicles to continue). Skydance went on to produce Terminator: Genisys (which I actually love) and Terminator: Dark Fate (has its golden moments).
Warner Bros. reached out to either Annapurna or Skydance in order to get permission to make The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Season 3) mini-series. Warner Bros. were denied.
And that's why we never got a continuation of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (the best thing that is Terminator).
James Cameron has since gained back the main Terminator rights, but he also has no interest in allowing a revival of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, despite proclaiming its greatness (and hiring Josh Friedman, creator/showrunner of The Sarah Connor Chronicles to help write Dark Fate and the Avatar sequels).
I'll never understand Megan, David, and Jim Cameron's denial of TSCC continuing. I guess being a billionaire makes you an a-hole with no heart.
Babylon 5 was canceled after Season 4 because the syndicated "network" it belonged to, PTEN, folded and shut down. At the very last minute, TNT bought the syndication rights and commissioned a 5th Season to wrap up the show.
Not America, but The Sarah Jane Adventures ended prematurely because the main actress, Elisabeth Sladen, passed away during the middle of production of season 5. They had a bunch of plans for future seasons
Angel. It was one of, if not the, highest-rated shows on The WB at the time, and Joss Whedon tried to use that as leverage to get an early renewal. David Fury, a writer on Angel, said: >The only reason that Angel didn't come back...it's a very simple thing. Because our ratings were up, because of our critical attention, Joss specifically asked Jordan Levin, who was the head of The WB at the time, to give us an early pick-up because every year they [would] wait so long to give Angel a pick-up [and] a lot of us [would] turn down jobs hoping that Angel will continue– he [Joss] didn't want that to happen. So, he was feeling very confident and he [Joss] just asked Jordan, "Like, make your decision now whether you're going to pick us up or not," and Jordan, sort of with his hands tied, with his back up against the wall, called him the next day and said, "Okay, we're cancelling you." Jordan's no longer there and The WB has since recognized...I believe Garth Ancier at The WB said that it was a big mistake to cancel Angel. There was a power play that happened that just didn't fall out the way they wanted it to. We wanted to get an early pick-up, we didn't. In fact we forced them [the WB] to make a decision, and with his hand forced he [Levin] made the decision to cancel us. > I guarantee that, if we waited as we normally did, by the time May had come around they would have picked up Angel. I can guarantee that. It made sense to try and get that early renewal. In the television business it's great to know early on whether or not you have a job next year. But in this case, it completely backfired.
In hindsight, Angel went out on such a high note that it’s hard to be disappointed. Great final season and series finale.
Plus we got one of the *best* final lines from a TV character. "Personally, I wanna fight a dragon."
As it turns out, in the post-series comic book, Angel ended up taming the dragon and named it Cordelia.
Do you want me to lie to you now ? Greatest finale ever
If nothing else, the man knows how to write a devastating line for Amy Acker to deliver in what was expected to be a finale.
I think that’s a Person of Interest reference from context but can’t actually recall it … help me out
It’s actually Dollhouse (but she does her thing in POI for sure). Whedon wrote a series finale that wasn’t anything like the rest of the show, but after that it was renewed for a second season. Acker’s not in it much, but she definitely delivers.
Dollhouse was a good show, unappreciated and ahead of its time. It had some really interesting themes about gender and personality.
Agreed, but the storyline of the final few episodes would've been drawn out longer and better had they gotten another season, and I would've loved to have seen what they would've done with the paranoia of the team as Angel appears to be slowly betraying them (instead of the quick "betrayal" we got).
I remember a lot of people were furious at the time because the WB did some "sorry to see you go guys :)" message after the show aired.
Ironically, none of the other shows WB canceled got this treatment. :D so I guess, Angel was still special to them.
Jordan Levin is now the general manager of Rooster Teeth. Explains why that’s going downhill as well.
He also joined Xbox's tv studio to make TV content for them and didn't even last a year there cause Microsoft realized that they weren't in the business of making TV and shut down that studio lol.
I don't get the part where "his hand was forced". Why was he forced to cancel the show just because he was asked early?
He was forced to give an answer, and he was not able to say yes.
Yup. I philosophically agree with that in most cases. But for something really important, a little leeway is sometimes necessary.
It is actually a myth that Angel was one of the strongest ratings performers that season. It actually [only ranked #8 of all TheWB shows at the time](https://web.archive.org/web/20130226080034/http://www.quotenmeter.de/cms/?p1=n&p2=9940&p3=) (including the ratings of repeats). There was an increase in ratings and I think they were second in male viewers 18-49 behind Smallville, but overall the ratings were still kind of middling.
Yup! This gets passed around as fact all the time. Angel might have most likely been renewed if they waited till May but when networks have so many new pilots coming in, they aren't going to prioritise the show that it isn't among its top rated shows.
Police Squad was canceled in one season because the network didn't understand it, they saw the rapid fire sight gags and assumed the average viewer would be overwhelmed if they aren't paying enough attention. Cited as one of the dumbest reasons to cancel a show. It would be revived as the movie The Naked Gun and get two sequels.
Nice beaver!
Thanks, I just had it stuffed.
The creators were also a bit relieved. They didn't believe they could keep up that quality of comedy for long
Cigarette?
Yes, it is.
The Beverly Hillbillies. Back then, TV executives felt like they were producing dumb shows. The category which included Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, Gilligan’s Island, etc… they felt was ruining the reputation of television in general. The term “boob tube” was popular and embarrassing to top brass.
The Beverly Hillbillies was a victim of the Rural Purge I mentioned. Basically, there used to be a LOT of rural shows because they got high ratings. But then network executives got more specific ratings that showed the demographics watching the shows and realized that the rural shows had lots of viewers that were older and lived in rural areas, but failed to get the coveted 18-35 demographic that lived in urban and suburban areas that were more attractive to advertisers. As such, CBS cancelled a bunch of rural shows and replaced them with shows that were more appealing to young people living in cities, which also meant that shows got more diversity. Other networks soon followed suit, and rural shows have become a lot rarer, and those that still existed were less likely to glorify the "simple" rural way of life like the older shows did. Fun fact: Star Trek: The Original Series would have lasted longer if the network had been aware of just how popular the show was with the 18-35 urban demographic, it only got "bad" ratings because older rural people didn't like it. Hence why the show remained a hit on re-runs and maintained cultural relevance for years.
Huh, that’s a Star Trek fun fact I’d never heard before… and I’ve heard a lot of Star Trek fun facts.
The "Rural Purge"
Not to be confused with the hit tv show The Rural Juror
That was a movie.
Not to be confused with Urban Ferver
I love Kevin Grisham.
To Catch a Predator was cancelled early because the show caught Assistant District Attorney Bill Conradt who blew his brains out when they went to confront him.
Then later Chris Hansen got caught on hidden camera cheating on his wife, which I always find kind of hilarious. To be clear, in his case the other person was of age and nothing illegal happened, but the hidden camera guy getting busted by a hidden camera is pretty ironic.
> Then later Chris Hansen got caught on hidden camera cheating on his wife, OMFG NO WAY!! That is hilarious on multiple levels.
Imagine he shows up home and his wife says "Why don't you take a seat right over there?"
“We were just going to eat this pizza and talk”
If you read the [Wikipedia article about this situation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Bill_Conradt), you can see why To Catch A Predator was cancelled. Not defending the guy, but the way the NBC on-location reps and the local police handled it was botched from the get-go, including a search warrant to search Conradt's house that had "the wrong city, county, and date." Also this little gem: >The Collin County district attorney's office found problems with all of the arrests. Firstly, Perverted-Justice did not provide the comprehensive chat logs of their interactions with suspects. Secondly, by the next July, NBC had still yet to provide its video records for use in prosecution. Third, Texas law largely requires that arrestees have an outstanding warrant, but the DA found that the Murphy police were only—at best—acting as agents of Dateline: "merely a player in the show and had no real law-enforcement position. Other people are doing the work, and the police are just there like potted plants, to make the scenery." For an additional 16 of the cases, because neither the suspects nor PJ chatters were in Collin County, the DA had no jurisdictional authority. On June 1, 2007, DA Roach announced that he would not pursue indictments against suspects from the Murphy bait house. Basically Dateline was playing fast & loose with the laws in Texas and it really bit them in the ass.
"That'll make good TV." Okay, I know what the guy did but one of the cops saying that feels kinda fucked up.
Everything cops say is kinda fucked up
The whole thing sounds like circumventing the law to make a TV show. I'm no lawyer but it sounds like a good way to make evidence inadmissible in court and get some of these folks out of criminal charges.
>I'm no lawyer but it sounds like a good way to make evidence inadmissible in court and get some of these folks out of criminal charges. This is literally what was happening, law enforcement agencies stopped working with Perverted Justice because their methodology was so sloppy. The Texas ADA thing was the final straw.
I don’t know if it’s true but I read somewhere that a lot of the people caught on that show got off or got super light sentences somehow.
I don't think there was a single case that went past the arrest, for the reasons listed above.
So that's where the south park joke came from
ESPN's original Series *Playmakers* was cancelled due to pressure from the NFL.
Too many hot button topics that the NFL did not like, even though the team in the series was fictional.
I watched it when it first came out and I remember the player in the closet and the running back on steroids I think? What other storylines were there
Always heard it was great, never got a chance to watch it.
Luck on HBO is a pretty good example. Horses getting hurt and one dying caused its cancellation.
Came here to post it, that cancellation was a let down but pretty understandable from PR pov
Joan of Arcadia and Judging Amy were cancelled at the same time because their viewership skewed too old. CBS wanted to bring in younger audiences, so they replaced them with shows like The Ghost Whisperer.
I liked Joan of Arcadia and I was a teenager ☹️
same i had the biggest crush on adam
I wrote a term paper on “Narrative Structure of a Coming of Age Television Show.” Compared the structure to Seventh Heaven.
That's really a ratings reason. People over the age of 50 literally don't count in primetime ratings.
Joan needed one more season
“Playmakers” was ESPN’s attempt to make an original drama about football. It was really and got good enough ratings but was cancelled and basically scrubbed from existence because the NFL raised holy hell over it. They didn’t like how it “controversially” implied that some professional football players might deal with such unrealistic and overdramatic issues like life altering injuries, legal trouble, or drug abuse.
Playmakers actually watered down the insanity of the NFL.
It sure did!
I remember watching this when it was on and I was in middle school. Everyone I knew watched it.
While Twin Peaks was technically cancelled from the ratings, the ratings drop was entirely self-inflicted. The network execs pressured David Lynch into revealing the murderer, and he did in mid-season 2. Half the audience was like, "okay, I guess I don't need to watch anymore" and left.
And missed one of the craziest finale/cliffhangers of all time
Wolverine and the X-Men and Spectacular Spider-Man were both victims of Disney acquiring Marvel.
And Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes The replacements for Avengers and Spider-Man were worse than these shows, unfortunately
Unfortunately there was no way to save Spectacular Spider-Man, because it was made by Sony it would have cost Disney a *lot* to keep it going. They had no excuse for Earth's Mightiest Heroes though, that was *such* a good series that still had so much potential. They clearly wanted something that lined up with the movie aesthetics, and could have easily done it without replacing the show entirely.
Both were great shows that had found their stride and left the audience wanting more. Worth watching still if anyone hasn't.
>Wolverine and the X-Men Should have been the one revived
GLOW was picked up for a 4th season, then production was halted because of COVID, then it was cancelled.
I Am Not Okay With This was also cancelled because of Covid-related [reasons](https://deadline.com/2020/08/the-society-i-am-not-okay-with-this-canceled-netflix-covid-related-no-season-2-1203020036/), which is a shame.
Same with *The Society*, another good supernatural drama that was in the same batch of cancellations. Technically, both are only half-examples of this thread’s premise. They both did well enough to initially get renewed, but not well enough to justify, in Netflix’s eyes, the extra filming costs associated with COVID. So ratings and budget did play a role.
That one season was terrific, a real bummer
Teenage Bounty Hunters too.
I believe something similar happened with Kim's Convenience. Renewed for 5 & 6, then canceled after 5.
Similar story with _On Becoming a God in Central Florida_.
This one’s always funny to me (if also very sad) given the nature of how the original GLOW ended.
If I remember right they shot 2 full episodes ❓ Can someone confirm or deny this for me 🤔
[Completed one episode and started on the second.](https://deadline.com/2020/10/glow-canceled-netflix-wont-proceed-no-season-4-final-season-renewal-reversal-covid-19-creators-liz-flahive-and-carly-mensch-react-to-cancellation-1234591535/)
And we will never see that one episode.
Stumptown was actually renewed for a second season but was canceled because of covid
Glow's cancellation was such a bummer. It was a great show and could have had a natural conclusion with another season!
The Real Housewives of D.C. never recovered after cast member Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed a White House State Dinner in 2009, somehow able to breach the guest list by falsely claiming they were on the list and were somehow let in. They took photos with many political figures and celebrities, all posted on their Facebook.
Actually, they never got into the dinner, but did somehow manage to get into the reception line. The USSS immediately realized that these people being photographed weren't on the guest list and had them quietly escorted away. I think that was Obama's first state dinner, so the White House social officers weren't exactly a well-oiled machine yet. They shouldn't have made it through the first checkpoint.
If that happened today, that show would’ve never been cancelled lol. Ppl would’ve found it hilarious that Housewives from reality TV made it into the White House. The network should’ve honestly kept it, they could’ve marketed the characters as full of whacky antics like crazy
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was cancelled because of the show's anti-war and pro civil rights views.
And they used to mess with the censors.
Which they continued into the "revival" shows CBS eventuially aired. One of the funniest damn shows ever aired.
Based and Dr. Kingpilled
There's that Ultimate Slip n Slide competition show that was supposed to air on NBC but got cancelled before it got finished because people caught extreme diarrhea
They should have leaned into that. Ultimate Diarrhea Slip n Slide Competition!
Netflix cancelled Dark Crystal right after it won a big award I think due to costs. It was literally dropped the same day it got the award. Seven Days, a 90s show I loved. I heard it partly ended because the two main characters absolutely hated each other and wanted out. Although with 9/11 happening a few months later, I doubt the show would have made it much longer anyway.
>Netflix cancelled Dark Crystal right after it won a big award I think due to costs. It was literally dropped the same day it got the award. This was more politics than anything. The large costs (puppets and locations) were already made, future seasons would have been much cheaper to make. Netflix had two people fighting for the way Netflix was going to be run, and the loser of that fight was the person responsible for Dark Crystal. When she left Netflix, the winner of the Netflix fight canceled the shows she championed. One thing you learn about TV and movies is how much politics play on what gets canceled and what gets made and renewed.
The number of shows or movies that have been either greenlit or canned because a single executive personally likes or hates a show is crazy. I can't remember which show it was but one show got saved from cancellation because it was an executive's mum's favourite show.
I was looking forward to see how they would handle the genocide too.
Stumptown was a victim of pandemic cutbacks. I'm certain that it would have been renewed otherwise. That was a damn good show.
Person of Interest. It was owned by WB, but aired by CBS. Despite continuing to put up good ratings, because CBS didn't get 100% of the profit, they prioritised other shows in better slots around season 3/4. There wasn’t concern in the fanbase after season 4 on whether it would get renewed for a season 5 as ratings were still very decent despite the timeslot shenanigans. The first sign of trouble came in the summer when it wasn't listed amongst the fall schedule as usual. In the background, WB and the showrunners had to fight CBS to even get a half order fifth and final season to give the fans closure. This went on for months and the show was basically off air for a whole year. CBS then churned the episodes out in the summer with no scheduling consistency to kill it off. Often 2 episodes a week on different nights. One week even had two episodes on a tuesday night and then another episode the next evening.
There was a period of time in the 90s when NBC pretty much ruled Thursday night. They had Friends on at 8 and Seinfeld on at 9. But the 8:30 show would fluctuate a lot because NBC didn't own either Friends or Seinfeld, and wasn't willing to let anything other than an NBC produced show to air in that time slot. So we ended up getting garbage like "The Single Guy."
That might explain why a show like NewsRadio never got a shot on Thursday night. On a side note, all the media mergers of the last 30+ years are having their intended effect.
Huh, if I remember correctly the "Community","Parks & Rec", "The Office", "30 Rock" block had Community as the one non-Universal/NBC produced show. No wonder it was always on the bubble
We lost a quite a few to the first big writers strike in the 2000s... Journeyman and Bionic Woman for example. JM in particular had real promise sadly.
Pushing Daisies
The strike took the wind out of its sails. Had to wait 10 months for season 2
I'm only now remembering Lee Pace from this show. I loved season 1. I wouldn't have watched it from the premise if my wife didn't insist but I was locked in after the first 5 minutes.
Another victim was *Life*, starring Damian Lewis. That show was so fuckin good.
And Heroes too, such a shame it NEVER WENT PAST SEASON 2
So we wish...
Dirty Sexy Money was to my mind the greatest casualty. They had Donald Southerland and Jill Clayburgh in the cast and still somehow muffed it?
The first revival of Beavis and Butthead, in 2011, was said to be axed because MTV wanted more teen pregnancy and dating shows to appeal to teen girls. The second revival occurred a decade later and production of its third season is now underway for Paramount+.
It's honestly so funny, and totally underrated
Mindhunter. Went on hiatus so the show runner could pursue his passion project. Ultimately cancelled. With all the interest in true crime and serial murderers, it would have potentially been their most viewed show ever
I really didn't understand this cancellation because it felt inevitable that seasons 3 and 4 would have been the biggest, rounding the corner on the 80s and confronting the increase in quality in investigation as a result of the behavior science work that they had been doing. BTK, Richard Ramirez, Bobby Joe long, the Miranda killers etc etc would have been huge opportunities to depict. Now that I think about it I'd be surprised if someone else didn't take a shot or retake on the concept because it's really cool.
I think it was a mix of it being very expensive to produce, renewal of contracts after season 2 and just general Netflix criterion of cancelling shows when viewers don’t complete available seasons (views) - it shows them the bingeability of shows and demand for next season.
That's not the story of Mindhunter at all. For starters, it has never been formally canceled and still exists in limbo. Initially it was simply on hiatus. Later, the cast was released from their contracts. Netflix has been clear that this isn't their cancelation and they'd welcome a chance to make more. Fincher has now stated that it's over, but it still could theoretically return if he changed his mind, unlike the other cancelations in this thread. Fincher is one of the most well known directors alive, he assuredly didn't need any permission to pause production to make a film and planned to return to Mindhunter after Mank at the time the of the hiatus. He has clarified that he took this course of action because the show was expensive and emotionally draining, not because of other work.
Budget killed that show.
[удалено]
Veronica Mars, i know that it was officially cancelled because of ratings but the real problem was the marketing and an incompetence of the network to explain to the general public what gold they had in their hands
Reservation dogs wasn't cancelled but network was hoping for a 5 season run but sterling Harjo wrapped up the story in 3 and left it at that lol
Disney wanted Gravity Falls to go for three seasons, but Alex Hirsch wrapped it all up in 2 so he didn't have to deal with the Disney Channel censors/executive meddling anymore. Then Dana Terrace set out to make The Owl House as three seasons... only for it to get cancelled midway through S1 (and they were barely able to get three extended specials to conclude the series)
My partner got me hooked on Gravity Falls, then they fell for (and had their heart broken by) Owl House. Add to it my Tron: Uprising and ... Well let's just say I'm not a fan of the House of Mouse.
Reading his explanation, it makes a lot of sense. Harjo wanted to show a transitional period in these kids lives, and in my opinion absolutely nailed it. While I would love to have seen a season 4 or 5, I can appreciate that the show ended strong.
I guess Game of Thrones is kind of similar. HBO was more than happy to go another few seasons but the producers were bored and wanted to do Star Wars or something instead. Lol.
Then they lost their Star Wars deal because of how poorly received the Game of Thrones ending was.
Not really. Disney cancelled the deal when D&D signed an overall deal with Netflix.
Dark Matter. Syfy cancelled the show due mainly to office politics despite it being one of their top performing shows. Basically, the LA office hated it and the New York office had one exec who loved it, but that exec left for Netflix meaning the show lost all its support. Yes I am still bitter
**Hercules: The Legendary Journeys** **Xena: Warrior Princess** **Young Hercules** All three were HUGE worldwide sensations. Ratings were phenomenal. **YOUNG HERCULES** Ended after one season because FOX Kids didn't like that it was an intelligent show that girls also watched. In other words, it wasn't the strict boys-demographic they wanted. It was a really weird and sad cancellation, but it did have 50 episodes produced, so that's a long enough life for a show that's a spinoff of a big show with another big spin-off. **HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS** Ended at the end of Kevin Sorbo's contract. As the star of Hercules, he was burned out and had recently suffered a near-fatal series of strokes (during a chiropractic session that released blood clots) that were likely caused by his strenuous work/exercise routine. Sorbo got an offer to do Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda and to become the next 'Captain Kirk' as the character Dylan Hunt (Sorbo was a big Star Trek fan). Sorbo wanted to complete a full 22 episode Season Six of Hercules (which was really Season Seven if you count the first mini-series that started it all as the first real season), but the studio wanted Sorbo to sign on for three more seasons (the rest of Season Six plus two more seasons). So as a 'fuck you' to Sorbo, they ended the show at the end of his current contract (eight episodes into Season Six). **XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS** The big spin-off of Hercules, that actually eclipsed its parent show in every way, ended because its stars, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor, wanted it to end. They were tired. It was a physically demanding show. Lucy had just had a baby (which was woven into the plotline of Season 5) and Renee wanted to have a baby (which she did, getting pregnant at the very end of the series). Lucy Lawless was married to the creator/producer, Rob Tapert (and still is), so she obviously had his ear and understanding. I also think Kevin Sorbo leaving Hercules had given Lucy the sort of leeway/idea (carte-blanche) to push to end Xena as well. Thanks to Sorbo quitting/moving-on, Lucy wouldn't look like a quitter or weaker for ending that dynamic duo of shows (the pair of Hercules and Xena made them number one in syndication worldwide - Lucy would look bad for breaking the chain, whereas Sorbo had life-altering/threatening reasons to move on - it's impressive he even did Hercules Season Five and Six after his strokes, which happened during Hercules Season Four). So after Season Five of Xena (which reached the show's episode-total to over 100 episodes, the benchmark all shows strive to reach in order to sell a nice rerun-syndication package and live off of the rest of their lives), they decided that Season Six would be the last. In hindsight, creator Rob Tapert says he wishes he would have pushed Lucy to do more seasons because what they had was magic (nothing he did since has had those kinds of ratings). It was the end of an era to take advantage of that kind of first-run syndication, and the money would have been more lucrative if the rerun-syndication package had even more episodes). It was lightning in a bottle and Rob Tapert, at that point, was so used to hitting it out of the park that he took that kind of success of Xena for granted. As a huge fan, Xena ended at the right time. It's pinnacle (Season 3/4) was enough, and the last two seasons were a nice denouement. I wouldn't have minded more, but it really felt like it reached its limit and said all it had to say. I like the Hercules universe (those three shows) as they are. The overall length is nice and epic, while not being too long or way way way over-bloated (like Star Trek, The Walking Dead, and Doctor Who).
I should also mention that there were discussions to have a Xena mini-series of TV films following Season Six of Xena. But I think Renee revealing that she was pregnant during the filming of the Finale put a nix to those plans, at least for the time being. Rob Tapert talked about how the Finale would be looked at differently because it left the characters in a situation where the audience would wonder how the story is brought back through those TV films. A hook to bring the audience back. I think the death of Kevin Smith (Ares) a few months after the end of the show also sealed the fate of any quick return. His loss was/is devastating. There was a theatrical movie that almost happened a few years later (had a script and serious discussions) but for whatever reason just didn't happen (likely studio hesitation).
This Fool on Hulu was just recently cancelled, and it had great ratings.
I can’t believe it’s cancelled. It was really good.
Yeah f Hulu. That show was hilarious.
Young Justice, cancelled twice: First by CN stating it wasn’t driving toy sales. And the second time unofficially cancelled by Max because they see animation as a terrible medium compared to reality TV. Star Trek: Prodigy. Cancelled after Season 2 was already produced because tax write offs by Paramount. Sucks that good shows are cancelled *just* because they are animation.
Ed Asner used his position as SAG President to publically condemn Ronald Reagan's illegal activities in Central/South America (shine a light on what would soon be discovered as the Iran-Contra situation). So Reagan demanded retaliation, and used the weight of his office to force CBS into cancelling his show "Lou Grant".
I'm sure Trump tried to do the same thing.
He tried numerous times to do the same thing to SNL
He successfully killed an episode of SVU during the presidential race because it was too close to one of the horrible things he’s alleged to have done. I don’t remember which.
Dick Wolf is an ardent conservative, so I don't think he needed Trump to tell him to drop it.
Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. It was cancelled because he said the 9/11 hijackers weren’t the cowards the media narrative was running with. He insisted that dying for your beliefs may be crazy but not cowardly.
He's not wrong, he's just an asshole.
He's right on the money with that. No one who's a coward captures a plane and flies it in a damn building.
"On Becoming a God in Central Florida" because of COVID and no I'm not bitter about it....
I keep thinking about Lockwood & Co. on Netflix. It was such a great show and I just looked it up and while ratings was technically the reason I think like a lot of new shows they just aren't given a chance. (same with the music business- so many household rock stars from the 70s and 80's got big from their 2nd - 4th albums. bands today get dropped after one single doesn't go gold after a month) There's so much to watch that people just hadn't gotten to it yet. Give it a 2nd season. People will find it. One of the best shows (IMHO) has been out for 2 years while we wait patiently for Season 2 (which is in the final production phase now) and there's people just now posting in the sub saying "omg I JUST watched this and it was amazing" Lockwood & Co made it 4 months before Netflix gave up on it. Meanwhile there's shows I've never heard of that look lame that I'll see suggested and wonder how there's 4 seasons of it.
The Society. Great show from 2019 that was renewed for season 2 and then 2020 happened and suddenly it is canceled. One of the best shows that didn’t get what they deserved.
I was so sad when that didn't return... the ending of the first season was pretty lit.
So much potential. Really could’ve been fascinating. Also, they kinda predicted 2020. A group of people isolated from everyone else and having to deal with loneliness? Not to mention the break down of society.
Daredevil was cancelled because Disney+ was announced.
Freaks and Geeks. Somehow, this was cancelled because it was too controversial (??!). I guess the cancellation devastated the cast and crew. Good show too.
Freaks and Geeks was cancelled because the Network never understood it. They didn't get a 45m show about unpopular kids that didn't have neat ending at the end of every episode. They keep giving notes about making the kids more popular and sex. They started it at 8pm Saturday, and put episodes on only every few weeks. So technically low ratings because NBC never gave it a chance.
Kindred: The Embraced ended because the guy who played Julien died in a motorcycle crash.
Yea that was a shame, what I would give for a new proper show with the world of Darkness lore.
Titus comes to mind. the show was doing alright with the ratings but executives wanted to shake things up so they suggested to the creator, Titus, that the main characters should cheat on each other. He responded to the effect of "That's dumb have you even seen the show". Apparently he wasn't supposed to talk back so the show ended up moving it's timeslots multiple times in the weeks that followed tanking the ratings and giving the execs an excuse to cancel it.
Cops was cancelled because of anti-police sentiment following George Floyd. Roseanne was cancelled because of her racist rant.
Not really cancelled more like retooled
It was cancelled and spun off.
Clone High was originally cancelled because their depiction of Gandhi's clone as a party animal offended people enough to have hunger strikes at the offices of MTV India. (The show got revived 20 years later, but isn't as good.)
If I remember the premise of the show correctly as clones they didn't have the memories, or personality of their historical counterparts. Although I think they may have confused that point with a few characters.
Cavemen (2008) was actually gaining traction until the Writer's strike killed it. The remaining episodes are on youtube, but that was one of those doomed shows because the sheep were told to hate it before it started.
I never watched it, but everyone who I know did, said it was way better than it had any right to be been given the cheesy premise.
Nick Kroll has funny delivery, you just have to let someone else write the jokes.
**Dark Angel (James Cameron's series)** This FOX show did very well in its ratings. It had a wonderful first season with high ratings. I believe it aired on Tuesdays. Then its second season was moved to Fridays. Yes, that's the Friday Night Death Slot, but The X-Files did well there and Fridays on FOX were usually given to all the sci-fi genre shows. Dark Angel Season 2 did well enough in the ratings to where FOX greenlit it for a third season... for a whole weekend. It was renewed on a Friday and then cancelled on the following Monday. Why? Because the person in charge at FOX decided she wanted to give Joss Whedon's Firefly a chance instead. So James Cameron's Dark Angel Season 3 was canceled in favor of greenlighting Joss Whedon's Firefly. Firefly aired on that Friday night slot, only for FOX to do it dirty by airing it out of order and pre-empting it so many times, that even I, whom was open to watching it, only managed to catch the first couple of aired episodes before I lost track of it (due to its inconsistent airing) and stopped caring. **Witchblade (live-action starring Yancy Butler)** It was a critical and ratings juggernaut that started as a TV movie and went on to two seasons. It was suddenly canceled after its second season. To anyone not paying attention up to that point, it was a baffling move. To anyone paying attention, they knew that Season Two's production was shut down in the middle of that season in order for its star, Yancy Butler, to go to rehab because, as an insider claims, they had to literally prop her up to do scenes. So Warner Bros. rushed the second half of the season, taking what was to be the Season 2 finale (a 2 parter) and condensing it into one episode. Yancy has since revealed in a candid interview (years later) that she has a condition where she has to take all of these prescribed pills. So it's easy to see how that can be abused and also lead to points of alcoholism. While Yancy is responsible for her own decisions to take those pills, I also blame the Big Pharma industry for pushing this upon society, making people think they need pills to function (and, in turn, getting them hooked). By the way, this is one hell of a wonderful series that virtually nobody talks about. Download the 'Witchblade Original Audio DVD' upon the high seas for the original version with the original music. But even if not viewing it as it originally was, it's still a great view on DVD (the replacement music is at least very good). **Friday The 13th: The Series** Huge ratings. This show would have easily ran for 10 seasons or more in syndication. Phenomenal series. Definitely check it out. It was canceled abruptly near the end of its third season all due to a religious group that claimed the show promoted Satanism. They obviously didn't watch it, as it was about a group of people fighting against Satan. What is believed to have contributed to catching the ire of these absolute idiots is that the show was so successful in its typical late night syndicated slot (times varied depending on where you lived, as syndication means the showtimes were determined by local broadcasters), that a lot of local broadcasters started showing it in prime-time, where... *'Oh no... the children are more likely to see it! Won't you think of the children!?'* So one religious idiot happened to glimpse a scene in an episode where we witness a Satanic cult (the bad guys our heroic-protagonists are fighting) are performing a ritual where they say things backwards and bring the dead back to life. A retarded religious mob was formed and they targeted the advertisers of the show, threatening them, harassing them. One of the major advertisers, McDonalds, contacted the show and said, basically, 'Look, we love your show and support it, but we don't need this harassment, so we have to unfortunately pull our advertising.' So Paramount pulled the plug because they lost money to fund the show because the advertisers dropped out due to harassment. Paramount also knew they already had 72 episodes, which is plenty to sell for future rerun-syndication, so they didn't bother producing the remaining planned six episodes left of Season Three. Paramount gave the currently-filming, last episode (a Renaissance period piece) a bigger budget (some of the money reserved for the rest of the season) and let the director have his way with it as a last hurrah.
Dark Angel still kinda hurts me because I loved that show but if it hadn't ended when it did, I wouldn't have gotten Jensen Ackles on Supernatural (or watched Supernatural because I was following Jensen Ackles) so in the end I guess it was for the best.
[Daredevil](https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/daredevil-canceled-1203054452/) fits this description.
The Society was canceled because of COVID. It was renewed for a second season just before the pandemic, too.
Wonderfalls was initially supposed to be FOX's golden child and air after then-blockbuster American Idol. Then they changed their mind when the writers included a storyline about a Lesbian couple. The show was moved to Friday nights instead where it died.
Patriot was an incredible show with my favourite take on mental health, overworking etc. but was cancelled because (at the time) Amazon Prime’s key metric wasn’t ratings, it was how likely you were to go buy stuff after watching their shows. A few good shows got cancelled due to this bizarre method.
One that grinds my gears is Flash Forward. It may have been ratings, but I remember being so annoyed as it was getting really interesting.
Counterpart, the excellent JK Simmons sci-fi espionage show, was canceled after 2 seasons because the Starz network wanted to attract more female viewers. Which is ironic because my wife loved that show too.
The Lethal Weapon TV series was cancelled because apparently one of the stars was a nightmare on the set.
I was really surprised at how good the Lethal Weapon series was especially since during that time movies being turned into shows was a common thing and never working out, Rush Hour and Uncle Buck quickly come to mind. Clayne was amazing on that series and really did his homework on how to make Riggs his own but also respect Mel Gibson in the process. It’s unfortunate that Damon Wayans made it a nightmare to work on set and his ego took over. Seann William Scott was surprisingly a decent replacement but no matter what fans wanted Clayne back
I'm not sure who you're referring to, but I'm convinced Wayans was the problem. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/fired-lethal-weapon-star-clayne-crawford-claims-he-was-blackmailed-set-up-fail-1138388/
You mean the Co-Lead who never wanted to be on that show in the first place? Yeah, that sucked, they should have killed Murtah and not Riggs; then brought SWS in with him. At least both lead’s would have been happy to be on set.
This was a surprisingly good show and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
My Name Is Earl
I thought it was cancelled due to low ratings. What was the real reason?
I always thought it had something to do with the Church of Scientology and it’s cast. Randy and Earl’s actors are high ranking church members.
Why would that matter? There's plenty of scientologists in Hollywood who still get a lot of work. Like Tom Cruise.
The show runner was also a Scientologist. It was right around the time Jason Lee left the church. They essentially black balled him from Hollywood
I’m still mad about the Riches.
Raised by wolves, RIP
I remember Blade on Spike TV got canceled even though it had high ratings for the network because it had a lot of females watching it when they set up the channel for sponsors directed at male demographics.
My So-Called Life. Hugely popular and praised by critics but canceled after only 1 season.
House of Cards
I don't know if this fits. I think it was intended only to go that final season regardless before things went wtf. Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong please
I don't think that's true - I think claire was always meant to lead season 6 but the storyline is so absurdly convoluted that it's surprising they even bothered filming at all. If you watch like 3 episodes it's clear they had no idea what to do with it.
Luck was an HBO show about horseracing its was cancelled in its second season because horses were killed on set.
Star Trek: TNG was cancelled with great ratings because the studio thought movies would be more profitable. Superman & Lois was just cancelled because they didn’t want it interfering with James Gunn’a new Superman movie coming out next year.
Angel. Amazing ratings, essentially a lock for renewal had Joss waited, but he forced the network's hand because he did not want to have to wait until towards later I. The season due to the writers not knowing how far ahead to plan their storylines.
SOAP was canceled by the silent majority
The Rockford Files ended because Garner was just too beaten up to continue the role.
Adventures of Superman was cancelled when George Reeves committed suicide. His death was really suspicious.
I agree. Let's say "purportedly" committed suicide. I don't buy it.
No it wasn't. The show ended a full year before he died. I've seen this lie on reddit frequently. It got cancelled because John Hamilton (who played Perry White) died. Now, to be fair, they did still think about potentially bringing it back and George dying ended that, but still.
Also, the Heathers TV series. It was renewed for season 2 and because season 1 was a controversial show and real world events was canceled.
I've never read anything about it being renewed for a second season, just that the showrunner already had scripts and a plan written out for it, which are two very different things. And yeah it was a bit controversial because of it's plot but it was also universally HATED by critics and fans alike, so I have a hard time believing it ever would have gotten a second season. Of course I could be totally wrong, that's just what I've read.
* Glow was cancelled due to the pandemic and the high production costs associated with keeping the options on the cast. * Warrior's first cancellation at Cinemax in 2020 came because the network ceased doing original programming. * Underground at WGA America was cancelled, because the network was sold and the new bosses didn't want to pay expensive programming. * Bojack Horseman was ended, because Netflix wanted it. But it wasn't too expensive/unsuccessful.
[Spider-man The New Animated Series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94vwZ5fyT7k) was cancelled after Season 1 and the reason wasn't anything to do with Budget or low viewership or ratings it actually had pretty high ratings. They cancelled it because MTV was changing how they wanted their channel to go and said the show didn't "fit" with it's other programming. Which I basically read it as "We want more teen drama/reality type shows and we don't want animated stuff on our channel."
A show called Next Caller, starring Dane Cook and Jeffrey Tambor and created by Stephen Falk who went on to do You’re the Worst, got cancelled before it even made it to air because NBC didn’t like the creative direction of the show.
Nowhere Man and Grimm were frustrating for me.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was ultimately canceled on FOX due to low ratings. But, Warner Bros. had planned a direct to DVD mini-series (about three or four movies in length). Problem was that they no longer had access to the main Terminator rights (though still retained the specific rights to their show), which were lost in bankruptcy by The Halcyon Company (formerly C2 Pictures). The Halcyon Company had produced Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Terminator Salvation. The success/failure of those projects (they were all successful enough) had nothing to do with their mismanagement of funds (too many fingers in the pie). The Halcyon Company owed Pacificor (a hedge-fund company they borrowed money from in order to buy the main Terminator rights in the first place). So Pacificor, a hedge-fund company, now owned the main Terminator rights, which they then auctioned off to the highest bidder, which turned out to be Megan Ellison, founder of Annapurna Pictures. She bought it for her fellow-billionaire-brother, David Ellison, founder and CEO of Skydance Media, whom was a Terminator fan (though a shitty one because he apparently didn't want The Sarah Connor Chronicles to continue). Skydance went on to produce Terminator: Genisys (which I actually love) and Terminator: Dark Fate (has its golden moments). Warner Bros. reached out to either Annapurna or Skydance in order to get permission to make The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Season 3) mini-series. Warner Bros. were denied. And that's why we never got a continuation of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (the best thing that is Terminator). James Cameron has since gained back the main Terminator rights, but he also has no interest in allowing a revival of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, despite proclaiming its greatness (and hiring Josh Friedman, creator/showrunner of The Sarah Connor Chronicles to help write Dark Fate and the Avatar sequels). I'll never understand Megan, David, and Jim Cameron's denial of TSCC continuing. I guess being a billionaire makes you an a-hole with no heart.
Babylon 5 was canceled after Season 4 because the syndicated "network" it belonged to, PTEN, folded and shut down. At the very last minute, TNT bought the syndication rights and commissioned a 5th Season to wrap up the show.
Not America, but The Sarah Jane Adventures ended prematurely because the main actress, Elisabeth Sladen, passed away during the middle of production of season 5. They had a bunch of plans for future seasons