10 TV Shows Nobody Expected To Get Cancelled
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00:00The world of TV entertainment has always been perilous,
00:03but it's never felt more volatile or unpredictable
00:06than in the modern streaming era.
00:08And so, it's distressingly common for shows to get
00:11abruptly cancelled out of nowhere,
00:13despite their apparent popularity, rave reviews,
00:17and how much of a sure thing they seemed on paper.
00:20So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture,
00:22and here are 10 TV Shows Nobody Expected to Get Cancelled.
00:27Number 10, Angel.
00:29Let's kick things off with one of the most insane
00:32and unfortunate cancellation stories in TV history,
00:36the premature and wildly unnecessary demise of Angel.
00:40Despite the Buffy spin-off maintaining impressively
00:43consistent ratings across its five seasons,
00:46the show was abruptly canned by The WB
00:48midway through the airing of its fifth
00:50and ultimately final season.
00:52The reason for this?
00:53Creator Joss Whedon, fed up with his cast members
00:56turning down jobs while waiting for Angel
00:58to be renewed each season,
01:00asked Jordan Levin, WB's head of entertainment,
01:02to make an early decision on Angel's fate,
01:05feeling confident that it would be renewed
01:07due to the show's critical and rating success.
01:10But Levin, feeling pressured to answer,
01:12decided to cancel Angel,
01:14much to the shock of Whedon and the entire ensemble cast.
01:17As if the ambiguous conclusion of the show's fifth season
01:20didn't sting enough, Angel's head writer David Fury
01:23later, quote, guaranteed that if Whedon
01:25hadn't requested an early answer,
01:27it would have been renewed for a sixth season.
01:30Number nine, American Vandal.
01:32Mockumentary series American Vandal
01:35remains one of the most ingenious
01:37and unexpected Netflix originals ever produced.
01:40And between rave reviews,
01:42its viral power on social media,
01:44low budget and largely unknown cast,
01:46it seemed impossibly safe from the threat of cancellation.
01:49Yet just a month after its acclaimed
01:51second season premiered,
01:53Netflix unceremoniously cancelled
01:55American Vandal without explanation,
01:57a revelation that shocked the fan base
01:59and left analysts scrambling to comprehend the rationale.
02:02The most compelling theory is that Netflix cancelled it
02:05because it was produced by CBS Television Studios.
02:08And over the last five or so years,
02:10the streamer has steadily been decreasing
02:12its reliance on outside productions,
02:14preferring to keep development in-house
02:16to ensure they can retain the global rights forever.
02:19Even so, the producers vowed to shop
02:22American Vandal around to other networks.
02:24Yet six years later,
02:26it infuriatingly still remains dead in the water.
02:29Considering the presumably low overheads
02:31compared to the other teen drama comedy series
02:34and its brilliantly evergreen premise,
02:36it's truly baffling that American Vandal
02:38didn't run for many, many seasons.
02:41Number eight, King of the Hill.
02:44King of the Hill was one of TV's
02:45great seemingly immovable institutions.
02:48An iconic animated series that had
02:50shockingly consistent ratings throughout its run.
02:53However, in 2008, Fox suddenly announced
02:56that the show's 13th season would be its last,
02:59leaving the fan base straining to figure out the cause.
03:02As it turns out, Fox decided to can King of the Hill
03:05because they felt its time slot
03:06would be better served by another show,
03:08Seth MacFarlane's impending Family Guy spinoff,
03:11The Cleveland Show.
03:12Because Family Guy was a massive ratings hit for Fox,
03:15they evidently surmised that replacing King of the Hill
03:18with more Family Guy content
03:19would be better for their bottom line.
03:21Somewhat ironically though,
03:23The Cleveland Show's ratings were ultimately
03:25only a fraction above King of the Hill's,
03:27making it tough to justify that decision
03:29to the animated comedy's loyal fan base.
03:31There is a silver lining though,
03:33given that a King of the Hill revival
03:34is currently in development
03:36to air on Hulu in the near future.
03:38Praise be.
03:39Number seven, Glow.
03:41There's no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic
03:44had a brutal impact on TV and film production.
03:48Especially throughout 2020.
03:50And one of the most gut-wrenching consequences of this
03:52was the cancellation of Netflix's beloved
03:54wrestling dramedy series, Glow.
03:56In September 2019,
03:58Glow was actually renewed for a fourth and final season
04:01by Netflix,
04:02with production beginning in February 2020.
04:05But mere weeks later,
04:06the shoot was shut down due to the pandemic,
04:08with one episode already in the can
04:11and filming about to begin on the second.
04:13Months passed as the world dealt with the ramifications
04:16of the pandemic.
04:17And that October, the show's creators confirmed
04:19that Glow wouldn't be returning for season four after all.
04:22The reason for this?
04:23A combination of the additional costs
04:25of shooting the series amid pandemic restrictions
04:28and the logistical challenges of shooting a wrestling series
04:31while maintaining COVID protocols.
04:33Furthermore, with season four having no chance
04:35of making it to air before 2022,
04:37Netflix felt this was too long a gap
04:39after season three was released in 2019,
04:42and so decided to pull the plug.
04:44Considering that Glow's third season
04:46ended on a tantalising cliffhanger,
04:48this was an especially painful un-renewal.
04:51Number six, Star Trek The Next Generation.
04:54There was absolutely no reason to believe
04:56that Star Trek The Next Generation
04:58wouldn't be returning for an eighth season,
05:00given that even season seven's least-watched episode
05:03still pulled in a mighty 11.3 million viewers.
05:07Plus, the ensemble cast were all contracted
05:09for an eighth season.
05:10So what reason could there possibly be
05:13for a cancellation?
05:14Well, Paramount ultimately decided to end TNG
05:17after season seven because they wanted to begin
05:19making feature films with the cast instead,
05:22and felt that continuing TNG simultaneously
05:24would place a ceiling on the box office potential
05:27of the prospective movies.
05:29The studio was also reportedly concerned
05:31about rising cast salaries for season eight,
05:33and so opted to develop the film Star Trek Generations instead.
05:37Paramount's TNG movies ended up being
05:40something of a mixed bag financially,
05:42though Generations and First Contact performed well,
05:45while Insurrection and Nemesis flopped.
05:48Many fans understandably can't stop fantasizing
05:50about what season eight might have been.
05:52While to others, it was ultimately the right time
05:55to wrap things up.
05:56Well, if Star Trek is your thing,
05:57then do check out our sister channel, Trek Culture,
06:00where we talk about all the latest and greatest
06:02in relation to Star Trek.
06:04Number five, Yellowstone.
06:07As Yellowstone was a huge surprise ratings hit
06:10for Paramount, it seemed entirely plausible
06:12that they'd milk the mainline Western drama series
06:15for every last drop.
06:16And so, with viewing figures rising substantially
06:19season upon season, it was quite the shock
06:21when the network announced that Yellowstone
06:23would be wrapping up with season five,
06:25in large part due to star Kevin Costner's desire
06:28to quit the series to focus on his horizon
06:30Western movie saga.
06:31But that wasn't all for Yellowstone, of course.
06:34With the cancellation, Paramount confirmed
06:36that a sequel series, later revealed to be The Madison,
06:39was already in development, with Michelle Pfeiffer
06:41set to star.
06:42Given this and the success of recent spinoffs,
06:441883 and 1923, as well as two other spinoffs
06:48currently in development, it's safe to say
06:50that The Yellowstone Empire will survive
06:53Costner's departure just fine.
06:54Even if it remains surprising that the main series
06:57didn't end up chugging along for a dozen or so seasons.
07:00Number four, The Peripheral.
07:02Not unlike GLOW, Amazon's sci-fi series, The Peripheral,
07:06was actually renewed for a second season
07:08before unexpected industry circumstances
07:11caused the streamer to reverse course.
07:13In what was nothing short of a rollercoaster ride
07:15of emotions for its fans, the show was finally renewed
07:18for season two in February 2023,
07:21more than two months after the first season finished airing.
07:24But then came the one-two punch of the SAG-AFTRA
07:27and Writers Guild of America strikes throughout 2023,
07:31bringing most American TV and film productions
07:33to a standstill.
07:34And so, with the shutdowns continuing for many months,
07:37in August 2023, Amazon announced that The Peripheral
07:40had now been cancelled, with industry analysts
07:43pointing to the fact that season two likely
07:45wouldn't have been ready to air until 2025,
07:48too long a wait for a mystery show
07:50which premiered in late 2022.
07:52All in all, it's an extremely unfortunate casualty
07:55of studios not giving actors and writers
07:57their fair due in short order.
07:59Number three, The Dark Crystal Age of Resistance.
08:02The Dark Crystal Age of Resistance received
08:05rave reviews for its masterful continuation
08:08of the dark fantasy world created by Jim Henson,
08:11once again brought to life by mesmerising
08:13practical puppetry from The Jim Henson Company.
08:16On September 19th, 2020, it even won an Emmy
08:20for Outstanding Children's Program.
08:22And while a show with puppets was never going to be
08:24a ratings mega hit in the modern era,
08:26Age of Resistance truly seemed like a passion project
08:29for Netflix.
08:30Plus, with all the sets and puppets already built,
08:32season two likely would have been a good measure cheaper.
08:35But we maddeningly never got to find out,
08:38as the day after the show's Emmy win,
08:39Netflix swiftly cancelled Age of Resistance.
08:42Though the streamer never reasoned why they canned
08:44the series, it almost certainly came down to the costs
08:47of producing such a lavish series versus the limited appeal
08:50of a puppet-based fantasy show.
08:52Even so, for many confident that Netflix was passionately
08:55flying the flag for The Dark Crystal,
08:57this cancellation came as quite the bummer surprise.
08:59Number two, The Acolyte.
09:01Even accepting the polarising audience response
09:05to the new Star Wars Disney Plus series, The Acolyte,
09:07some of it genuine criticism, some of it clearly made
09:10entirely in bad faith, it was a genuine shock
09:13to see the show cancelled just six weeks after its first
09:16and now only season wrapped up its run.
09:18For starters, it's Star Wars.
09:20And up to this point, Disney hadn't cancelled any
09:23of their other live-action Star Wars shows,
09:25with even the likes of The Book of Boba Fett
09:26and Obi-Wan Kenobi simply being considered
09:29not in active development.
09:30And given The Acolyte's strong early viewing figures,
09:33it was wholly plausible that Disney would give the show
09:36breathing room to further build a following
09:38throughout a second season.
09:39Even with the show's declining viewing figures
09:41as the season progressed, it seemed probable
09:44that Disney would simply leave the show in limbo at worst
09:47in an attempt to save face.
09:48But alas, they quite decisively announced
09:51that the show was outright cancelled in late August,
09:54leaving many nagging plot threads hanging in the air.
09:57For her part, star Amandla Stenberg said the news
10:00quote, wasn't a huge shock due to the rampage
10:02of vitriol directed towards her and her fellow cast members
10:06ever since the project was announced.
10:081. Mindhunter
10:10Mindhunter is a classic case of a show
10:13that was incredibly popular within the niche
10:15of true crime lovers, though its passionate online fandom
10:18evidently didn't translate to major mainstream success.
10:21In early 2020, several months after Season 2 was released,
10:25Mindhunter's third season was put on hold
10:27as its showrunner, David Fincher, ventured off
10:30to develop other projects, including his film Mank.
10:33This also resulted in the main cast members
10:35being released from their contracts.
10:37Fans still remained confident that Season 3
10:39would see the light of day, even as years of radio silence passed,
10:43but that hope was firmly stamped out in February 2023,
10:47when Fincher himself confirmed that Mindhunter
10:49had effectively been cancelled.
10:51In prior interviews, Fincher had suggested
10:53some of the reasons for the show's abrupt conclusion,
10:56namely that it quote, never got the numbers
10:58that justified the cost, and his own exhaustion
11:01with the time-consuming and mentally taxing nature
11:03of overseeing such an intense and meticulous TV series.
11:07It's a damn shame, but considering the near-peerless
11:10polish and poise of those two masterful seasons,
11:13it's an understandable call on Fincher's part.