- 18/06/2025
10 TV Shows Nobody Expected To Get Cancelled
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00:00The world of TV entertainment has always been perilous, but it's never felt more volatile or
00:05unpredictable than in the modern streaming era, and so it's distressingly common for shows to
00:11get abruptly cancelled out of nowhere, despite their apparent popularity, rave reviews, and how
00:17much of a sure thing they seemed on paper. So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture,
00:22and here are 10 TV shows nobody expected to get cancelled.
00:2610. Angel
00:29Let's kick things off with one of the most insane and unfortunate cancellation stories
00:34in TV history, the premature and wildly unnecessary demise of Angel. Despite the Buffy spin-off
00:42maintaining impressively consistent ratings across its five seasons, the show was abruptly
00:47canned by the WB midway through the airing of its fifth and ultimately final season. The
00:52reason for this? Creator Joss Whedon, fed up with his cast members turning down jobs while
00:57waiting for Angel to be renewed each season, asked Jordan Levin, WB's head of entertainment,
01:02to make an early decision on Angel's fate, feeling confident that it would be renewed
01:07due to the show's critical and rating success. But Levin, feeling pressured to answer, decided
01:12to cancel Angel, much to the shock of Whedon and the entire ensemble cast. As if the ambiguous
01:18conclusion of the show's fifth season didn't sting enough, Angel's head writer David Fury
01:23later, quote, guaranteed that if Whedon hadn't requested an early answer, it would have been
01:28renewed for a sixth season.
01:309. American Vandal
01:32Mockumentary series American Vandal remains one of the most ingenious and unexpected Netflix
01:38originals ever produced, and between rave reviews, its viral power on social media, low-budget and
01:45largely unknown cast, it seemed impossibly safe from the threat of cancellation. Yet just a month
01:50after its acclaimed second season premiered, Netflix unceremoniously cancelled American Vandal
01:56without explanation, a revelation that shocked the fanbase and left analysts grambling to comprehend
02:01the rationale. The most compelling theory is that Netflix cancelled it because it was produced by
02:06CBS television studios, and over the last five or so years, the streamer has steadily been
02:11decreasing its reliance on outside productions, preferring to keep development in-house to ensure
02:17they can retain the global rights forever. Even so, the producers vowed to shop American Vandal
02:23around to other networks, yet six years later, it infuriatingly still remains dead in the water.
02:29Considering the presumably low overheads compared to the other teen drama comedy series and its
02:35brilliantly evergreen premise, it's truly baffling that American Vandal didn't run for many,
02:40many seasons.
02:418. King of the Hill
02:43King of the Hill was one of TV's great, seemingly immovable institutions, an iconic animated series
02:50that had shockingly consistent ratings throughout its run. However, in 2008, Fox suddenly announced
02:56that the show's 13th season would be its last, leaving the fanbase straining to figure out the
03:01cause. As it turns out, Fox decided to can King of the Hill because they felt its time slot would
03:06be better served by another show, Seth MacFarlane's impending Family Guy spin-off, The Cleveland Show.
03:12Because Family Guy was a massive ratings hit for Fox, they evidently surmised that replacing King of the
03:17Hill with more Family Guy content would be better for their bottom line. Somewhat ironically,
03:22though, The Cleveland Show's ratings were ultimately only a fraction above King of the Hill's, making
03:27it tough to justify that decision to the animated comedy's loyal fanbase. There is a silver lining,
03:32though, given that a King of the Hill revival is currently in development to air on Hulu in the
03:37near future. Praise be.
03:397. Glow
03:41There's no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic had a brutal impact on TV and film production,
03:47especially throughout 2020. And one of the most gut-wrenching consequences of this was the
03:52cancellation of Netflix's beloved wrestling dramedy series Glow. In September 2019, Glow was
03:59actually renewed for a fourth and final season by Netflix, with production beginning in February 2020.
04:05But mere weeks later, the shoot was shut down due to the pandemic, with one episode already in the
04:10can and filming about to begin on the second. Months passed as the world dealt with the ramifications
04:15of the pandemic, and that October, the show's creators confirmed that Glow wouldn't be returning
04:21for season four after all. The reason for this? A combination of the additional costs of shooting
04:26the series amid pandemic restrictions, and the logistical challenges of shooting a wrestling
04:30series while maintaining COVID protocols. Furthermore, with season four having no chance
04:35of making it to air before 2022, Netflix felt this was too long a gap after season three was released
04:41in 2019, and so decided to pull the plug. Considering that Glow's third season ended
04:46on a tantalising cliffhanger, this was an especially painful un-renewal.
04:516. Star Trek The Next Generation
04:54There was absolutely no reason to believe that Star Trek The Next Generation wouldn't be returning
04:59for an eighth season, given that even season seven's least-watched episodes still pulled in
05:04a mighty 11.3 million viewers. Plus, the ensemble cast were all contracted for an eighth season,
05:11so what reason could there possibly be for a cancellation? Well, Paramount ultimately decided
05:16to end TNG after season seven because they wanted to begin making feature films with the cast instead,
05:22and felt that continuing TNG simultaneously would place a ceiling on the box office potential
05:27of the prospective movies. The studio was also reportedly concerned about rising cast salaries
05:32for season eight, and so opted to develop the film's Star Trek Generations instead.
05:37Paramount's TNG movies ended up being something of a mixed bag financially,
05:42though Generations and First Contact performed well, while Insurrection and Nemesis flopped.
05:47Many fans understandably can't stop fantasising about what season eight might have been,
05:52while to others, it was ultimately the right time to wrap things up.
05:56Well, if Star Trek is your thing, then do check out our sister channel, Trek Culture,
06:00where we talk about all the latest and greatest in relation to Star Trek.
06:045. Yellowstone
06:06As Yellowstone was a huge surprise ratings hit for Paramount, it seemed entirely plausible that
06:12they'd milk the mainline Western drama series for every last drop. And so, with viewing figures
06:18rising substantially season upon season, it was quite the shock when the network announced that
06:22Yellowstone would be wrapping up with season five, in large part due to star Kevin Costner's desire to
06:28quit the series to focus on his Horizon Western movie saga. But that wasn't all for Yellowstone,
06:33of course. With the cancellation, Paramount confirmed that a sequel series, later revealed
06:38to be The Madison, was already in development, with Michelle Pfeiffer set to star. Given this,
06:43and the success of recent spin-offs 1883 and 1923, as well as two other spin-offs currently in
06:49development, it's safe to say that the Yellowstone Empire will survive Costner's departure just fine,
06:54even if it remains surprising that the main series didn't end up chugging along for a dozen or so
06:59seasons.
07:004. The Peripheral
07:02Not unlike Glow, Amazon's sci-fi series The Peripheral was actually renewed for a second season before
07:08unexpected industry circumstances caused the streamer to reverse course. In what was nothing
07:14short of a rollercoaster ride of emotions for its fans, the show was finally renewed for season two
07:19in February 2023, more than two months after the first season finished airing. But then came the
07:25one-to-punch of the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes throughout 2023, bringing most
07:31American TV and film productions to a standstill. And so, with the shutdowns continuing for many
07:36months, in August 2023, Amazon announced that The Peripheral had now been cancelled, with industry
07:42analysts pointing to the fact that season two likely wouldn't have been ready to air until 2025,
07:48too long a wait for a mystery show which premiered in late 2022. All in all, it's an extremely
07:53unfortunate casualty of studios not giving actors and writers their fair due in short order.
07:593. The Dark Crystal
08:01Age of Resistance
08:02The Dark Crystal Age of Resistance received rave reviews for its masterful continuation of the
08:08dark fantasy world created by Jim Henson, once again brought to life by mesmerising practical
08:14puppetry from the Jim Henson Company. On September 19th, 2020, it even won an Emmy for Outstanding
08:20Children's Programme. And while a show with puppets was never going to be a ratings mega-hit in the
08:26modern era, Age of Resistance truly seemed like a passion project for Netflix. Plus, with all the
08:31sets and puppets already built, season two likely would have been a good measure cheaper. But we
08:36maddeningly never got to find out, as the day after the show's Emmy win, Netflix swiftly cancelled
08:41Age of Resistance. Though the streamer never reasoned why they canned the series, it almost
08:45certainly came down to the costs of producing such a lavish series versus the limited appeal of a
08:51puppet-based fantasy show. Even so, for many confident that Netflix was passionately flying
08:55the flag for The Dark Crystal, this cancellation came as quite the bummer surprise.
09:002. The Acolyte
09:01Even accepting the polarising audience response to the new Star Wars Disney Plus series The Acolyte,
09:07some of it genuine criticism, some of it clearly made entirely in bad faith, it was a genuine shock
09:13to see the show cancelled just six weeks after its first, and now only, season wrapped up its run.
09:19For starters, it's Star Wars. And up to this point, Disney hadn't cancelled any of their other live
09:24action Star Wars shows, with even the likes of The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi simply being
09:28considered not in active development. And given The Acolyte's strong early viewing figures, it was wholly
09:34plausible that Disney would give the show breathing room to further build a following throughout a
09:38second season. Even with the show's declining viewing figures as the season progressed, it seemed
09:43probable that Disney would simply leave the show in limbo at worst in an attempt to save face.
09:48But alas, they quite decisively announced that the show was outright cancelled in late August,
09:54leaving many nagging plot threads hanging in the air. For her part, star Amandla Stenberg said the news
10:00quote wasn't a huge shock due to the rampage of vitriol directed towards her and her fellow cast
10:05members ever since the project was announced. 1. Mindhunter
10:10Mindhunter is a classic case of a show that was incredibly popular within the niche of true
10:15crime lovers, though its passionate online fandom evidently didn't translate to major mainstream
10:20success. In early 2020, several months after season two was released, Mindhunter's third season
10:26was put on hold as its showrunner David Fincher ventured off to develop other projects, including
10:32his film Manc. This also resulted in the main cast members being released from their contracts.
10:37Fans still remained confident that season three would see the light of day, even as years of radio
10:42silence passed, but that hope was firmly stamped out in February 2023, when Fincher himself confirmed
10:48that Mindhunter had effectively been cancelled. In prior interviews, Fincher had suggested some of the
10:54reasons for the show's abrupt conclusion, namely that it quote, never got the numbers that justified
10:59the cost, and his own exhaustion with the time-consuming and mentally taxing nature of overseeing such an
11:04intense and meticulous TV series. It's a damn shame, but considering the near peerless polish and poise of
11:11those two masterful seasons, it's an understandable call on Fincher's part.
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