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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 ratings 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 without
01:56explanation, a revelation that shocked the fanbase and left analysts scrambling to comprehend the
02:02rationale. 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 decreasing
02:12its reliance on outside productions, preferring to keep development in-house to ensure they can
02:17retain the global rights forever. Even so, the producers vowed to shop American Vandal around to
02:23other 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
03:17the Hill 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 actually
03:59renewed for a fourth and final season by Netflix, with production beginning in February 2020. But
04:05mere weeks later, the shoot was shut down due to the pandemic, with one episode already in the can
04:11and filming about to begin on the second. Months passed as the world dealt with the ramifications of
04:16the pandemic. And that October, the show's creators confirmed that Glow wouldn't be returning for
04:21season 4 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 4 having no chance of
04:35making it to air before 2022, Netflix felt this was too long a gap after season 3 was released in
04:412019, and so decided to pull the plug. Considering that Glow's third season ended on a tantalising
04:47cliffhanger, 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 7's least-watched episode still pulled in a mighty
05:0511.3 million viewers. Plus, the ensemble cast were all contracted for an eighth season, so what reason
05:11could there possibly be for a cancellation? Well, Paramount ultimately decided to end TNG after
05:17season 7 because they wanted to begin making feature films with the cast instead, and felt that
05:22continuing TNG simultaneously would place a ceiling on the box office potential of the prospective movies.
05:29The studio was also reportedly concerned about rising cast salaries for season 8, and so opted to
05:34develop the film's Star Trek Generations instead. Paramount's TNG movies ended up being something
05:40of a mixed bag financially, though Generations and First Contact performed well, while Insurrection
05:46and Nemesis flopped. Many fans understandably can't stop fantasising about what season 8 might have
05:52been, while to others it was ultimately the right time to wrap things up. Well, if Star Trek is your
05:57thing, then do check out our sister channel Trek Culture, where we talk about all the latest and greatest
06:02in relation to Star Trek. 5. 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 rising
06:18substantially season upon season, it was quite the shock when the network announced that Yellowstone
06:23would be wrapping up with season 5, in large part due to star Kevin Costner's desire to quit the
06:28series to focus on his Horizon Western movie saga. But that wasn't all for Yellowstone, of course.
06:34With the cancellation, Paramount confirmed that the sequel series, later revealed to be The Madison,
06:39was already in development, with Michelle Pfeiffer set to star. Given this and the success of recent
06:44spinoffs 1883 and 1923, as well as two other spinoffs currently in development, it's safe to say that
06:51the Yellowstone Empire will survive Costner's departure just fine, even if it remains surprising that the main
06:57series didn't end up chugging along for a dozen or so seasons.
07:004. The Peripheral
07:02Not unlike Glow, Amazon 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 2 in
07:19February 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 2 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 2 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
09:23live-action Star Wars shows, with even the likes of The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi simply
09:28being considered not in active development. And given The Acolyte's strong early viewing figures,
09:33it was wholly plausible that Disney would give the show breathing room to further build a
09:37following throughout a second season. Even with the show's declining viewing figures as the season
09:42progressed, it seemed probable that Disney would simply leave the show in limbo at worst in an
09:47attempt to save face. But alas, they quite decisively announced that the show was outright
09:52cancelled in late August, leaving many nagging plot threads hanging in the air. For her part,
09:57star Amandla Stenberg said the news, quote, wasn't a huge shock due to the rampage of vitriol directed
10:03towards her and her fellow cast members ever since the project was announced.
10:081. 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 the
10:59cost, and his own exhaustion with the time-consuming and mentally taxing nature of overseeing such an intense
11:05and meticulous TV series. It's a damn shame, but considering the near-peerless polish and poise of those
11:11two masterful seasons, it's an understandable call on Fincher's part.
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