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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 due to the
01:07show's critical and ratings success. But Levin, feeling pressured to answer, decided to cancel
01:13Angel, much to the shock of Whedon and the entire ensemble cast. As if the ambiguous conclusion of the
01:19show's fifth season didn't sting enough, Angel's head writer David Fury later, quote,
01:24guaranteed that if Whedon hadn't requested an early answer, it would have been renewed for a sixth
01:29season.
01:309. American Vandal
01:33Mockumentary series American Vandal remains one of the most ingenious and unexpected Netflix originals
01:39ever produced. And between rave reviews, its viral power on social media, low-budget and largely
01:45unknown cast, it seemed impossibly safe from the threat of cancellation. Yet just a month after
01:51its 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 CBS
02:06Television Studios, and over the last five or so years, the streamer has steadily been decreasing its
02:12reliance on outside productions, preferring to keep development in-house to ensure they can retain
02:18the global rights forever. Even so, the producers vowed to shop American Vandal around to other
02:24networks. Yet six years later, it infuriatingly still remains dead in the water. Considering the
02:30presumably low overheads compared to the other teen drama comedy series and its brilliantly evergreen
02:36premise, it's truly baffling that American Vandal didn't run for many, many 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
03:06better 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 it
03:27tough to justify that decision to the animated comedy's loyal fanbase. There is a silver lining though,
03:32given that a King of the Hill revival is currently in development to air on Hulu in the near future.
03:38Praise be.
03:397. Glow
03:41There's no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic had a brutal impact on TV and film production,
03:48especially 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
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 on
04:46a tantalising cliffhanger, this was an especially painful un-renewal.
04:50Number 6, Star Trek The Next Generation. There was absolutely no reason to believe that Star
04:57Trek The Next Generation wouldn't be returning for an eighth season, given that even season
05:01seven's least watched episode still pulled in a mighty 11.3 million viewers. Plus, the
05:08ensemble cast were all contracted for an eighth season, so what reason could there possibly
05:12be for a cancellation? Well, Paramount ultimately decided to end TNG after season seven because
05:18they wanted to begin making feature films with the cast instead, and felt that continuing TNG
05:23simultaneously 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 eight, and so
05:34opted to develop the film's Star Trek Generations instead. Paramount's TNG movies ended up being
05:39something of a mixed bag financially, though Generations and First Contact performed well,
05:45while Insurrection and Nemesis flopped. Many fans understandably can't stop fantasising
05:50about what season eight might have been, while to others it was ultimately the right time to wrap
05:55things up. Well, 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.
06:04Number 5, Yellowstone. As Yellowstone was a huge surprise ratings hit for Paramount,
06:10it seemed entirely plausible that they'd milk the mainline Western drama series for every last drop.
06:16And so, with viewing figures rising substantially season upon season, it was quite the shock when
06:21the network announced that Yellowstone would be wrapping up with season five, in large part due to
06:26star Kevin Costner's desire to quit the series to focus on his Horizon Western movie saga.
06:31But that wasn't all for Yellowstone, of course. With the cancellation, Paramount confirmed that the
06:36sequel series, later revealed to be The Madison, was already in development, with Michelle Pfeiffer set
06:41to star. Given this and the success of recent spinoffs 1883 and 1923, as well as two other
06:48spinoffs currently in development, it's safe to say that the Yellowstone Empire will survive
06:53Costner's departure just fine, even if it remains surprising that the main series didn't end up chugging
06:58along 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 two
07:19in February 2023, more than two months after the first season finished airing. But then came the
07:25one-two 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.
07:52All in all, it's an extremely unfortunate casualty of studios not giving actors and
07:56writers 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 19, 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
08:25modern 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 certainly
08:46came down to the costs of producing such a lavish series versus the limited appeal of a puppet-based
08:51fantasy show. Even so, for many confident that Netflix was passionately flying the flag for The
08:56Dark 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,
09:08some of it genuine criticism, some of it clearly made entirely in bad faith, it was a genuine shock to
09:13see 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 following
09:38throughout a second season. Even with the show's declining viewing figures as the season progressed,
09:42it seemed probable that Disney would simply leave the show in limbo at worst in an attempt to save
09:48face. But 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
09:59news, quote, wasn't a huge shock due to the rampage of vitriol directed towards her and her fellow
10:05cast members ever since the project was announced.
10:071. Mindhunter
10:10Mindhunter is a classic case of a show that was incredibly popular within the niche of true crime
10:15lovers, 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 was put
10:27on hold as its showrunner David Fincher ventured off to develop other projects, including his film
10:32This also resulted in the main cast members being released from their contracts. Fans still remained
10:38confident that season three would see the light of day, even as years of radio silence passed, but that
10:43hope was firmly stamped out in February 2023, when Fincher himself confirmed that Mindhunter had effectively
10:50been cancelled. In prior interviews, Fincher had suggested some of the reasons for the show's abrupt
10:55conclusion, namely that it, quote, never got the numbers that justified the cost, and his own exhaustion with the
11:01time-consuming and mentally taxing nature of overseeing such an intense and meticulous TV series.
11:07It's a damn shame, but considering the near-peerless polish and poise of those two
11:11masterful seasons, it's an understandable call on Fincher's part.
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