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Billion-dollar busts and canceled after one episode! Join us as we explore television's most spectacular failures of the past decade. Our countdown features shows that had massive budgets, big names attached, and incredible hype... only to crash and burn spectacularly when they hit screens. Which costly TV disaster surprised you the most?
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00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for TV's biggest failures between
00:102015 and 2025, based on relative commercial performance and critical reception.
00:2110. Penny Dreadful's City of Angels
00:24Raise your head, raise your voices, Lord, children, do it now, for the beast, Satan, is here.
00:38The gothic drama Petty Dreadful was such a cult hit across four seasons that Showtime commissioned a spin-off.
00:44Penny Dreadful's City of Angels moved the supernatural thrills and far greater human horrors to 1930s Los Angeles,
00:50with a budget of about $98 million.
00:52Come on, it's all too much. It's fake.
00:56So in all that distraction, we never ask the one question you're supposed to.
00:59Who has something to gain?
01:01The Lofty Project had the misfortune of erring early into the COVID-19 pandemic,
01:04but many viewers were also uncomfortable with the blatant allegories for contemporary social and political issues in America.
01:11You can't stand in the way of progress.
01:13When progress becomes barbarity, it ceases to be in the public interest.
01:18We are the public, sir.
01:21No matter the color of our skin.
01:23Unlike its predecessor, the show struggled to develop storylines dynamic enough to measure up to the dazzling production values,
01:29and with a gradual decline of always underwhelming ratings,
01:32Showtime canceled City of Angels, pulled its one season from streaming, and let their mistake fade into history.
01:38This is what you want to give the world.
01:41This?
01:43This, and so much more.
01:45Number 9. Gotham Knights
01:47The CW's DC shows are always a gamble for both viewers and the network.
01:51Though Gotham Knights was one of the franchise's less expensive productions, it was particularly disastrous.
01:57Turner, there are going to be some things coming out about your dad.
02:01So I have to ask you this.
02:05Did you know he was Batman?
02:07Fans immediately objected to the premise of Bruce Wayne being unmasked as Batman in death,
02:12leaving a new generation of heroes to solve his murder.
02:14The show was ultimately further panned for its clunky blend of YA melodrama and superhero cliches.
02:20You stole the school's driver's ed car?
02:23What? When you bring it back, it's called borrowing. Thank you.
02:26Some have even argued that it's one of the worst DC TV shows of all time.
02:30With a steep drop in immediately disappointing ratings, leading to cancellation,
02:34there's no arguing against Gotham Knights being one of the costliest debacles in the CW's franchise.
02:39Gotta say, I don't utterly loathe this new bat brat.
02:45You gotta work on the compliment thing.
02:47Number 8. The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power
02:50It's hard to articulate the hype surrounding Amazon's prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
02:55It's just as hard for casual viewers to understand how The Rings of Power is producing its third season.
03:01How am I to know which lies to follow?
03:05Sometimes we cannot know.
03:08Until we have touched the darkness.
03:10Amazon ordered a full five-season run for almost $1 billion,
03:15with the condition that they'd be charged $20 million for each installment cancelled.
03:19Unfortunately, the blockbuster series has seen a steep drop in viewership throughout its first two seasons.
03:24Always after a defeat,
03:28the shadow takes another shape,
03:30and grows again.
03:33Many still praise the show for its production and ambition,
03:36while others criticize it as too slow for such sweeping source material.
03:40Whether Amazon will decide it's worth it to eat the penalties,
03:43there's faint hope of The Rings of Power picking up commercial momentum.
03:46Judge the work.
03:49And leave judgment concerning those who wrought it to the judge who sees all things.
03:557. The Idol
03:57Abel, The Weeknd, Tez Faye,
03:59teamed up with HBO to tackle the misogyny and toxic egos of the pop industry.
04:03Pop music is like the ultimate Trojan horse.
04:07You get people to dance, you get people to sing along,
04:10to say whatever you want.
04:11This commentary was immediately undermined by director Amy Simons quitting over complaints
04:16as she overplayed a female perspective.
04:19Euphoria showrunner Sam Levinson came on to inflate the Idol's budget to $75 million,
04:24turning it into a disjointed melodrama driven by sex and misogynistic tropes.
04:29Is there a part of you that wonders if the reason you're stuck is because your mother's not around?
04:34Lily-Rose Depp was praised for her intense portrayal of a pop star
04:38and became one herself when the song, One of the Girls, became a sleeper hit.
04:42I wanna feel your hands on my neck like you never touched anyone else's.
04:47Otherwise, the meager audience's main hype was that you had to see how only five episodes
04:51earned the Idol the reputation as the worst show HBO ever produced.
04:566. Willow
04:57There is a balance between all things, light and shadow, good and evil, sweet and spicy.
05:09On top of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm gave it a cult classic
05:13in the fantasy genre.
05:15Well...
05:15Cult status isn't good enough for an eight-episode season that cost approximately $157 million.
05:21Disney Plus' sequel to Willow was naturally lauded for its technical aspects and actually
05:27won fans over with its lofty scope and faithful fun.
05:30You met my daughter, Ganoosh? Ganoosh?
05:33Willow!
05:34Huh?
05:38She's at that rude age.
05:40Still, the audience was too niche to save the show from cancellation.
05:43Two months after showrunner Jonathan Kazdan announced plans to continue Willow, it was controversially
05:48removed from Disney Plus altogether.
05:50I thought I could change it, but I'm not a great sorcerer.
05:56I'm just a farmer who got lucky.
05:58It's uncertain if the series will even have the opportunity to gain a nostalgic following,
06:02but its legacy as a financial misstep is definite.
06:06Number 5. Of Kings and Prophets
06:08You do not question his will.
06:12Then, if he cannot be questioned,
06:17what is his purpose?
06:20The Lord I revere does not slaughter women and children.
06:24A broadcast network better be looking at a prophet if it's capitalizing on the success
06:28of Game of Thrones.
06:29ABC's Of Kings and Prophets ultimately fell into that concept's worst tropes as a loose
06:34interpretation of the Bible's books of Samuel.
06:47Backlash against the epic sexual and violent content was matched only by criticism of its
06:52bloated storytelling.
06:53The show had already been delayed from the network's fall schedule due to production difficulties.
06:57We must unite the tribes to protect our future generations.
07:00How can we accept a leader that does not have the faith of the prophet?
07:04Ratings for Of Kings and Prophets were ultimately so low that it was cancelled and pulled from
07:09schedule after just two episodes.
07:11Of course, it would be hard for a show this ambitious and muddled to survive on ABC even
07:16without the unfortunate circumstances.
07:18David, with this oil you are anointed.
07:24Elohim
07:27has chosen this king.
07:29Number 4.
07:30Vinyl.
07:31As characteristic as Martin Scorsese's flair for crime dramas is his passion for music.
07:36Thus, his and Terrence Winter's follow-up to Boardwalk Empire would be an epic tribute to
07:40New York's chaotic record industry in the 1970s.
07:43You're right, Buck.
07:44You're right.
07:44Bigger they are, the worse it gets.
07:46Bigger they are?
07:47Let me explain something, my friend.
07:50There's always somebody bigger.
07:52And that's the money man.
07:53Vinyl's two-hour-long pilot episode received moderate viewership.
07:57But with the first season's potential and $100 million total budget, HBO promptly greenlit
08:02season two.
08:03Where was I?
08:04You were just telling us how much we suck.
08:06Right.
08:06But it's my job to help you suck less.
08:08They clearly weren't expecting ratings to plummet amid criticism of the show's excesses
08:13and increasingly contrived plot.
08:15Two months after the season finale, the network made the actually unsurprising decision to
08:19reverse the renewal.
08:20Welcome, everybody, to the official launch of Alibi Records.
08:26To start things off, I'd like to read a review.
08:30As heartbreaking as this was for Scorsese, Vinyl taught HBO the perils of signing onto an
08:35ambitious act with little mainstream appeal.
08:37Number 3.
08:38The Get Down.
08:45Sean Ryan held the always monumental task of chronicling the birth of hip-hop for Sony and
08:51Netflix.
08:52But after the showrunner left amid production delays, notorious musical maximalist Baz Luhrmann
08:57took over with great support from many icons of the genre.
09:00The Get Down ultimately cost a staggering $120 million, dividing audiences with its excessive
09:06style and ensemble narrative.
09:16Netflix's then-new decision to split the first season into two parts ultimately backfired,
09:21even as critics noted an improvement on Side B. Viewership continued to plummet until The
09:26Get Down became the platform's first blockbuster series to be cancelled. It certainly wouldn't
09:30be the last, but Netflix has rarely ever gotten itself in a jam that big.
09:34Get down!
09:35Get down, brother!
09:36Get down, brother!
09:37Make money, money, make money, money, money!
09:40Number 2.
09:41Inhumans.
09:42ABC's follow-up to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aimed to be an event on par with
09:46a Marvel Cinematic
09:47Universe film.
09:47I've been looking for you.
09:49You're one of us.
09:51What are we?
09:55We are Inhumans.
09:56Inhumans may not have cost quite that much, but it pushed the sensibilities of broadcast
10:00TV with big special effects and filming for IMAX. It even premiered in that big screen
10:06format around the world. Ultimately, though, critics felt that this spectacle was wasted
10:17on tedious story and production designs. Audiences agreed, as Inhumans lost a million viewers
10:23in its second week, and continued to drop in the ratings.
10:32The show was cancelled after one season, but cursed Disney for years by
10:36forcing them to sever its ties to the MCU.
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10:54Number 1.
10:55Jupiter's Legacy.
10:56He was the bad guy. We're supposed to get the bad guy.
10:59We have these powers for a reason. And with great power comes...
11:04Great responsibility.
11:05No. Well... Yeah.
11:08The success of grittier superhero shows can perhaps be linked to a certain self-awareness.
11:12Netflix must not have been aware of that when they sank $200 million into an eight-episode
11:18bold adaptation of Image Comics' Jupiter's Legacy.
11:21Okay, I get it. The code is a symbol for being a good boy and that we can't prevent loss
11:27or tragedy. I'm not naive.
11:29Thoughts.
11:31But the world never used to be so intentionally cruel.
11:34It was a big hit out of the gate, but mixed word of mouth for the caved, convoluted melodrama was
11:39quickly dashed by the standards set by the over-saturation of
11:42superhero properties. Between this, the departure of showrunner Steven S. DeKnight, and changes in management at Netflix, Jupiter's Legacy was
11:50cancelled
11:50until less than a month after its first season dropped. Its legacy now is a bitter reminder that with great
11:55TV budgets, comes the occasional great flop.
12:10What do you think are the biggest TV letdowns of the past decade? Flip over to the comments below.
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