NBC has had a fairly consistent trend of successful comedies in the past few years, which unfortunately seems to have ended with one of its leading comedy shows, Sunnyside . The series was marketed as a promising comedy starring the classic popular actor and comedian from Harold & Kumar , Kal Penn. Unfortunately, the show didn’t premiere to great ratings, as it suffered from a fairly unsuccessful September premiere.
Sunnyside reportedly earned the lowest ratings out of any freshman broadcast series in the past few years, and when the studio saw that figures weren’t picking up, they knew it was time to ax the show. The last few episodes will air and remain on NBC’s app and website, but it’s very unlikely that we’ll see another season. Perhaps the actor’s appeal began to fade over time, or perhaps the show just didn’t hit the right audiences.
The Passage
Fox's The Passage started out as a very promising show, based on a horror novel trilogy which was highly acclaimed and very successful. The show centers around the life of Amy Bellafonte, who is humanity's last hope of being saved from a vampire infection that threatens to destroy humanity.
This vampire thriller was canceled prematurely at the end of its first season, likely due to the show's low ratings, which began at 5.2 million and fell weekly until reaching a low of just over 3 million by the end of the first season. Fox must have felt that the magic of the show was quickly wearing off, despite having a relatively strong start. It's last episode, 'Last Lesson', was definitely a lesson in how not to premiere a show.
Splitting Up Together
Splitting Up Together was a comedy show starring Jenna Fischer, Oliver Hudson, Bobby Lee, Diane Farr, Lindsay Price, and a few other lesser-known actors. The show follows a couple with three children who are going through a divorce which happens to reignite their marriage. It lasted for two seasons, with the first being only eight episodes long and the second having more than twice as many episodes.
ABC’s comedy show received mixed approval (you could also say that reviews were "split") and eventually the show was canceled by the network amidst a slew of cancellations by the broadcasting company. Splitting Up Together received a rating of 6.9 out of 10 on IMDb and was considered an OK show. The first season was about the couple getting divorced and the second was about the fallout of their one night stand. Its cancellation wasn't met with too much fuss from fans, who had mostly split up from the show themselves by then.
Channel Zero
Channel Zero is a horror anthology show that managed to terrify viewers for four full seasons and 24 episodes. It features self-contained episodes, each featuring its own scary premise based on popular Creepypastas. Channel Zero received generally positive reviews and was honestly considered one of the scariest shows on television at the time. It received a 93% average rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and an 83% average rating from viewers.
The horror show was cancelled after four seasons due to decreasing ratings, as revealed by show-runner, Nick Antcosca, on Instagram. He wrote: “After 4 seasons, Channel Zero is no more at SYFY. I loved making this show and I would have loved to do more… but I can’t complain too much about doing 4 stories I loved with people who I loved working with.” If you’re looking for a terrifying self-contained show to watch in your free time, you can stream the show on Syfy’s various affiliate networks.
Designated Survivor
Designated Survivor had a tough journey in its three year life, starting from a skipped pilot that went straight into the first season, to then being canceled three years later. A third season was made after Netflix rescued the show from Hollywood's graveyard, but it was canceled again just a few months later. Fans were originally rejoiced when they believed that the series was being picked up after such a long time, but were eventually disappointed when the fourth season was canceled.
Designated Survivor is a political thriller that attempted to reach the levels of success that House of Cards achieved, but despite its strong opening with over 10 million viewers, ratings quickly tanked and were down to less than an average of 3.5 million by the second season. The show was nominated as the Most Exciting TV Series by TV Guide, but it didn't exactly manage to excite people for long enough.