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.
Sunnyside
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.
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.
Proven Innocent
Fox's legal drama Proven Innocent was canceled after just one season of fairly boring narratives and mediocre acting. The show had just 3 million viewers at its debut and finished its 13th episode with a little over 1.5 million viewers. The premise of Proven Innocent is basically a "case of the day" format where the legal team of the show tried to reverse a wrongful conviction of the current episode's convicted criminal.
Proven Innocent was apparently unable to reverse its own judgment, and was deemed by Fox to be not interesting enough for more than one season. Reviewers have definitely played on the name of the show, joking about it being guilty of too many TV show sins. It was also criticized by fans for a lack of attention to details and way too much emphasis on the show's girl-on-girl romance, as opposed to the actual crime subjects.
The Deuce
The Deuce is a fantastic drama show which looks at life in New York City in the '70s and '80s, when prostitution and porn were rampant. It stars the two acting icons James Franco, who plays both Vincent Martino, a bartender, and Frankie Martino, a gambler (they're twin brothers), and Maggie Gyllenhaal who portrays Candy, a sex worker who works her way up the porn industry.
The show has received excellent reviews from both critics and fans, praising it for the excellent acting and tight story progression that never lets up until the end. The Deuce premiered with just over a million viewers on its debut and retained much of its ratings throughout its three seasons. It was concluded on its third season, with a finale that fast forwards into the future, showing us how the characters ended up. Both HBO, the show's network, and the show's creator have confirmed that the series was officially concluded and not likely to continue.