Great TV shows can be like relationships, becoming part of our lives and proving tough to let go. It doesn’t matter whether a show is a stone-cold classic, if isn’t popular enough, or costs too much, the axe will inevitably come crashing down.
We look at the TV programmes whose premature cancellations felt particularly unjust, the ones that refused to be forgotten, and those that, with the help of fans’ pester power, have risen again.
Twin Peaks (1990-1991, 2017)
Twin Peaks was an instant hit, becoming ‘water cooler’ television, and scoring broadcaster ABC its highest ratings in four years in its prime timeslot. There was pressure from the network to quickly unmask the killer after the show was renewed, although Lynch had no interest in doing this at all. After the reveal, viewers lost interest, while Lynch and Frost took time off during the lengthy sophomore season, leading to a decline in quality. Following a couple of hiatuses, it was cancelled in 1991 by ABC, citing dwindling ratings and high costs.
However, in 2017, more than 25 years after its final episode aired, the show was revived for a third and final season, billed as Twin Peaks: The Return. Now the creators of a TV classic, Lynch and Frost were gifted greater artistic freedom by new network Showtime. After some wrangling, the budget was fixed but the amount of episodes remained flexible (in the end it ran to 18), with the pair pushing their wonderful weirdness even further.
Veronica Mars (2004-2007, 2019)
This smart and sassy show aired on UPN and its successor The CW and won no shortage of praise. Despite changing its format in the third season to focus on more quickly resolved mysteries to give new viewers entry points, Veronica Mars was sadly unable to attract the numbers it needed, and was put on hiatus part way through that season, before being cancelled.
And yet its story was far from over. After some trouble getting it off the ground through conventional channels, in 2013 Bell and Thomas launched a Kickstarter fundraiser to get a movie made. They set their goal at $2 million, reaching that in just 10 hours and breaking Kickstarter records. Eventually they raised more than $5.7 million, with the film released in cinemas a year later. Despite not exactly setting the box office alight (it actually made a loss), the saga had shown continuing enthusiasm for the series, and Hulu released an eight-episode fourth season in 2019 that was largely admired but ended on a devastating and divisive note.
My So-Called Life (1994-1995)
Holzman told Variety in 2015 that the network, ABC, was conflicted about the show the entire time. Unsure about who it was aimed at, it took My So-Called Life off the air before the season was through, due to underwhelming audience numbers. However, as Holzman recalls, she was never micromanaged and there were few creative constraints, which allowed for a bold approach to story and character, including the prominent, trailblazing inclusion of Angela’s queer, mixed-race, eyeliner-sporting bestie Rickie (played by Wilson Cruz).
As a result of such boundary-breaking, My So-Called Life left a significant legacy, despite its short time on screen (it lasted just 19 episodes). The way it challenged stereotypes and earnestly tackled issues stood in stark contrast to the glossy, jokey or sanitised teen shows of the time – like Beverley Hills, 90210 or Blossom – with its bracingly honest portrayal of adolescence setting the standard for years to come.
Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)
The baby of Paul Feig (who would go on to direct Bridesmaids) and executive produced by Apatow, Freaks and Geeks was set in a Michigan high school and aired from 1999 to 2000. Focusing on its students’ calamitous attempts to fit in and with many of its stories drawn from its writers’ own humiliating experiences, the show was axed with three of its 18 episodes still to go.
Freaks and Geeks had struggled to gain much of an audience after being lumbered with a tough Saturday night time slot and subjected to erratic scheduling. There was a sense, too, that the network was never really rooting for these lovable outsiders, with one of the show’s writers, Gabe Sachs, telling The Guardian in 2009: “They wanted James Franco to take off his shirt, Britney Spears to make a guest appearance, and everyone to actually be cool."
Firefly (2002)
Created by Whedon, overseen by showrunner Tim Minear and featuring a cast led by Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres and Morena Baccarin, it takes place far in the future, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, and follows the adventures of the ragtag crew of spaceship Serenity. Firefly made its debut on Fox in 2002 but was cancelled part-way through its 14 episode run, after just 11 instalments, leaving the remaining three episodes unaired. Contributing to its demise, Fox aired several episodes out of order, including, bizarrely, the double pilot, which had set the stage regarding the story and characters.
Firefly’s vocal fanbase kept hopes for a continuation alive. Although they were unable to find a network to pick up the show, the series was released on DVD in 2003 in its entirety. Its popularity persuaded Universal to produce a follow-up theatrical feature, 2005’s Serenity, which added Chiwetel Ejiofor to the mix. It was warmly welcomed but financially unsuccessful. Nevertheless, comics and tabletop role-playing games have kept the franchise alive, while Fillion revealed at Awesome Con earlier this year that an animated series is in advanced development, with his co-stars also expected to reprise their roles.
Arrested Development (2003-2006, 2013 & 2018-2019)
However, despite winning six Emmys and critical adoration, ratings were low and they only got lower, with Fox reducing the number of episodes each season and repeatedly changing the show’s time slot, before arresting its own development in 2006, by cancelling it after three seasons.
Fans were delighted when the show was eventually picked back up by Netflix, with a fourth season airing in 2013 which changed up the much-loved format, with each episode focusing on a different character (partly because of the challenge of getting the now in-demand cast back together). As funny as it still was, the revival missed the original’s ensemble feel and cast’s sparkling chemistry. A (presumably) final fifth season followed in 2018 and 2019, that was split into two parts. It reunited the gang in more satisfying style, but couldn’t mask the scent of a show past its best.
Deadwood (2004-2006)
Nominated for 28 Emmys during its run and winning eight, Deadwood attracted considerable acclaim for creator and showrunner David Milch (NYPD Blue) and his collaborators. However, in 2006, the show was unceremoniously cancelled ahead of the release of season 3, when HBO and its financial partners Paramount couldn’t agree on new terms, with declining ratings and huge production costs (estimated at $4.5m an episode) contributing factors.
Rome (2005-2007)
Turning thorny history into salacious, bloodthirsty and superbly acted drama, Rome was a co-production between HBO and the BBC. Created by John Milius, William J MacDonald and Bruno Heller, it debuted in 2005 to strong audience figures, with a second season announced only a few episodes into the airing of the first.
Rome was, however, notoriously expensive, costing more than $100 million for the first, 12-episode season. It was shot in the titular city and boasted filmic production values, as ancient Rome was elaborately recreated in Cinecittà Studios. Although thrillingly ambitious (and the winner of seven Emmys), the outlay was hard to justify once ratings declined, and HBO announced in 2006 that the second season would be its last. Heller, who was part way through writing it, quickly worked in elements from the planned third and fourth seasons, which, as he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2008, “accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end.” A movie was mooted around this time, but failed to materialise.
Pushing Daisies (2007-2009)
The show received a whopping 17 Emmy nominations during its two-season run, winning Barry Sonnenfeld an outstanding directing award and the effervescent Kristin Chenoweth a gong for supporting actress. It would make no difference, with falling ratings in the second season resulting in cancellation and ABC taking it off the air with three episodes to go.
Following the chop, there was talk of a mini-series, movie or musical. A ‘third season’ comic book series designed to tie up loose ends looked pretty likely, although this too never came to pass, due to the loss of its publisher, DC Comics’ WildStorm imprint, with Fuller only able to share a single, uncoloured page.
Southland (2009, 2010-2013)
Disregarding its critical reception and potential, two weeks before the second season was due to air, the show was cancelled by NBC. Fortunately, it was quickly picked up by cable channel TNT, which aired the six completed second season episodes. It then commissioned a ten-episode third season, with significant budget cuts and cast reductions, signing off on a fourth and fifth season, before the plug was pulled yet again. In 2013, Cudlitz, who played one of Southland’s most compelling and complicated characters, the gay cop John Cooper, was asked by IndieWire which aspect of the show he was most proud of, telling them: “We stayed true to the grittiness and the rawness of it right to the very end.”
Hannibal (2013-2015)
Taking artistic inspiration from cinematic icons David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg and Dario Argento, Fuller initially planned a seven-season arc, with three series of original material set to be followed by adaptations of the Thomas Harris novels Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, before ending on an original resolution. In the end, only three would be made, focusing on the dynamic between Lecter and FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), and incorporating elements of Harris’s novels earlier than planned.
One of the show’s executive producers, Martha De Laurentiis, told Yahoo in 2016 that online piracy was responsible for the show’s cancellation, with Hannibal the fifth most illegally downloaded show of 2013. Fuller held talks with Netflix in 2015, who couldn’t take the series on due to an existing deal with Amazon over streaming rights, while Amazon wanted a rapid turnaround in order to pick it up themselves. Fuller needed more time to work on scripts and was exploring a possible feature. Although nothing has emerged yet, the show’s loyal and strong-stomached fanbase are evidently ravenous for more. Fuller discussed a revival as late as last year, telling The Horror Queers podcast: “Everybody wants to return.” Watch this space.
Sense8 (2015-2018)
The show was shot on location around the world, hiking the costs, while five years’ worth of stories were mapped out at the outset. When Sense8 was cancelled after just two seasons, ending on a cliffhanger no less, fans fought back, with online petitions and social media pressure. Soon after, Lana posted a letter announcing a two-hour 2018 special, offering devotees some closure, while simultaneously getting their hopes up that this might not truly be the end.
Sitting down with Jerry Seinfeld at the Produced By Conference in 2017, Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos addressed the controversy around Sense8’s demise. “It broke all kinds of new ground, being a show rooted in concepts of gender and identity,” he admitted, before going on to explain: “The audience was very passionate but just not large enough to support the economics of something that big, even on our platform.”
The OA (2016-2019)
Unfortunately, in 2019 the show was cancelled, with the final episode really leaving fans hanging. As is so often true, it all came down to viewership versus cost, with an insider telling TheWrap that The OA was a “big creative swing” for Netflix – one that the streamer didn’t feel was paying off. The fans went wild on social media, even raising funds for a digital billboard in Times Square, while one went on hunger strike outside Netflix’s LA HQ, with Marling and Batmanglij visiting her.
The show has since featured in various best of the decade and 21st century lists (placing an impressive ninth on Empire’s 100 Best TV Shows of All Time in 2021), while its creators went on to produce the acclaimed miniseries A Murder at the End of the World for FX on Hulu in 2023. In 2025, one of The OA’s stars, Jason Isaacs, appeared on WABC’s Live with Kelly & Mark, where he insisted that The OA is “not over”, going on to say that, having spoken to Marling and Batmanglij, the trio were determined to do “whatever it takes”, adding: “We’re just not going to let it go.”
GLOW (2017-2019)
Gilpin is clearly as resilient in real life as those Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling were in the titular Netflix show, which ran for three seasons from 2017-2019, having been imagined into existence by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch. Set in the 1980s and blending comedy, drama and back-combed hair, GLOW starred Gilpin, Alison Brie, Sydelle Noel and Marc Maron, and dealt with the success, sexism and solidarity experienced by wrestlers on the female professional circuit.
It was initially renewed for a fourth and final run, but production was halted in early 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the first episode had been shot, Netflix cancelled the show later that year due to the hike in costs and the difficulty of managing an on-set outbreak because of the wrestling theme. Brie told Decider in 2022 that the cancellation was “the great heartbreak of my career”, with Gilpin remaining defiant: “I think even though we got cancelled, it’s like, yeah, we still did it though.”
Mindhunter (2017-2019)
Mindhunter had all the makings of a hit. It was renewed for a second season by Netflix before the first had even debuted, while the critics lapped it up, praising its cinematic visuals and psychological depth. Although McCallany suggested that Fincher had five seasons planned, development of a third was paused in 2019 to allow the director to finish his movie Mank. It was a delay that became indefinite, with Fincher admitting to Variety that he “needed some time away”, after the demands of producing the second season (Fincher ended up overseeing things after the showrunner was reportedly fired and eight of the scripts were binned).
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