10 Best TV Shows That Only Lasted One Season

Nothing lasts forever — or sometimes even to Season 2. Nowhere is that more true than in the ever-changing landscape of television. If your favorite show doesn’t bring in the ratings the network is looking for — or the viewership metrics that streamers live and die by — then that show will be thrown out faster than month-old milk. It doesn’t matter how good it is, how many critics praise it, how many awards it has won, or even how many fans adore it so much they dress up as its characters; if a show doesn’t bring home the bacon, it’ll be canceled.

That’s the harsh reality that TV lovers have had to live with since the first broadcast came over the airwaves. That doesn’t mean it isn’t still painful to say goodbye to shows we loved, especially when they’re unceremoniously dumped. Besides starting an online petition (which, uh, don’t usually work), there’s nothing much we can do besides complain, which is exactly what we’re going to do! 

Some of these shows were canceled before they had the opportunity to find an audience, while others were bounced around on different nights to the point they didn’t stand a chance. Each holds a special place in our hearts, even if they’re no longer on our TV sets. So join us as we celebrate (and mourn) the 10 best TV shows that lasted only one season. (This isn’t a ranking, because we love them all, and so should you.)

“Firefly” is probably the most famous one-and-done, first-season failure in broadcast TV history, especially when it comes to science fiction. Though really, calling it a “failure” is a bit unfair, as it continues to be beloved by “Browncoats” around the world — a term adopted by “Firefly” fans in reference to the soldiers who fought for the losing Independent Planets in the Unification War and wore the uniform of the brown leather trenchcoats. There’s something poetic about this, as the name “Browncoats” is seen as a badge of honor for the losing side in a conflict, which is exactly how “Firefly” fans feel about the show being canceled.

“Firefly” ran for only 14 episodes from Sept. 20 to Dec. 20, 2002, but its time on TV was almost as tumultuous as anything seen on screen. Yes, ratings were generally low, but the Fox network handled the show poorly, saddling it with bad time slots and even airing episodes out of order. “Firefly” really didn’t stand a chance with management like that, so its cancellation was inevitable. However, “Firefly” did manage to build a passionate fan base, quickly becoming a cult classic. Sensing the potential, the studio made a movie sequel continuing the story. Sadly, “Serenity” didn’t fare much better, earning only $40 million worldwide in 2005.

“Saturday Night Live” has been a breeding ground for big-screen comedy greats since its inception. Notable “SNL” A-list alums include Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell… we could go on. But that’s to be expected, given the show has run for 50 years and counting. Similarly impressive are the stars that emerged from “Freaks & Geeks,” despite the show only lasting one season: Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps, and Seth Rogen, to name a few. Oh, and don’t forget the series’ creator, Judd Apatow, himself also an A-lister in big-screen comedy. So you could say that, despite taking place in a high school, “Freaks & Geeks” was really more of a graduate school for soon-to-be comedy stars.

So why did “Freaks & Geeks” fail, lasting just 18 episodes from Sept. 25, 1999, to Oct. 17, 2000, on NBC? The reason is more predictable than any trite TV show: disagreements with the show’s creators and inconsistent scheduling, ultimately leading to low ratings and finally, cancellation. It didn’t take long for “Freaks & Geeks” to gain cult status, especially with the rise of DVDs bringing the show to viewers who missed it on TV, but it was too little, too late. But given that just about everyone involved went on to bigger and better things, we’d say they turned out all right.

Since the dawn of TV, there have always been cooking stars (think Julia Child or the “Galloping Gourmet,” Graham Kerr), but cooking shows have never been this ubiquitous. From Gordon Ramsay to Bobby Flay to Rachael Ray to Guy Fieri, chefs are no longer just TV stars, but multimedia brands unto themselves. Then there are the cooking competition shows: “Great British Bakeoff,” “Top Chef,” “Iron Chef,” we could go on. And we’re not even talking about the bevy of chefs, both professional and amateur, that have filled up our YouTube and TikTok algorithms since we first searched for “how to make a great grilled cheese.” And who can forget “The Bear” on FX?

Yeah, it’s a lot. But there was a time in the not-too-distant past when cooking shows weren’t a sure thing (and nor was A-list movie star Bradley Cooper). From Sept. 19 to Dec. 5, 2005, Cooper starred as Jack Bourdain on Fox’s “Kitchen Confidential,” based on the book by the late Anthony Bourdain, arguably the most famous celebrity chef of them all. Despite those ingredients, “Kitchen Confidential” failed to cook. Fox pulled the plug on the low-performing chef sitcom, only airing four out of 13 filmed episodes, though it released the full season on DVD. That’s too bad, as the show was starting to find its footing; the madcap reality of running a restaurant paired well with the TV sitcom. Alas, like many real-life restaurants, “Kitchen Confidential” went out of business.

“The Pride of the Yankees.” “The Natural.” “Field of Dreams.” “A League of Their Own.” “Bull Durham.” “Angels In The Outfield.” “Major League.” Trust us, we could go on. America’s favorite pastime of baseball has an impeccable batting average when it comes to telling stories on the big screen. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the small screen, where there have been pretty much zero home runs. Fox hoped to fix that in the mid-2010s with the primetime dramedy “Pitch.” Sadly, the series failed to connect, lasting only 10 episodes from Sept. 22 to Dec. 8, 2016.

“Pitch” had an interesting premise. Kylie Bunbury starred as Genevieve “Ginny” Baker, a rookie pitcher whose unique “screwball pitch” landed her a spot where no female athlete has gone before: Major League Baseball. Ginny was called up to the San Diego Padres, where she became the first woman to play in the majors, and hoped to prove herself to her skeptical teammates who didn’t approve of a woman on the mound. Despite its critical acclaim, viewership was too low to justify the show’s considerable expense, and it was difficult to syndicate overseas given the baseball theme and the sport’s traditional reputation as “America’s pastime.” Ironically, its biggest setback came from its Thursday time slot, where it competed against America’s real favorite sport — the NFL’s Thursday Night Football.

Karl Urban has since become a major streaming star on Prime Video’s high-concept satire “The Boys.” But that was most definitely not the case just six years before with “Almost Human” on Fox. Urban played Officer John Kennex, a police officer in the year 2048 who wakes up after a 17-month coma, missing his girlfriend, partners, and one of his legs. Turns out Kennex survived a catastrophic attack and now has a sophisticated synthetic leg, a serious case of PTSD, and a discontinued android with an impulse control problem as a partner.

Yeah, it’s a lot, and sounds like some kind of cross between “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “RoboCop.” “Almost Human” was almost a hit, debuting with more than 9 million viewers on Nov. 17, 2013. But the show suffered a steep decline in ratings, down to just over 5.5 million viewers for the 13th and final episode on March 3, 2014. Fox put “Almost Human” out to pasture, given its dropping ratings and stronger upcoming lineup in the fall.

There have been a ton of TV shows that have switched networks and succeeded on a new station, including all-time hits like “Baywatch” (NBC to syndication) and “Friday Night Lights” (NBC to 101 Network). But then, there have been a lot of quality shows that weren’t so lucky, including “Family Matters” and the 2018 remake of “Magnum P.I.” Add “Selfie” to the latter category, as its switch from broadcast TV to streaming signaled its end before it had even finished one season.

“Selfie” had the makings of what should have been a solid hit. Karen Gillan starred as the self-obsessed, internet-famous Eliza Dooley, who realizes her online friends aren’t as good as real ones. So Eliza does what any normal person would and hires a marketing genius named Henry (John Cho) to help her rebrand herself to make real connections. If this sounds like a loose retelling of “Pygmalion” or “My Fair Lady” for the millennial generation, that was exactly the idea. 

Sadly, “Selfie” didn’t have the same staying power as that classic musical, despite Gillan’s star power as a comedienne. “Selfie” aired its first seven episodes on ABC starting on Sept. 30, 2014, but was canceled due to low ratings. Thankfully for the show’s (few) fans, the remaining six episodes aired on Hulu, with “Selfie” ending its run on Dec. 30 with 13 episodes. If fans hoped “Selfie” would succeed enough after switching to streaming that it would defy the odds and get more seasons, they were disappointed.

Call us biased, but everything Bruce Campbell touches is gold. OK, so “Army of Darkness” tanked the “Evil Dead” franchise for several decades, while “Ash vs. Evil Dead” was canceled after only three seasons. Still, we love the guy and will watch pretty much anything he is in. Yes, even when he’s not wielding a boomstick with a chainsaw for a hand to fight Deadites. Too bad not everybody shares this sentiment for “The Bruce,” as his shot at broadcast television stardom failed to connect.

Campbell starred in the title role on “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.” as a Harvard-educated lawyer who ditches the courtroom for the wild frontier, where he works as a bounty hunter in the Old West of 1893. Despite its setup, this was a straight Western, as it was both tongue-in-cheek and genre-bending, which perhaps made it a bit too weird for folks still interested in watching primetime TV Westerns. Still, “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.” started strong on Aug. 27, 1993, but its ratings had declined significantly by its 27th and final episode on May 20, 1994. That downward decline spooked Fox executives, given the show’s high production costs. Still, 27 episodes is a solid run, and more than any on this list.

Claire Danes has shown she can carry a TV show, proven by the successful eight-season run of “Homeland” on Showtime from 2011 to 2020. But her first crack at TV stardom turned out a little differently with “My So-Called Life.” Unlike the espionage and spycraft of “Homeland,” “My So-Called Life” was a teen drama about an angsty, anxious teenager navigating the typical high school trappings of boys, buddies, drugs, and sex. Danes played the lead, Angela Chase, giving an honest, relatable performance that earned the show a cult following. You could say “My So-Called Life” was a bridge between the hijinks of “Clarissa Explains It All” in the early ’90s and the WB-fication of the genre with “Dawson’s Creek” and others starting in the late ’90s.

The thing is, both of those shows (and many others like them) were either on cable (Nickelodeon) or a smaller broadcast station (The WB). “My So-Called Life” was on primetime ABC. Even so, “My So-Called Life” scored solid ratings, debuting with 11.7 million on Aug. 25, 1994, and ending its 19-episode run on Jan. 26, 1995, with 11.8 million viewers. The show was steady as she goes, but its perceived niche status and Danes’ supposed plans to chase (no pun intended) greener pastures led to its cancellation. So the network pulled the plug, freeing Danes to pursue other opportunities, namely Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet.”

Rob Lowe revitalized his career from ’80s teen heartthrob and member of “The Brat Pack” with “Parks and Recreation,” where he played an annoyingly optimistic government official who becomes city manager. Lowe showed he had comedic chops, so when “Parks and Rec” ended its beloved seven-season run in 2015, Lowe hoped to parlay his success as a supporting character in that sitcom into the lead role in another, “The Grinder.” It didn’t go quite as well.

Lowe played Dean Sanderson Jr., a once-famous actor whose long-running hit TV show gets canceled. Given Sanderson played a lawyer on TV, he decides to move back home and join his family’s law firm — despite having zero real-life legal experience, education, or certification. It’s a sly sitcom scenario, with Lowe showing chemistry with Fred Savage as his attorney brother. Hilarity ensues… just not enough to keep “The Grinder” going past one season. 

“The Grinder” ran for 22 episodes from Sept. 29, 2015, to May 10, 2016, on Fox, but failed to find a large enough audience, despite its critical acclaim. Sure, other shows were kept afloat in similar situations, such as “Arrested Development,” but that was way back in 2003, before the ubiquity of streaming. Networks have become way more impatient for success and demand instant hits, which “The Grinder” was not. Maybe it could have built an audience, but it was never given the chance.

Sometimes, the best shows feature professions that are less well-represented on the small screen. Enter “Bunheads,” a show about ballerinas.

Sutton Foster (“Younger”) plays Michelle Simms, a classically trained professional dancer who abandons her career as a Vegas showgirl to move to a small coastal town with her husband, who lives with his mother, a former dancer. When her husband dies, Michelle ends up bonding with the students at her mother-in-law’s dance school, learning from them as much as they learn from her.

“Bunheads” seemed tailor-made for fame, with the perfect setup for an hour-long, family-friendly dramedy like “Gilmore Girls” (they were also both created by Amy Sherman-Palladino). Unlike “Gilmore Girls,” “Bunheads” failed to connect with new viewers, despite strong ratings. Perhaps the blame can fall on its somewhat niche subject matter, as its strength as a story became a liability for its broad appeal. Either way, “Bunheads” was canned by ABC Family due to low ratings after one season, running 18 episodes from June 11, 2012, to Feb. 25, 2013. “Bunheads” had a small audience, but those who did watch the show found it both sweet and smart, a task almost as challenging as standing en pointe.