TV Shows That Were Abruptly Canceled After Being Renewed

The television industry can be a fickle thing. Great shows are canceled all the time, whether it's due to low ratings or any number of other reasons. Considering just how many shows have come out over the years that only lasted one season — if they even got a full first season at all — it's a miracle when any good series is renewed. The vast majority aren't so lucky. Typically, the people behind a show know that they aren't getting renewed, even if sometimes it's not until the last minute, and they have already started planning — or even actually filming — the next season before they get the bad news. 

But there have been times when production staff are told that their show has been renewed, only for the company behind the channel or streaming platform the show runs on to subsequently change its mind and take back the renewal. It's a frustrating situation for both those who work on a show and those who watch it, and it happens more often than you might realize. Bottom line — even if you're told your show is getting another season, don't take it for granted until the season is actually made and your paycheck is cashed. 

Live-action series based on comic books might not have been particularly common prior to the likes of the Arrowverse, Netflix's Marvel shows, or the MCU series on Disney+, but a few popped up over the years. One of the more unique examples was "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," which debuted on ABC in 1993 and was as much a relationship and workplace dramedy as it was a show about a crime-fighting superhero.

Starring Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman and Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane, the show was initially a hit, running for an impressive four seasons on the network. A fifth season had already been expected as a two-season extension had been signed at the end of Season 3. But the ratings for Season 4 took a nosedive as it went on, with the season finale only bringing in a third of what the premiere did. As a result, that season finale retroactively became a series finale when ABC decided to reverse the renewal and end the show after four seasons. With the writers having already been planning for another season, Season 4 ended on a forever unresolved cliffhanger involving a mysterious baby discovered by the titular couple with a note saying it was theirs. 

Reviving old shows has been a popular trend for the last 10 years or so. Some opt to go the route of shifting focus to the kids of the characters on the previous show — while having the original characters come back to play the parent role — while others mostly stay the course and keep the same main principal cast. The latter approach is what "Roseanne" took when it returned for a 10th season in 2018, 21 years after the show's original run ended. 

The return of "Roseanne" fared better than most revivals. Critics and audiences alike were largely positive about the show, and it served as a blueprint for how to bring an old show back the right way. ABC was so happy with just the ratings of the Season 10 premiere that it had already gone ahead and greenlit an 11th season shortly after. But two months later, everything fell apart when star and co-creator Roseanne Barr tweeted a racist joke. She was swiftly fired from the show, and Season 11 was called off. The following month, in June 2018, it was announced that a new show — titled "The Conners" — would pick up where "Roseanne" left off. Aside from the fact that Barr's character passed away, making her daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert) the new focal point, everyone else also came back. It was essentially "Roseanne" Season 11 in all but name, and has continued for four additional seasons and counting.

Though most people remember HBO's "Luck" as that horse racing show with Dustin Hoffman, the cast list underneath him was ridiculously stacked. Nick Nolte, Michael Gambon, Jill Hennessy, Dennis Farina, Richard Kind, Joan Allen, and Mercedes Ruhl are just a few of the household names in the ensemble. That's to say nothing of how many of the best character actors in the business appear as well. It was created by David Milch of "NYPD Blue" and "Deadwood" fame, with a pilot director by acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann.

And all of that talent on both sides of the camera really shone through, as "Luck" was immediately a critical darling when it debuted in 2011. HBO had already fast-tracked a second season, which was to debut in January 2013 after what would've only been a 10-month hiatus — almost unheard of for a prestige HBO drama starring Hollywood actors. Sadly, there turned out to be a serious lack of concern for the welfare of the animals in the production. Two horses needed to be euthanized within the filming of the first seven episodes alone. Once a third horse death had been reported, HBO immediately suspended filming of what was apparently the second season. Shortly after, the series was canceled entirely — though the remaining episodes of the first season aired as planned, were later released on DVD, and can currently be streamed on Max.

Loosely based on the 1992 Tom Hanks and Geena Davis movie of the same name, Amazon's "A League of Their Own" series did a deeper dive into various aspects of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s and '50s. In particular, it explores the romantic relationships that were common among the players in the league, as well as featuring a lot more players of color, neither of which were featured much in the original film. It was co-created by Abbi Jacobson of "Broad City" fame, who also played the lead role, a catcher for the Rockford Peaches just like Davis's character in the movie.

The series debuted in August 2022 and got an eight-episode first season, with Amazon eventually announcing that the show would return for a second and final season of only four episodes. Given how many Amazon series were one-season wonders, even just an extremely truncated second season was worth at least a minor celebration for the show's fans as well as its cast and crew. But by August 2023, with the Writers and Actors Guild strikes both going strong with no signs of an agreement being reached, Amazon decided to just nix "A League of Their Own" altogether rather than keep it on ice until the strikes were resolved. 

Based in part on the 2013 film "Snowpiercer" as well as drawing from the original graphic novel series on which the movie was based, TNT's "Snowpiercer" series premiered in 2020. It follows the passengers of the titular train, which has to stay in constant motion across a post-apocalyptic Earth lest everyone on board freeze to death. Daveed Diggs stars as the leader of a resistance movement fighting for better treatment for the train's lower-class passengers. Meanwhile, Jennifer Connelly plays the conductor and de facto leader of the train, who is soon revealed to be more sympathetic to the passengers' plight than was previously thought.

The first two seasons were positively received and did well ratings-wise, but it began to lose its way creatively in Season 3 — and the sharp decline in ratings following that season's premiere proved that the audience was no longer impressed. Still, Season 4 had already been ordered, with TNT initially willing to let it go forward while confirming it would be the show's last. Unfortunately, TNT is owned by Warner Bros, and ended up getting caught up in WB's tax write-off-related content purge in 2023 — meaning that Season 4, which had already been completed, was not going to air on TNT or anywhere else. Tomorrow Studios, "Snowpiercer's" production company, confirmed in a September 2023 interview with Deadline that it is still looking for a new home for all four seasons of the show.

Initially known primarily to those who followed the indie movies of filmmaker Kevin Smith, skateboarder-turned-actor Jason Lee had a bit of mainstream film success in the late '90s and early 2000s. But his most famous role was the lead on NBC's inventive sitcom "My Name Is Earl," which ran for four seasons from 2005 to 2009. The initial premise revolves around Earl, a petty criminal who learns about the concept of karma after a near-death experience, and sets about atoning for his past misdeeds.

Nominated for 14 Emmys and winning five, "My Name is Earl" earned both critical respect as well as strong ratings to match. Considering that Season 4 ended with a "To Be Continued" cliffhanger, it was a surprise to fans when Season 5 never came to tie up loose ends. So why did a hit show that was winning awards get canceled before its story was wrapped up? According to co-star Ethan Suplee during an appearance on the podcast "Slick & Thick," there was some miscommunication between NBC and the studio that produced the show while negotiating the financial terms for Season 5 — and after a certain point, NBC was over it and chose not to pursue "My Name is Earl" any further. So Earl's list remains forever unfinished.