Most Disappointing TV Cancellations 2025 List

TV brought us a lot of joy this past year… but unfortunately, it brought us some pain as well.

2025 saw a number of high-profile shows get cancelled way before their time, leaving fans shocked and angry that they’ll never get the resolution they crave. Broadcast shows, cable, streaming… none of them were safe from the cancellation axe. And having a big star in the cast didn’t help much, either, as stars like Kevin Bacon, Queen Latifah, Joshua Jackson, Uzo Aduba and Jensen Ackles all saw their shows hit the chopping block this year.

As part of our annual Year in Review coverage, we here at TVLine are taking a look back at the most disappointing TV cancellations of the year — the ones that broke our hearts and left us hanging. (Note: We left off any shows that had a planned ending, like “Andor,” as well as any shows that announced they’re ending this year but will wrap up next year, like “All American.”)    

Read on to see which cancelled shows made our list, and let us know which shows you’ll miss the most in a comment below.

Kevin Bacon’s supernatural horror series had a killer premise, with Bacon starring as bounty hunter Hub Halloran, who gets murdered and then resurrected by the Devil and sent back to earth to catch demons who have escaped from hell. We enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek tone and wild gory effects, but not enough of us enjoyed it, apparently: Prime Video cancelled it in May, just a month after the first and only season was released.

Bacon wasn’t happy about the news, either. “Really bummed out that ‘The Bondsman’ is not coming back for a second season,” Bacon said in an Instagram video. “I just really loved walking in Hub Halloran’s shoes, making that show with so many great, talented people, making that music. I wish I had an explanation for you, but I honestly don’t. But for those of you who checked it out and wrote so many sweet comments — and there were a lot of you — I just want to say thanks. It means a lot to me. And, you know, I guess that’s the way it goes.”

We love UK comedian Noel Fielding in everything he’s in, from “The Mighty Boosh” to “The Great British Baking Show,” so we were immediately onboard when Apple TV put him in a silly, surreal historical comedy as legendary thief Dick Turpin. But Turpin’s tale didn’t have a happy ending: Even though the show was renewed for a second season, Apple pulled the plug on it in January when Fielding — yikes — allegedly failed to show up to work.

Fans did get some form of closure, though, when Apple released a bonus episode, “The Night of the Were Bear,” this October, comprised of footage filmed before production was shut down. 

“Supernatural” alum Jensen Ackles led the cast of this explosive action series, which centered on an elite task force assembled to stop an imminent nuclear threat. Ackles was joined in the cast by “The Flash’s” Jessica Camacho and “Grey’s Anatomy” veteran Eric Dane, and #OneChicago alum Derek Haas served as creator, but all of that wasn’t enough to get it a second season. Prime Video axed it in October, just a month after it wrapped up its freshman run.

Ackles took time to mourn the show’s cancellation on social media, posting a video message that said: “As some of you may have seen already, ‘Countdown’ did not get picked up for another season. Amazon’s gonna let it go. And it’s a bummer, because I had such an amazing time making that show. I had an absolute blast with the cast and the crew.”

The good news for “Dexter” fans this year: Michael C. Hall returned to his role as the iconic serial killer in “Dexter: Resurrection,” which debuted in July and was later renewed for a second season. The bad news, though: That turned out to be a death sentence for “Dexter: Original Sin,” the prequel starring Patrick Gibson as a young Dexter Morgan.

The 1991-set series also featured luminaries like Christian Slater and Sarah Michelle Gellar in the cast, and gave us young versions of “Dexter” favorites like Deb, LaGuerta and Batista. It even earned a Season 2 renewal in April, but Paramount reversed that decision in August.

It looked to be smooth sailing for ABC’s glossy cruise ship drama: It had a starry cast led by Joshua Jackson as a dashing doctor aboard a luxury cruise liner, and it had hit-maker Ryan Murphy as an executive producer. It combined wild “9-1-1”-style medical cases (a penile fracture?!) with hot and heavy relationship drama (a threesome?!). But all those steamy suds weren’t enough to keep it afloat: ABC effectively abandoned ship in June after just one season by letting the cast’s options expire.

We mostly hate this cancellation because it robbed us of confirmation that TVLine’s Fever Dream Theory — that Jackson’s character Max never recovered from COVID, and the entire show was just a dying fantasy — was actually true. Oh well… we’ll just assume we were right.

All things being equal, we would’ve loved to see Queen Latifah stick around as bad-ass vigilante Robyn McCall for years to come. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be: CBS cancelled the Latifah-led procedural in May after a five-season run.

Latifah, who also served as an EP, had nothing but gratitude for her time on the show, saying in an Instagram post: “Stepping into a kick-ass role like Robyn was everything I hoped it would be. Shakim and I at Flavor Unit are always excited to bring these kinds of roles and projects to life — and then we just hope you love them as much as we do. ‘The Equalizer’ blew past every dream we had for it, and having the opportunity to do this for five seasons honestly feels surreal.”

This was one of those quirky hidden gems that never got a chance to find an audience: Natasha Rothwell, a two-time Emmy nominee for “The White Lotus,” created the series and starred as Melissa, a terminally single airport employee who is suddenly inspired to seize the day after a near-death experience. It earned great reviews and gave Rothwell a well-deserved showcase as the star of her own show… but it wasn’t long for this world. Hulu cancelled it in February after just one season.

Rothwell took the news hard, saying that she was “shocked, heartbroken and frankly, baffled” by the decision to axe the show: “This show took me eight years to bring to life, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in that time, it’s resilience. I’m not giving up. My team and I are committed to finding ‘How to Die Alone’ a new home because stories like this matter.”

Maybe Peacock’s supernatural sex comedy was just too weird to connect with a mainstream audience — but we loved it anyway. Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) starred as Ruby, a young woman who discovers that all of her former lovers are dying under mysterious circumstances… and it might be her fault. So she “must go back through her sex timeline to confront her past in order to move forward,” per the official synopsis.

Hsu was joined by Zosia Mamet (“Girls”) as Ruby’s friend AJ, along with Michael Angarano (“Minx”) and Tommy Martinez (“Good Trouble”). Peacock ended up ghosting them, though, cancelling the show in May after a single eight-episode season. 

It was game over for Rob Mac and company in April when Apple pulled the plug on their comedy set in the world of video games after four seasons. Mac starred as Ian Grimm, the creative director of a video game studio who created a popular online role-playing game, with Charlotte Nicdao as lead engineer Poppy Li, David Hornsby as executive producer David Brittlesbee and Danny Pudi as head of monetization Brad Bakshi.

Apple did give “Mythic Quest” a rare chance at closure, though, by allowing the producers to revise the series finale (which has already aired weeks earlier) to add a new ending, “bringing the series to its final chapter.” In the new ending, rather than share an awkward kiss, Ian and Poppy just hug it out platonically. (Get the full details on the new ending here.) 

It’s a mystery, really, why Netflix would decide to cancel this delightful “Knives Out”-style murder mystery set at the White House, with Uzo Aduba’s quirky detective Cordelia Cupp tasked with finding out who killed a White House staffer during an official State Dinner. (Who else here wants to see Uzo Aduba solving murders for ten more seasons?) 

Sadly, Netflix broke the bad news in July, cancelling “The Residence” after just one eight-episode season. This, despite the presence of Shonda Rhimes as an executive producer and a stacked cast that included Giancarlo Esposito, Randall Park, Susan Kelechi Watson and more. 

We were ready to follow the young women of Essex College at least through graduation day, so it was disappointing to hear that HBO Max cancelled the comedy in March after three seasons. Co-created by Mindy Kaling and showrunner Justin Noble, “College Girls” followed college students/roommates Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) and Bela (Amrit Kaur) as they juggled school, friendships, relationships and, yes, sex. (Breakout star Reneé Rapp, who played Leighton, exited the show and only recurred in Season 3.)  

Noble alluded to the show possibly finding a new home in his statement following the cancellation: “We are currently in discussions with some new potential homes for the show, and it’s nice that there is so much interest — but regardless of what happens, I’m proud of this show and the work that so many incredibly talented people put into it. After seeing our show listed as the most watched or second most watched scripted show on the entire platform, for about 70 straight days, this is not the outcome that I saw coming.” But a month later, Warner Bros. TV Group Chairman Channing Dungey confirmed that the show failed to find a new home and was officially done. 

Prime Video’s ambitious fantasy epic seemed to have a lot of life left in it: It was based on the bestselling book series by Robert Jordan, which spanned more than a dozen books, and it boasted big-budget special effects and a cast led by Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike. But Amazon cut the story short, cancelling the series in May after three seasons. 

Fans thought the show was just hitting its creative stride in Season 3, however, and mounted a #SaveWOT global campaign, buying billboards and flying a banner over Amazon’s L.A. headquarters. Unfortunately, those efforts have been all for naught so far, but showrunner Rafe Judkins told fans in June that he “certainly hopes” the show will continue in some form, “because this book series and these fans deserve to see the story finished.”

Hit the comments below to tell us which of this year’s cancelled shows you’ll miss the most.