While some of the best new shows on television right now are on a high, like HBO’s The Last of Us and Netflix’s Wednesday, both of which were recently renewed for second seasons, others are not so lucky. Every year, even with solid fan support, some shows simply don’t make the cut to come back for another season.
Just a month into 2023, several popular shows, some new and others several seasons in, have gotten the ax. Whether it was due to low ratings or big budgets, networks and streaming services have decided to end these shows, some of them just as they were finding an audience.
10 The Titans Will Face Their Final Foe This Year
Titans - HBO Max
Titans premiered in 2018 on the DC Universe streaming app and moved to HBO Max with its third season. The live-action series follows the iconic DC Comics teen superhero team that includes Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, Dove, Hawk, and other Titans characters with great potential.
Titans lasted four seasons, but it was confirmed, much to fans’ surprise, that the series would be ending after the fourth season concludes. The good news for fans is that the show's crew knew about the cancelation in advance and were able to give the series a proper ending.
9 The Doom Patrol Was Always Doomed
Doom Patrol - HBO Max
Doom Patrol, a spin-off of Titans, has also been canceled. Receiving the news at the same time as Titans, Doom Patrol will be ending with its fourth season, which premiered in December 2022. The superhero series, once again based on the DC Comics superhero characters, follows a team of unlikely heroes: individuals who gained powers through tragic circumstances. Ostracized by society and brought together by Dr. Niles Caulder, the group of misfits bungles their way into saving the world time and time again.
Doom Patrol was well received on HBO Max, and while the fact that it is coming to an end with the fourth season, many fans are celebrating the fact that the offbeat series made it as long as it did. Like Titans, Doom Patrol will get the chance to end its story instead of going out on a cliffhanger.
8 Warrior Nun Couldn't Keep Up The Fight
Warrior Nun - Netflix
There was public uproar when Netflix canceled Warrior Nun after just two seasons, with fans even drawing up a petition to bring the show back, which garnered more than 100,000 digital signatures. The fantasy drama tells the story of a 19-year-old quadriplegic orphan who develops superpowers and joins an ancient group of warrior nuns tasked when ridding the Earth of evil demons.
Warrior Nun received moderately good reviews, with some critics believing it relies too heavily on mythology and religion. Nonetheless, fans have cited disappointment in the cancelation of not only a female-led series but also one with heavy LGBTQIA+ representation.
7 The Vampires Have Been Expelled
Vampire Academy - Peacock
There were high hopes for Vampire Academy given how well vampire-centric movies and TV shows have performed over the last two decades. The fantasy horror, based on the novel series of the same name, features an ensemble cast but it primarily focuses on Rose, a guardian-in-training, and Lissa, a princess she is tasked to protect, who go on various adventures together at their vampire boarding school.
Despite there being a lot of great things about Vampire Academy and the show receiving relatively positive reviews, Peacock canceled the series after just one season. This is the second time that fans of Richelle Mead's book series have had to see Vampire Academy flounder, as the 2014 film failed at the box office.
6 The Gossip Wasn't As Juicy The Second Time Around
Gossip Girl - HBO Max
The 2021 version of Gossip Girl for HBO Max did not end up enjoying the same popularity as the original series. This new show, which saw Kristen Bell reprise her role as narrator, features an ensemble cast and is set almost a decade after the end of the original. It has an entirely new cast of students with a focus on more modern trends, including social media, as well as more adult storylines.
Despite breaking HBO Max records for its launch weekend in 2021, the Gossip Girl reboot was met with poor reviews from critics and fans. While the second season was better received, the damage was already done and the series was canceled.
5 NPR’s Rom-Com Is Done
Uncoupled - Netflix
Neil Patrick Harris has been in many successful movies and TV shows, including, most notably, How I Met Your Mother. But he, nor Beverly Hills, 90210 creator Darren Star, found the same success with Uncoupled. The Netflix romantic comedy followed Harris as Michael, a gay man in his 40s struggling with his newly single status. Navigating life in New York, he realizes it’s a very different singles scene than when he was last not romantically linked.
Uncoupled received decent reviews, but it was the attempt at the mixing of comedy with more serious themes that fans felt Star didn’t capture as well as he has in past shows like Beverly Hills, 90210, Sex and the City, Younger, and Emily in Paris.
4 The Train Has Stopped... Or Has It?
Snowpiercer - TNT
There’s only room for so many post-apocalyptic dramas, it seems, and Snowpiercer is the latest one to be canceled…potentially. Based on the 2013 Bong Joon-ho movie as well as the French novel Le Transperceneige, Snowpiercer tells the story of passengers aboard a perpetually moving train that contains the only survivors of Earth. Everything else has turned into a frozen wasteland, and if the train stops circling the globe, everyone aboard will die. Sadly, even at the end of humanity, class divisions and social injustice still exist.
Snowpiercer ran for three seasons on TNT, which canceled the series as the network moves away from original programming. With a fourth season already filmed, the show's production company is hoping to find it a new home.
3 The Sci-Fi Show Won’t See The Story Through
1899 - Netflix
Despite creators having ideas to fill at least two more seasons of 1899, the German period mystery/sci-fi series was abruptly canceled just months after it premiered on Netflix in November 2022. Set in the year 1899, hence the name, the show is about a group of emigrants in Europe who are traveling on a steamship from the U.K. to New York City where they hope to start anew, only to find that their journey will be fraught with danger.
Fans are hoping that Netflix will wrap up 1899 with a special or movie, or that another streaming service might pick it up for a second season. A Change.org petition was started to help save the show, which has received, to date at the time of this writing, over 87,000 digital signatures.
2 Could This Late Cancelation Be A Conspiracy?
Inside Job - Netflix
Another Netflix cancelation, Inside Job was designed to combine humor with social commentary. An animated adult sci-fi sitcom, the story follows workers at a shadow government organization called Cognito, Inc., one of many designed to control the world and debunk conspiracy theories. But the twisted reality is the theories are actually based in fact.
Inside Job was initially renewed for a second season, but the show was canceled before that season was ever completed and released, making Inside Job one of several shows that got their renewals reversed. The reasoning remains a puzzle since critics generally liked the series and it was popular enough for Netflix to initially grant it a second season.
1 The Last Ride
Mayans M.C. - FX
Mayans M.C. wasn’t technically canceled, but rather, it’s simply confirmed that the fifth season of the FX series will be its last. A spin-off of Sons of Anarchy, the crime drama follows the motorcycle club two-and-a-half years after the events in SOA. Living in a fictional California border town, the central character is Ezekiel “EZ,” a promising young man getting pulled in the wrong direction due to cartel violence and a need for revenge.
The show has largely been praised for being a solid follow-up to Sons of Anarchy’s successful run, but it has never found the audience numbers that SOA enjoyed. Perhaps becuase of that, Mayans M.C. will be coming to a close sooner than fans had hoped.