Top 10 FAILED TV Show Reboots

Back in 1973, CBS launched a new police procedural called “Kojak”. Famed actor Telly Savalas played the titular character for five seasons before the show was canceled in 1978. Fans were delighted when two more Savalas led TV-movies were released in 1985 & 1987. Additional small screen films along with books have also continued Kojak’s story. In 2005, Ving Rhames starred in a short-lived TV reboot of the show set in modern times. Unfortunately, despite Rhames likeability and reputation, the USA Network pulled the plug after 10 episodes. It’s another example of how just because something was popular once, doesn’t mean it will be again.

“The Bionic Woman” was a spinoff of the popular “The Six Million Dollar Man”. Both featured individuals who had been augmented with “bionic” implants to give them superhuman abilities. While the original show only lasted three seasons, NBC commissioned a reboot in 2007 featuring Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers, previously portrayed by Lindsay Wagner. The reboot stayed mostly true to the lead characters’ origins but failed to garner any critical acclaim. The nail in the coffin was the 2007 writers strike that halted production on the show. Shortly after the strike ended, NBC announced the show’s cancellation.

It would be easy for audiences today to have no knowledge of who Robert T. Ironside was. Originally played by the legendary Raymond Burr, “Ironside” was a police drama featuring the titular character who was bound to a wheelchair. The show focused on Ironside's ability to solve crimes using his unique insight, and intelligence versus physical intimidation. The show was revived in 2013 with Blair Underwood taking on the lead role. Critics slammed it, citing it as being “mundane and monotonous”. There was also a big backlash over casting a non-disabled actor in a disabled role. Only four episodes made it to air of the nine that were made.

Fox’s “Party of Five” ran for six seasons and helped propel the careers of Matthew Fox, Lacey Chabert, and Scott Wolf. Focusing on the lives of five siblings who lost their parents in an accident, audiences watched this family grow and evolve over the show’s six-year run. When Freeform ordered a remake, the hope was to see this formula work again. And it almost did… Well, it did among critics at least. The show garnered a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But even with such acclaim, it couldn’t seem to bring in the views. Terrible ratings doomed it to oblivion after only one season.

Seriously, who doesn’t love the Muppets? These lovable puppet characters have been entertaining audiences for decades. And thanks to Jason Segel’s reboot of the film franchise in 2011, these fuzzy creatures were back in the minds of viewers. The new 2015 series was framed much like more modern comedies, using a single camera and “mockumentary”-style filming featuring both the personal and professional lives of our favorite puppets. Unfortunately, the ratings soon began to slip, and the network changed showrunners in an attempt to reboot the reboot. By that time, the damage was done and the show was canceled after a single season.

Now here’s yet another example of a studio going back to the well to see if they can milk a property even more than they already have. “Melrose Place” was a successful Fox show that centered around the lives of young adults. Having produced more than 200 episodes, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that someone was going to want to try and bring it back. Much like virtually every show on our list, the revival sparked huge interest at first, but fell off a cliff quickly with terrible ratings. It seems the newer version couldn’t quite replicate the attraction of the original.

While this was held as a limited run “event series”, audiences seemed to be confused about what exactly “Heroes Reborn” was trying to do. It takes place a while after the original series’ setting and most of the cast is filled with new faces. Like the original show, it features a host of ordinary people gaining superpowers and, also like the original show, it ended on a cliffhanger. Although “Heroes” had a great first season, it suffered major setbacks due to the 2007 writers strike and limped along for two more seasons afterward, before its cancellation. The reboot’s ending suffered the same open-ended fate except, this time, it was said to have been on purpose.

Turns out that even an upgraded turbo boost couldn’t launch this reboot into a success story. The original “Knight Rider” came out in 1982 and was a huge hit with audiences. Most of the credit can be given to the show’s main character, Michael Knight, played by David Hasselhoff. A story about a guy and his talking car sounds ridiculous but Hasselhoff’s charm steered the show in the right direction and made it a staple of the ‘80s. So it may not come as a surprise that all the TV movies and revival attempts without him have largely crashed and burned. What once seemed cute and charming now comes off as cringeworthy cheese.

The original “Charlie’s Angels” is fondly remembered as an entertaining piece of television history from the 1970s. It also spawned a small media franchise with multiple films, an animated television program, and even a web series. Given the attention it received on the back of the movie’s success, a rebooted TV show was inevitable. Only four episodes aired on ABC in 2011 before the network pulled the plug due to horrible ratings. Of the mere eight episodes made, seven were released, with the final eighth one only being made available much later.

We know this reboot lasted four seasons, which is not only pretty good for a TV series in general but is the longest of any of the other entries on this list. Weirdly, though, it received quite the amount of backlash and fan-hate, so we’re surprised it even made it through one season. Although branded as a reboot, there was no acknowledgement of the original “Charmed” or its cast in the newer stories. It was essentially a brand new show that used similar elements from the original. Former castmates Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs tore the reboot to pieces, and called out some of its anti-original sentiments. Aside from attempts to pander to modern audiences, it really brought nothing new to the table, sealing its fate in 2022.