Top 10 TV Shows That Didn't Deserve a Second Season

Just when you thought reality TV had reached the lowest common denominator with “Toddlers & Tiaras,” this spinoff unearthed a denominator that shouldn’t have been mathematically possible. Of course, the only number that mattered to TLC was the ratings with the first season averaging more than 2 million viewers. The exploits of Alana, Mama June, and the rest of the Shannon clan garnered not two, not three, but four seasons. A fifth was ready to go until June was linked to convicted predators. While a few “lost episodes” later aired as a special, the scandal spelled the show’s end. A decade after its overdue cancellation, Alana is pursuing a nursing degree while “Honey Boo Boo” is remembered as a “what were we thinking?” moment.

90s kids can’t help but have a soft spot for “Full House,” forced laugh tracks and all. It was an enjoyable product of the time, which is more than can be said about the sequel series. “Fuller House” is devious in how blatantly it wants to bank on our nostalgia, recreating moments with side-by-side comparisons. It’s hard to explain, but where “Full House” felt organic in its corniness, “Fuller House” feels artificially cringey, as if the writers went out of their way to sound inane. Had it taken a self-aware approach like “The Brady Bunch Movie,” maybe we’d have a show worthy of… five seasons? Really? Instead, we got a house full of something. And by something, we mean another word starting with S.

We all know that Mitch Buchannon was a lifeguard by day, but did you know that for a hot second during the 90s, he also worked as a detective by night? Seriously, when did this guy ever find the time to sleep? Mitch’s presence is just one reason “Baywatch Nights” was an ill-conceived idea. With the ratings sinking by the end of the first season, canceling the series would’ve been the logical next step. However, the producers came up with a surefire way to turn the show around in Season 2: Rip off “X-Files,” forcing the characters into stories involving time travel, vampires, mummies, aliens, and demonic possession. We might as well call “The SpongeBob Movie” canon because it’s not nearly as silly as this.

How did Netflix and Marvel go from the highs of “Daredevil” to the rock bottom of “Iron Fist” in just two years? More imperatively to this list, how did such a universally despised show get a second season? Although panned out of the gate for Finn Jones’s portrayal of Danny Rand, underwhelming action, and generally bad storytelling, the first season was technically a success in terms of streaming numbers. Audiences were committed on the heels of three hit shows, but “Iron Fist” quickly started to feel like homework. While Season 2 was seen as a marginal improvement, it received less fanfare. Netflix spared us from a third season, although this can likely be attributed to the streamer’s crumbling relationship with Disney rather than quality.

Look, we get why “Emily in Paris” was a hit during the pandemic. We couldn’t travel, so it makes sense why Netflix subscribers would be drawn to a show where an attractive woman explores Paris, eats delicious-looking food, wears a new designer outfit in every scene, spends all day on Instagram without doing any real work, and whose biggest issue is choosing between a hot French guy and another hot French guy. Tuning into Season 2, more people realized that while they enjoy living vicariously through Emily, this show isn’t very good… and is kind of problematic… and not at all reflective of life in France. By the time this epiphany struck, Netflix was already ordering a third and fourth season. What have we done!?

Remember “Look Who’s Talking,” the movie with the inner-monologuing baby? Well, CBS decided to bank on that film’s popularity… 13 years later. Instead of Bruce Willis, Baby Bob was voiced by Ken Hudson Campbell, aka the Santa from “Home Alone.” Despite the presence of other talented actors, the show was about as idiotic as you’d expect. Plus, where “Look Who’s Talking” had the good sense to keep the baby talk internal, the little tike’s lips move here and it’s creepy. Bizarrely, this mid-season replacement attracted respectable numbers, resulting in a second season order. The episode number was thankfully reduced as CBS shifted priorities to “My Big Fat Greek Life,” which funnily had an even shorter run than “Baby Bob,” who lived on through Quizno’s commercials.

Netflix has produced some abysmal shows, but “Insatiable” reached new levels of hate before even releasing. The concept alone was deemed offensive to overweight people, sparking a Change.org petition to axe the series. Reviews weren’t much better, leaving some to wonder if a TV equivalent to the Razzies should be created just to “honor” “Insatiable.” So naturally, Netflix ordered another season one month later thanks to high viewership. Maybe people wanted to see if it lived up to the horrible hype. Perhaps some viewers legitimately liked it, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes being more forgiving than the critical score. In any case, Season 2 wasn’t met with as much buzz, prompting Netflix to do what they should’ve done from the get-go: 86 it!

It’s debatable where hate-watching originated, but this BBC soap opera may be among the earlier examples, arguably helping it stay on the air for three seasons consisting of 78 episodes. Conversations that should be over in a few seconds prattle on for several minutes. Once they’re finally over, you’re left wondering if anything was resolved and what the characters were talking about to begin with. It didn’t help that the actors delivered these lines with the levels of investment you’d find at a table read. Unlike “The Love Boat,” “Triangle” couldn’t even deliver glamorous eye candy with amateurish cinematography and some of the dreariest locales on the open sea. “Triangle” was fascinatingly awful, being featured on BBC’s TV Hell lineup almost a decade after its cancelation.

“Velma” is another show that benefited from hate-watching, generating enough attention for Max to move forward with a renewal. And yet, Warner Bros. Discovery decided to scrap the virtually finished feature “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” for a tax write-down. This company’s business practices are the real mystery, but don’t count on this incarnation of Velma to solve it. The sad thing is that a TV-MA take on “Scooby-Doo” had comedic potential and the idea has been well-executed in other shows. Where those satires had genuine affection for the source material, though, you get the sense that the people behind “Velma” have no respect for “Scooby-Doo” and wanted to punish viewers for ever liking this franchise. We wouldn’t watch a third season for all the Scooby Snacks.

Making a show about giving people extreme makeovers is already shallow enough, but to have them undergo life-changing plastic surgery… We’re not sure what’s scarier: that a show like “The Swan” could get the green light as recently as twenty years ago or that Fox actually brought it back for a second season. Granted, the series in its entirety only lasted 18 episodes with both seasons airing over an eight-month window. Even by trash TV standards, though, the fact that this made it past the pilot was morally wrong. We’re not convinced Fox learned their lesson, as a “Celebrity Swan” special was announced in 2013 yet didn’t move forward. We can’t imagine why.

What’s the most insufferable TV show you’ve ever seen that somehow made it beyond its first season? Let us know in the comments!