Most Shocking TV Cancellations Of 2023
2023 has been a year of great TV, and there's no telling what the small-screen landscape will look like one year from now. After all, some of the best shows in the game wrapped up this year, and there's no telling what series can rise to take the place of, say, "Succession" in 2024.
That being said, not every TV show that ended its run this year did so voluntarily. Like every other year, 2023 has seen plenty of cancellations. Some of them have been because the show simply couldn't cut it in terms of quality (hi, "The Idol!"). There have also been genuinely enjoyable shows that fell victim to circumstances, be it low viewership numbers or studio panic related to the 2023 Writer's Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Others still simply ... went away for reasons unknown, much to the frustration of fans.
Regardless of the reason, these shows couldn't make it through the year, leaving behind annoyed viewers and cliffhangers that are destined to remain forever unsolved. Here's a look at some of the most infuriating cancellations of 2023.
1899
Here's a story that illustrates how abruptly the trajectory of a show can halt. Near the end of 2022, "1899" held a proud place on Looper's list of the year's best new series. The news that Netflix had canceled the show arrived on January 2 – less than a week after we'd sung its praises.
Brought to you by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the team behind the acclaimed "Dark," the multilingual ship mystery of "1899" is intriguing from the beginning — it also keeps piling mystery atop mystery like "Lost" on steroids. Is the show a Bermuda Triangle-style lost-at-sea thriller? A steampunk series? A historical drama about desperate yet hopeful immigrants? An eerie slice of human experiment horror? A sci-fi show? Yes. Yes, it is. Or rather, was.
Maybe it was all too much for the famously cancellation-happy streamer. Perhaps larger audiences started tuning out after the 10th genre-bending whiplash. Regardless of the reason, there's no denying that both critics and viewers enjoyed the show, which did nothing to prevent Netflix from shooting it down after the Season 1 finale left us with the kind of last-second surprise that would leave a "Sixth Sense"-era M. Night Shyamalan in the dust. Granted, "1899" went to some pretty wild places with its series finale, but then again, strangeness was always written in the show's DNA. As it stands, fans can only wonder whether the show would still have had tigers left in the tank.
Perry Mason
Is there a better 2023 example about a show that has done everything it can to be both good and successful, yet falls anyway? Max's "Perry Mason" seemed to have it all. It came with a distinctive 1930s-period piece aesthetic; there was plenty of source material to draw from, as it was based on a well-known book series by Erle Stanley Gardner; there's the amazing Matthew Rhys as the titular lawyer; and the show even raked in Emmy nods and other nominations. Robert Downey Jr. executive-produced, for crying out loud! Yet none of this mattered in the end, and writer-showrunner pair Jack Amiel and Michael Begler didn't get a chance to continue the story beyond the sophomore season.
The really unfortunate thing here is that "Perry Mason" not only started pretty great but was steadily improving. Season 1 was well-received enough, but Season 2 received a considerable uptick in both fan reception and critical approval. We can but speculate on whether the show could have continued this upward trajectory with a third season, but it certainly seems that "Perry Mason" was canceled when it was just starting to hit its prime.
Heels
With the rise of AEW to offer wrestling fans an option for the all-encompassing WWE and the advent of A24's "The Iron Claw," professional wrestling is having one of its more interesting moments in the cultural spotlight. You'd think that a show like "Heels" would thrive in such an environment ... and you'd be wrong. Starz pinned the wrestling show for a full count to three in September, and while showrunner Mike O'Malley has told Entertainment Weekly that he's grateful to the network for the chances it took and actively working to find a new home for the show, the chokehold of cancellation currently remains unbroken.
It seems unfair that "Heels" had to tap out. Apart from the fact that its subject matter is having a bit of a moment, the show's look at the camaraderie and drama in small-scale indie wrestling was beloved by viewers and critics. Its fantastic cast — led by "Arrow" star Stephen Amell and "Vikings" veteran Alexander Ludwig — gained extra credibility from the occasional real wrestler, including industry superstar Phil "CM Punk" Brooks, who's recently made waves in AEW and WWE alike.
While "Heels" is currently down for the count, its story, characters, and central premise — as well as the pretty steep injury cliffhanger Season 2 ended with — have plenty of potential. In industry terms, "Heels" already has a gimmick that works. Hopefully, 2024 will see the show signing up with a new promotion.
The Peripheral
If you love high-concept science fiction based on the work of Cyberpunk guru William Gibson, executive-produced by Jonathan Nolan, and starring Chloë Grace Moretz, chances are that you've been attuned to Amazon Prime Video's "The Peripheral" ... and that you've been bitterly disappointed by the show's cancellation in the wake of the massive Season 1 cliffhanger.
The show had everything it needed to become the next big sci-fi hit, from a captivating premise to interesting and distinctive visuals. It was even quite well received by fans and critics alike. The ending of "The Peripheral" Season 1 seemed pretty confident that the show's future would be bright, too. While the season finale does bring a handful of plot lines to an end, it also spends copious time setting up future events. There's even a post-credits scene! Before the cancellation news arrived in August, the show had already been renewed!
Imagine a Jonathan Nolan project that would just abruptly end before solving any of its Nolanesque twists and turns. That's exactly what happened to fans of "The Peripheral" when the show was canceled, and while this particular twist may have been unexpected, it wasn't very nice.
A League of Their Own
How can a beloved comedy-drama show with a 95% Tomatometer rating run aground after its first season? By falling foul of studio freakout during the Writer's Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, as "A League of Their Own" star and co-creator Abbi Jacobson pointedly noted on her Instagram post, which opened the behind-the-scenes rationale for the show's untimely end.
"To blame this cancellation on the strike, (which is an essential fight for fair wages, protections and working conditions, etc...) is bulls*** and cowardly," Jacobson wrote. "But this post isn't about all that. About all the ways this show has been put through the ringer. Not today. This post here is about the special show I was lucky to make with so many incredibly talented artists and actors and writers and crew. A show I'm so proud of. Filled to the brim with stories worth telling. Full of so much heart and soul and value.Thank you for watching."
An adaptation of Penny Marshall's 1992 movie with the same title, "A League of Their Own" is a show about the 1940s women's baseball team Rockford Peaches overcoming adversity both as athletes and as human beings. Its themes included but were not limited to discrimination, sexuality, and racial politics. Unfortunately, it ultimately couldn't overcome the challenges it faced behind the scenes, and Amazon Prime Video canceled the show before it could wrap up its story.
How I Met Your Father
Say what you want about "How I Met Your Mother" and its finale, but at least the show eventually answered the question posed by its title. This was not the case with "How I Met Your Father," which will forever leave the identity of Sophie's (Hilary Duff) son's father a mystery. Hulu canceled the spinoff with precious little ceremony in September, bringing the sitcom's path to an abrupt end after Season 2.
The reason behind the decision is unknown. However, despite devoted fans who liked to form "HIMYF" theories about Sophie having the same dad as Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) from the parent show, critics and audiences never adored the series quite as much as the original.
Even so, a show with a clear endgame in mind going away before revealing its secrets is always a low blow to the viewer. As it stands, "How I Met Your Father" fans might as well choose to run with Duff's personal pet theory about who she wants the father to be – Sophie's Season 1 boyfriend Drew (Josh Peck) – and move on to their next sitcom obsession.
The Afterparty
2023 was a year that saw several beloved shows get canceled after their sophomore season. One of the victims of this trend was the much-lauded AppleTV+ whodunit anthology "The Afterparty." Both of the show's seasons focus on a different murder mystery and a new cast of fascinating characters, with Tiffany Haddish's Detective Danner, Sam Richardson's Aniq Adjaye, and Zoë Chao's Zoë Zhu as the connective tissue between the stories.
In a year of cancellations, an anthology with little in the way of a larger plot arc can be an easy target despite critical appreciation and an all-star cast. "The Afterparty" found this out the hard way in October, which is doubly hurtful to the fans because Phil Lord and Chris Miller were already thinking about Detective Danner's next investigation.
"We would love to do a Season 3, not only because we have lots of great ideas, but also because that would mean that the AMPTP would have given a fair deal to the writers and we could all be back to work," Miller told Variety before the cancellation. Despite the will to keep "The Afterparty" going, it doesn't look like Danner is going to investigate her next case.
Reboot
Critics and audiences liked "Reboot." Let's get that out of the way right now. How could they not? Showrunner and executive producer Steven Levitan's last show was the long-running "Modern Family," and his sitcom pedigree features work on projects like "Wings," "Frasier," and "Just Shoot Me!" "Reboot's" premise of the cast of an old sitcom called "Step Right Up" trying to get up with the times as they revive the show for Hulu is a truly timely idea in this age of struggling comedy IP revivals. The show's cast is massively talented, from Keegan-Michael Key and Johnny Knoxville to Judy Greer and Paul Reiser. Truly, all the makings of the next big sitcom thing were there.
Of course, it didn't work out that way. Ironically enough, the sitcom about trying to run a sitcom was canceled after its first season. The people behind the show didn't give up so easily, though. Per Variety, the makers of "Reboot" fully planned to continue the show and attempted to find a new platform for it, but this was ultimately unsuccessful. It remains unclear whether this is because the meta nature of "Reboot" means that its plot was implicitly tied to Hulu, or if potential buyers simply didn't deem the show worth betting on.
Regardless of the real reason behind "Reboot's" demise, many sitcoms need a little while to find their groove (see: "Parks and Recreation" Season 1). It feels that the show never really got a chance to spread its wings and reach its true potential.
The Muppets Mayhem
Who would cancel a show about the Muppets? Apparently, Disney+. "The Muppets Mayhem" was never the most conventional Muppet series, as it eschews Kermit and the usual suspects in favor of focusing on Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, a band comprised of the many musical supporting characters in the wider Muppet cast. This bold and well-liked approach swung for the fences ... and promptly missed, judging by the way Disney pulled the plug on the show after its first season.
After 2020's "Muppets Now," this marks the second Disney+ Muppet show that didn't survive past its inaugural season. While this may seem like something fans should be worried about, there are positive signs in the air, as well — at least, if you ask Adam F. Goldberg. After news of the cancellation, "The Muppets Mayhem" executive producer took to Twitter to thank people and list some of the show's accolades, as well as tease some interesting future developments in the Muppets land. "Huge thanks to the critic & fan love that got us 6 Emmy noms and a #1 Billboard album," he wrote. "Mayhem was truly the most joyful and collaborative experience of my career. From day one all I've cared about is creating a Muppet-verse and YES I am already cooking up more Muppets with @billbarretta & @JeffYorkes! IT'S HAPPENING!!!"
So, yeah. While "The Muppets Mayhem" is done, the silver lining is that the long-running puppet franchise still has a future. Perhaps 2024 will bring more news about future Muppet-themed projects.
Willow
As charming as Ron Howard's 1988 film "Willow" is, the Disney+ show that checks back on its fantasy land over three decades after we last visited it has been getting mixed messages from Disney, to say the least. Not only was the critic-approved "Willow" series canceled after its first season, but Disney+ decided to scrub it from the service altogether as a cost-cutting measure (via Deadline).
Oddly enough, despite this fairly definite signal that the saga is over, the studio has indicated that the "Willow" franchise is still important. Should further reboots or revivals happen, the company might have its work cut out appeasing franchise player Warwick Davis, who isn't fond of the decision to make the whole show disappear. "I meet lovely people on a daily basis who are fans of #Willow, who are the reason the @DisneyPlus Series was made. Please tell me @WaltDisneyCo, what do I say to these subscribers when they ask why they can't watch the series any more?" he wrote on Twitter, complete with the hashtag #embarrassing.
In other words, Willow Ufgood isn't happy, and if Davis' message is any indication, neither are "Willow" fans. It remains to be seen where the future of the franchise lies, but its immediate future certainly doesn't look great.
How did Looper determine the most infuriating cancellations of 2023?
When listing infuriating cancellations, emotion always plays — and should play — a part. After coming up with an initial list, I reached out to my Looper colleagues to find out their personal cancellation aggrievances to see what's what. There was plenty of overlap, but the query also turned out some shows that I'd personally missed, which I then researched and invariably became mad about. Who cancels a show that was clearly trying to branch out and set up a Muppets Cinematic Universe?
At the end of the day, though, this is all about the fans. In order to make sure that your favorite canceled show had a decent chance of making the list, the point of all stages of this experiment was to find cancellations that genuinely frustrated a lot of people. This is either because they were critically beloved, popular with a core audience, or simply ended in an unacceptably exciting cliffhanger. While you may very well have a favorite recently canceled show that didn't make it on the list, we tried our level best to cover several losses that really stung.
Let's all hope that 2024 will be a better year on this front ... though let's be honest, it probably won't be. It's a network-eat-show world out there.