HBO Shows That Were Canceled After Just One Season

In another universe "The Nevers" might have fared better. The series was set to be creator Joss Whedon's return to television after more than a decade of focusing on "Avengers" movies and the ill-fated 2017 cut of "Justice League." After bidding against Netflix for the show, HBO ordered "The Nevers" straight-to-series in 2018, but the show's troubles began before it ever made it to air.

Whedon left "The Nevers" in 2020 amidst a sea of troubling accusations. First Whedon's ex-wife Kai Cole published a piece in The Wrap accusing the writer and director of being a hypocrite who didn't come close to living up to the feminist ideals that had long been associated with him and his work. Then Ray Fisher came forward on X, formerly known as Twitter, with allegations that Whedon had transformed the set of "Justice League" into an unwelcome and outright hostile environment.

It's hard to imagine that Whedon's reputation didn't impact the success of "The Nevers." Set in Victorian London, the series follows a group of people called the Touched. All of them exhibit borderline magical powers with a sci-fi twist. Ultimately, HBO canceled the series halfway through its first season and, as part of Warner Brothers' ruthless cost-cutting strategy, it removed "The Nevers" from its streaming platform. The concluding six episodes of the season, which were managed by showrunner Philippa Goslett in Whedon's place, eventually saw the light of day on Tubi. The show might not become a cult classic like "Firefly," but it was a promising introduction to a new world that would've been great to explore further.

The terrifying stories of early 20th century writer H.P. Lovecraft have become ripe source material for a plethora of different adaptations. Lovecraft's lore about cosmic gods and madness-inducing dark beings has become the basis for everything from movies to tabletop role-playing games. Few of the adaptations, however, have been as entertaining and ambitious as HBO's "Lovecraft Country."

The series follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he searches for his father. His journey unites him with Letitia Lewis (Jurnee Smollett) and his uncle George Freeman (Courtney B. Vance). Together they travel through 1950s America, and the show brilliantly marries the horrors of American racism and Lovecraft's otherworldly beings.

Getting all the elements of a show to come together successfully is a herculean task, and plenty of shows get canceled because they fail to do anything new or make a real impact in the industry. That's not the case with "Lovecraft Country." The first season of the series took home eighteen Emmy nominations. Vance won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a drama series, and the show also won the Emmy for best sound editing. Despite its critical success, "Lovecraft Country" was doomed to be a one-season series, and HBO announced the cancellation in July 2021. There were likely many factors that contributed to the end of the show, but one rumor that swelled in the wake of the cancellation was that the working environment on the show was extremely difficult for everyone involved in the production.

It's not often that debut novels become breakout successes, but the story of Audrey Niffenegger's "The Time Traveler's Wife" really is a triumphant one. Published in 2003, the novel tells the story of Henry DeTamble, a librarian who has a rare genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably travel through time. Henry often ends up jumping to moments that are tied to important people in his life, and that makes his relationship with his wife Clare Anne Abshire extremely complicated.

"The Time Traveler's Wife" was first adapted into a movie starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams in 2009. HBO's TV adaptation didn't come around until 2022, but it got off to a promising start with Steven Moffat — the showrunner behind "Sherlock" and nearly half a dozen seasons of "Doctor Who" — attached to the project. Unfortunately, trouble began brewing the moment the series hit the air.

Critics almost universally panned the show, and one of the biggest problems might have actually been how closely the show followed the book's story. Clare first meets Henry on one of his time-traveling trips, but in her timeline, she's just a child while Henry is an adult man. The discomforting age gap might be a little easier to get past on the page than it is on the screen. HBO canceled the series shortly after the season finale, but a dedicated group of fans started a campaign to save the show. So far they haven't been successful, but watch this space. 

There are plenty of one-season shows that got canceled way too early and eventually picked up a cult audience that kept some small flame of love for the show alive. That's not the case with "The High Life." The show has the ingredients of a cult classic — a unique premise, a distinctive visual style, and some truly fantastic comedy writing — but it's faded almost entirely into obscurity.

Released in 1996, but set in the '50s, the eight episodes of "The High Life" follow the misadventures of Emmett Wheeler (Robert Joy) and Earl Holloway (Mark Wilson). Emmett and Earl are always willing to go to extreme lengths to try and earn a little extra cash, and each episode of the series shows off another of their harebrained schemes — some of which would feel right at home in a season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

The dark comedy wasn't the only thing that set "The High Life" apart from other shows of the time. "I wanted it to have a film noir-ish look, something I was certain TV audiences were clamoring for," creator Adam Resnick told Vulture in 2012, adding, "Wow, when I say it out loud, what the f*** was I thinking?" Despite, or perhaps because of, the show's strangeness, it debuted to solid ratings and mixed, but generally positive reviews. Ultimately some behind-the-scenes issues with the production and changing leadership at HBO cut "The High Life" short, and today it's genuinely difficult to track down.

"Vinyl" is a period drama made for fans of rock n' roll. It stars Bobby Cannavale as Richie Finestra, the record executive behind the American Century label. Richie is on a quest to come out of the '70s at the very top of the music industry, and his work puts him in contact with some of the greatest musicians of that generation. The series premiered in February 2016, and HBO granted a second season immediately after the pilot made the air. Several months later HBO reversed course, and "Vinyl" was no more.

The show had fairly positive reviews and garnered two Emmy nominations. So what went wrong? Some of the biggest selling points for "Vinyl" might have been its undoing. The show was created by Rich Cohen, Mick Jagger, and Martin Scorsese, the latter of whom also directed the pilot. Those are some big names, but that also meant the series came with a big price tag, and HBO reportedly spent $100 million on the first season alone. Since it wasn't necessarily a huge success, coming back for a second season probably seemed like a poor investment. Scorsese has said that he believes the show would have done better if he'd stuck around to direct all ten episodes, but the world will unfortunately never know.

"The Idol" is one of the most recent HBO shows to get the ax after just one season, but that may have been the plan all along. The series stars Lily-Rose Depp as pop singer Jocelyn who's recently lost her mother and is now finding her career struggling nearly as much as her mental health. In her time of need, Jocelyn turns to the wrong person — the less-than-reputable club owner Tedros, played by Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye. The show sees Jocelyn teetering on the edge of self-destruction and clearly pulls inspiration from the tragic stories of other real-life pop stars.

The Weeknd co-created the show with Reza Fahim and Sam Levinson, the creator of "Euphoria." Despite the solid stars and writers involved in the production, "The Idol" proved polarizing from the very beginning and earned more than a handful of lackluster reviews. While "The Idol" definitely found some fans, it wasn't anywhere near as popular as "Euphoria." Whether or not HBO ever hoped for the series to get a second season, the official cancellation announcement came in August 2023.