The year 2020 is about to come to a close and for some, ringing in the new year can't come soon enough. The year has had its ups and downs, with more downs than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But thankfully, people around the world have had entertaining television to help lift their spirits. However, while plenty of new TV series were released in 2020, not all of them have been huge hits. Yes, new series like The Queen's Gambit, Utopia, and Raised by Wolves have garnered almost universal praise. But others weren’t that great in the eyes of critics, viewers, or both.
So much so, in fact, that before the year has even come to an end, these series, all released in 2020, have already been given the axe.
Fox's Next
The Fox sci-fi crime drama about an artificial intelligence (AI) that goes rogue and wreaks havoc on the world, taunting the FBI and an increasingly paranoid former tech-CEO (John Slattery), didn't hit the mark.
After only two episodes aired, the network announced the cancellation. The remaining season one episodes continue to air.
Fox's Filthy Rich
While Kim Cattrall's series Sex and the City hit it out of the park, she didn't have the same luck with this new Fox show, which was given the boot swiftly after it premiered in late September.
By October, the show about a wealthy family and drama fueled by money, power, and religion, was cancelled. The remaining season one episodes, however, continue to air.
HBO's The Outsider
Technically, this HBO crime drama based on the Stephen King novel was a miniseries so a second season was not expected. But fans who watched got the feeling that the ending suggested more story was to come.
HBO, however, has confirmed it won't be home to a new season of the series so if there is one, it would end up on another network.
CBS' Interrogation
This true-crime drama launched on CBS All Access in February, but by November, the streaming service said Interrogation would not be returning.
The original concept series was based on a real-life case, with each episode featuring real interrogation tactics used by police on a young man who was accused of murdering his mother.
NBC's Connecting…
One of many shows centered around the idea of quarantining at home, this NBC sitcom followed a group of friends trying to stay connected via video chatting during lockdown.
It was canceled in November, a month after release, though all remaining episodes in season one are available on Peacock and Hulu as well.
Peacock's Brave New World
The dystopian science fiction drama based on the Aldous Huxley novel of the same name didn't quite garner the reaction NBC streaming service Peacock had hoped for as one of the most hyped ones in its launch line-up.
Presented as a modern take on Huxley's idea of a utopian society, with everyone connected by a single AI system, fans weren't biting. After a single season, Brave New World was canceled.
Netflix's Away
Netflix launched this sci-fi drama in September, but by October, it was announced that there would not be a season two.
Inspired by an article in Esquire magazine by Chris Jones, it chronicles the first expedition to Mars with an international crew.
Netflix's Teenage Bounty Hunters
Teen comedy-dramas either do amazingly well or fall flat, and this one for Netflix belongs in the latter category.
Released in August, the show was about a pair of high school twins who end up secretly working as bounty hunters in order to afford to pay to repair their father's truck. In October, it was canceled after one season.
ABC's United We Fall
With Will Sasso at the helm, this ABC sitcom had promise to fill the hole left by popular sitcoms that have ended, like Modern Family. But it wasn't to be.
Viewers didn't tune in to see a young couple whose life was upended when the husband's mother (Jane Curtin) moves in with them. It premiered in July and was canceled by September.
Paramount Network's 68 Whiskey
Dubbed a military comedy-drama, and based on the Israeli series Charlie Golf One, the show got generally positive reviews but didn't quite make it into the Paramount Network line-up for the next TV season schedule.
It premiered at the beginning of the year in January but the cancellation was confirmed by September.
Netflix's The Big Big Show
Usually, fans love seeing professional wrestlers outside of the ring, acting like every day normal people. But that didn't translate as well as hoped with this Netflix sitcom that featured WWE's Big Show portraying a fictional version of himself raising three daughters, including a teenager.
While it was officially canceled in August, there will be a Christmas special in December.
Netflix's The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia
Mario Lopez's return to comedy didn't quite pan out as this series he created was cut short when it was canceled after season one. Like The Big Big Show, however, a Christmas special is in the works to give the story a proper ending.
The show was about a 15-year-old prodigy who relocates and moves in with her uncle in order to work as a robotics engineer and rocket scientist for NASA.
Netflix's White Lines
This British-Spanish mystery thriller was canceled just three months after the first season was released on Netflix.
The core plot of White Lines: After a man's body is found two decades after he went missing in Ibiza, his sister Zoe decides to move there and try and uncover the truth about what happened to her dearly departed brother.
Hulu's High Fidelity
Based on the 1995 British novel of the same name as well as the iconic 2000 romantic-comedy movie starring John Cusack, Zoe Kravitz didn't have as much success with this TV adaptation as her mother Lisa Bonet did in the original film.
Premiering on Hulu in February, High Fidelity is about a record store owner who is obsessed with music and pop culture. The fact it wouldn't be returning was announced in August, despite the series being considered one of the best new shows of the year.
HBO's Run
There were only seven episodes of the first season of this comedy thriller that starred Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson.
The premise was unique: two old college sweethearts promise one another that if one ever texted the word "RUN" to the other and received the same in response, they would drop everything and travel the U.S. together.
The CW's Katy Keene
There were high hopes for this Archie Comics and Riverdale spin-off musical comedy-drama focused on the title character. Kate is Veronica's old friend from New York, and the show follows her life alongside her Big Apple crew, all of whom aspire to make it big in different areas, including fashion design, on Broadway, and recording music.
Katy Keene, which, unsurprisingly, featured plenty of great outfits, became the only The CW show not to be offered to Netflix; instead, it streams on HBO Max.
Syfy's Vagrant Queen
This Syfy series based on the Vault comic book series is about a woman looking for her long-lost mother in the kingdom in which she grew up, while also fighting against a childhood enemy.
The first 10 episodes weren't enough to hook viewers and the show was canceled three months after premiering in March.
NBC's Council of Dads
Inspired by the Bruce Feiler book of the same name, the NBC series premiered in March but by the onset of summer, it had been removed from the line-up for the following season.
The focus is on Scott Perry, a man who, after being diagnosed with cancer, commissions three of his friends to act as father figures to his five children so they'll always have an expanded family and male role models when he's gone.
NBC's Indebted
Airing from February to April, this sitcom was canceled by June after its first season. Adam Pally and Abby Elliott starred as Dave and Rebecca, who, after finally becoming empty nesters, are forced to welcome Dave's broke parent to live with them.
Even Steven Weber and Fran Drescher playing the overbearing parents wasn't enough to save this series.
ABC's The Baker and the Beauty
This ABC romantic-comedy-drama was interestingly adapted from an Israeli version that was one of the highest-rated scripted series every in that country.
But the concept just didn't translate for American audiences and the series was canceled after its first season. At the center of the story was Daniel, a baker for his family's business who falls madly in love with a supermodel.