It’s officially mid-season for the TV world and time to check in on the Fall 2008 TV shows. Which ones are finished? Which ones are on life support? Read on for a fairly long list of television shows that are either ending after this season or being cancelled prematurely.
SHOWS ENDING OR CANCELED:
- Battlestar Galactica (SCI) - Ending after four seasons. Although we’ll get a spinoff with a 2-hour Caprica movie which was originally scheduled for December 2008, but this is possibly getting pushed back to 2009 so they can convert that special into a premiere of a new Caprica series.
- Boston Legal (ABC) – I’m probably in the minority here since it survived 5 seasons, but I never liked this show. The series will end with a 2-hour finale on December 8th – cause of death reported to be cost of production.
- Charlie Jade (SCI) I never watched this and honestly had never heard of it, but it will end after its first season.
- Do Not Disturb (FOX) - This true comedy with Jerry O’Connel was killed after just 3 lowly episodes
- Easy Money (CW) – I’m putting this in the canceled category. CW has aired seven episodes but has also put a “halt to production.” They may want us to believe that means to “catch up”, but I’ll call it canceled.
- The Emperor's New School (DISNEY) – 2 Seasons in, this Disney show is over.
- ER (NBC) Will end after its 15th season is completed
- The Ex List (CBS) – Was canceled after just four episodes
- Flip That House (TLC) – Fitting that the show (in its 4th season) based on “flipping houses” fails when its nearly impossible to sell a house in the U.S. at the moment.
- Hole in the Wall – A Japanese-import gameshow where people (large and small) attempt to squeeze themselves into odd shapes to fit through a moving wall. Only lasted a few episodes after very poor ratings.
- King Of The Hill (FOX) – This popular animated series ends after 13 seasons.
- The L-Word (SHO) – Showtime’s L-Word will end after six seasons.
- Lipstick Jungle (NBC) – This show staring Brooke Shields was the NBC version of Sex and the City-Lite and is finished after two seasons.
- Late Night With Conan O'Brien (NBC) – Conan’s late night talk show will end in its current form after 16 seasons.
- MADtv (FOX) – 13 seasons of SNL-type comedy ends.
- Mind Of Mencia (COMEDY) – Over after 4 seasons.
- My Own Worst Enemy (NBC) – This one survived only 9 episodes. I had it set to record and just deleted all of the epsisodes after hearing of its demise. Word is this series had potential, but wasted it quickly.
- Opportunity Knocks (ABC) - This gameshow hosted by ashton Kutcher only lasted 3 episodes.
- The Riches – FX has canceled one of the shows I’ve heard good things about but never watched.
- The Shield (FX) – 7 seasons of rough-and-tumble cop drama ends after this season.
- Stargate Atlantis (SCI) – Over after 5 seasons. Lots of unhappy sci-fi fans over this one.
- The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (NBC) – I will really miss Jay Leno as NBC closes shop with him after 17 seasons. I never thought I’d warm to him when he first came on, but he’s really done a good job in my opinion. It will be interesting to see what he does next.
- Valentine (CW) – Will air all 13 episodes, but is finished after that as it should be.
WHICH SHOWS ARE ON THE BUBBLE AND IN TROUBLE?
- Chuck – NBC is watching Chuck lose a lot of its audience from last year. Could be finished after this season.
- Crusoe – This show airs on Fridays so the expectations are pretty low and I think the quality of the show is pretty low as well.
- Dirty Sexy Money – This ABC comedy/drama has morphed into more of a traditional soap opera this season and the ratings have been falling. It’s definitely on the bubble at the moment and I’m very tempted to just move it to the canceled list.
- Eli Stone – Another ABC show that very likely could be canceled. No word yet from ABC on its fate though.
- Heroes – Lots of complaints about Heroes these past two seasons and the show is down by over half from last years numbers. I for one am enjoying this show a lot, but my wife who is a better gauge of the more-typical TV viewer thinks the show is overly complicated with too many characters this season.
- Life – NBC’s Life is also loosing audience – especially compared to last years numbers.
- Pushing Daisies - is struggling to keep afloat with rumors flying that it is kaput. Ratings for the show based on Ned the pie maker were diving weekly and had already plunged from last years numbers. Like Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies is most likely canceled but I’m holding off moving to that list until the news is confirmed.
- Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles is in danger of being terminated as ratings dropped 34% from last year and weekly continues to lose more of its audience. One of my favorite sci-fi shows so I hope it survives another season.
- Worst Week – This comedy has had fairly low ratings, but it looks like CBS is trying to give it some more time to gain audience.
IN THE “HOW DID THAT SHOW GET RENEWED CATEGORY:”
- Knight Rider – This show amazingly is being renewed andre-tooled by NBC. How does this happen? Ratings have been fairly low (although higher than I would expect) and the show is basically unwatchable (sorry for those of you who like it ;).
- Kath & Kim – Seriously, they’re keeping Kath and Kim! How does this happen?
- Law & Order #### – This is totally me cause I know these shows get good ratings, but I’d be fine if there were no more than a single Law and Order a season.
What shows are you disappointed to see go? Any that I missed that you think will be cancelled? Let me know in the comments below.
