Top 10 Reality Shows Canceled After Only One Episode
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Reality Shows Canceled After One Episode. For this list, we’ll be looking at reality shows that got the ax soon after their premiere. Which of these programs do you wish was still on the air? Let us know in the comments.
#10: “Back with the Ex” (2018)
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Taking back a former lover is something some of us have done in our private lives. But for four Australian couples in 2018, they got to do it on national television. Or at least, see just how possible it would be. The concept of “Back with the Ex” was pretty simple - couples who have gone their separate ways in the past decide to give their love one more try. In a somewhat ironic twist, the low ratings for the premiere episode caused the Seven Network to break up with the show immediately and throw the remaining episodes onto their streaming site. It was also available on Netflix for a while but has since been removed from there as well.
#9: “Family Forensics UK” (2005)
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First airing in November 2005, this reality show followed a group of forensic professionals delving into every aspect of a family’s life. The team of three included a forensic profiler, a private investigator, and a relationships expert. In order to put together a profile of the family, they’d scour through their computers and financial records, as well as all of their personal items. However, it turns out the producers didn’t do their job when it came to profiling the experts involved. It wasn’t until the first episode aired that they discovered that the private investigator, Michael Brown, had multiple convictions for crimes involving children. The show was canceled immediately, although it was brought back a year later with a brand new cast.
#8: “Anchorwoman” (2007)
Lauren Jones was a Barker’s Beauty on “The Price is Right,” a beauty pageant winner and a WWE diva. But what this blonde bombshell really wanted was to be an anchorwoman. If it sounds like a poorly scripted reality show or the premise of a bad sitcom, that’s because it is. The show was a mishmash of comedy and reality elements that failed to work on either level. At least not with the audience, who barely showed up for the big 2-episode premiere on August 22, 2007. The ratings were so low that Fox announced the show’s cancellation the next morning. The unaired episodes were then put up on the network’s website, but even those were gone just about a month later.
#7: “The Chop” (2020)
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Not to be confused with the Food Network’s “Chopped,” “The Chop” featured an entirely different group of professionals. The reality show, which premiered on Sky History, brought together woodworkers around the UK to compete for the top prize. It however aired just one episode before getting the ax. The cancellation wasn’t because not enough people tuned in, but instead because of what the audience noticed about one of the contestants, Darren Lumsden. The Bristol woodworker had a face tattoo of the number 88, which is associated with far-right groups. Lumsden claimed it was honoring his father who passed away in 1988. But it was soon discovered that his dad was alive and Lumsden had tattoos of other extremist symbols on his head.
#6: “The Bussey Bunch” (2008)
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Wrestling is a huge business that fetches the WWE tons of money annually. But this show revolved around the lesser known PCW, or Professional Championship Wrestling, so it’s no surprise that it struggled. Greenlit by the TLC network, “The Bussey Bunch” premiered with a two-episode special on January 22, 2008. The show follows the Busseys, a family of eight who run a PCW division in Arlington, Texas. What The Learning Channel soon came to learn was that not many people were particularly interested in a local wrestling ring. With such paltry ratings on its two-parter, “The Bussey Bunch” was canceled soon after. TLC didn’t completely let go of the sport though, bringing on a wrestler in an episode of “Extreme Cheapskates” five years later.
#5: “The Hasselhoffs” (2010)
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After “The Osbournes” premiered on MTV in 2002 and became a television phenomenon it seemed like every network tried to find some celebrity family to create a reality show around. Well, over at A&E in 2010 they decided that David Hasselhoff and his daughters would make for great television. Unfortunately for them, the audience didn’t agree. In fact, while only 718,000 people tuned in to the premiere episode, that number dropped even lower to 505,000 for episode number two which aired the same night. A&E promptly canceled the show - although they did air the full season the following year on the UK’s Biography Channel in the UK.
#4: “Breaking Boston” (2014)
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In January of 2014, A&E premiered “Wahlburgers” - a reality show based around the Wahlburgers restaurant owned by chef Paul Wahlberg and his two famous brothers, Donnie and Mark. The show did well and went on to air 95 episodes over five years. Well, A&E must have thought that everything the Wahlbergs touched turned to TV gold because just a couple months after launching the show, they premiered “Breaking Boston”. Produced by Mark Wahlberg, the series focused on four women in Boston striving to make better lives for themselves. Unfortunately, they didn’t make the ratings better for A&E, who canceled the show after the premiere and moved it to Hulu to play out the season.
#3: “The Will” (2005)
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A staple of the reality television genre is the competition format. And one person who has mined this is Mike Fleiss, the mastermind behind “The Bachelor,” which featured women competing for a proposal. In 2005, Fleiss took his formula to CBS and repackaged it as “The Will,” a reality show that saw friends and family competing for an inheritance. Arizona millionaire Bill Long was the “Benefactor,” whose “prized possession,” a massive ranch in Kansas, was up for grabs. Although CBS made a huge promo push for the series, “The Will” was the lowest-ranked show of the week and was canceled. Eventually, the few fans it acquired got to see the entire season on the now-defunct Fox Reality Channel.
#2: “Let's Make a Love Scene” (2022)
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It seems like all reality show producers do is spend their time thinking up new ways to bring attractive people together in intimate situations. In 2022, one such idea materialized in the form of Channel 4’s “Let’s Make a Love Scene.” The bizarre show follows three single women who have to vie for the attraction of one man by recreating iconic love scenes from famous movies. In the end, the lady with which the most sparks fly will be chosen by the man. The good news is they were able to air half of the episodes they filmed. The bad news is that only two episodes were ordered, which means - that’s right - the series was canceled after the first one.
#1: “Secret Talents of the Stars” (2008)
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Would you want to see a bunch of celebrities competing in a variety of challenges that differ from the talents for which they’re best known? If you said no, then you’re not alone. In fact, you’re like most people back in 2008 who had the chance to watch the premiere episode of “Secret Talents of the Stars” on CBS and chose not to. The series was planned out as a 7-week tournament with the home audience voting for their favorites until a winner was crowned. However, the ratings for the first episode were so low the network made no secret about canceling it the next day. Sadly, the secret talents of these stars will never be made public again.
