What Were the First TV Shows Canceled Each Season?

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – November 1, 2017

This gallery was originally published in 2015 and has been updated for the new TV season.

They're usually not the worst (though, with a few notable exceptions, they're almost never among the best). And they aren't necessarily the most derivative or least interesting, nor are they lacking in talent. What they are, for a variety of reasons, is unwatched ... and thus extremely short-lived. We're talking about the fall TV season's first cancellations.

Like in 2016, this year's first cancelation came a bit later than normal—in early November. And, once again, it was not the season's lowest-scoring show that got the axe. How many canceled shows can you remember from past years? Find out in our brief look back at the last 18 years of television infamy ...

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70 Push, Nevada: Season 1

(2002) One of the more daring network shows of the 2000s was struck down on the same day by ABC as one of the decade's more derivative entries. The latter, a time-travel dramedy starring the little-known James Bulliard, was strikingly similar in concept to The WB's Do Over, which premiered just eight days earlier. The Ben Affleck-created Push, Nevada (pictured), on the other hand, offered something unique: an interactive mystery that viewers had a chance to solve, with a million-dollar prize going to the first to do so. Critics found the writing fairly clever, but ABC gave up on the heavily promoted series after seven episodes. Required by federal law to complete the contest, the network revealed the final clue during an episode of Monday Night Football.

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