The Worst New TV Shows of 2021

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 24, 2021

What were the biggest television duds of the past year? Above are the lowest-scoring first-year primetime TV series (including limited series and specials) debuting in the United States between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021. Shows are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding based on scores from December 21, 2021, and must have at least 4 reviews from professional critics to qualify.

8 of 11 photo by HBO Max

37 #3: What Happened, Brittany Murphy? (HBO Max)

HBO Max's two-part documentary series attempts to investigate the mysteries surrounding the 2009 death of actress Brittany Murphy at the age of 32. But critics found the result shallow, exploitative, unrevealing, schlocky, and poorly made.

“What’s Happening, Brittany Murphy? feels like an episode of Inside Edition smoothed out to become a prestige mini-binge. The line between vindicating an unfairly maligned person and continuing to posthumously exploit her has rarely been so thin.” —Judy Berman, Time

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