26 TV Shows We Lost in 2018 (And 6 That Were Saved)

26 TV Shows We Lost in 2018 (And 6 That Were Saved) (continued):

17. Shades of Blue 

The cop drama starring Jennifer Lopez ended after the third season in June. NBC decided to cancel Shades of Blue due to Lopez’s packed schedule.

The Hollywood Reporter cites the filming of two movies, Lopez’s role as a judge on World of Dance, and the delay of the NBC’s live musical Bye, Bye Birdie as examples of the projects Lopez is currently involved in, as well as her Las Vegas Residency which ends in November.

In The Hollywood Reporter article announcing the cancellation, Universal Television president Pearlena Igbokwe said: “This is one of our flagship shows and we’re excited to share the final chapter with viewers who will be on the edge of their seats discovering how Harlee’s story concludes.”

 18. Quantico

Priyanka Chopra’s Quantico will not see a fourth season on ABC. The dense narrative and heavy serialization caused the series to lose momentum about halfway into its first season, and the decline continued into Seasons 3 and 4.

19. Great News

NBC canceled the comedy Great News after two seasons. The show followed Briga Heelan, a segment producer for a news program called The Breakdown who ended up working alongside her mother, who came out of retirement to be an intern.

Deadline reports that Great News cinched a Season 2 renewal partly because of Tina Fey’s involvement, stepping in for a guest arc on the new season. But the ratings didn’t approve, despite critical reception being generally good.

20. Rise

There were high hopes for Rise, but the high school musical drama from Friday Night Lights producer Jason Katims did not perform the same way. Variety reports that show opened with a 1.2 rating but then quickly fell to a 0.9.

Starring Josh Radnor and Rosie Perez, the show followed a teacher who took over a Pennsylvania high school’s lackluster theater department. The show they were putting on: Spring Awakening.

21. Versailles 

This lush period drama told the story of the many tumultuous events at the court of Versailles in France, focused primarily on the relationship between King Louis XIV and his brother, Phillippe, the Duc d’Orleans.

Versailles ran for three seasons, each brimming with political machinations, betrayals, affairs and power struggles of both the global and the intimate variety.

Unfortunately, however, Versailles was quite expensive to produce, which lead to the decision to wrap things up following its third season this year.

22. 12 Monkeys 

Don’t tell Syfy’s 12 Monkeys that shows tend to drop off in quality after their first couple of years.

Airing its fourth and final season in 2018, the time travel drama not only sidestepped this curse; but absolutely obliterated it. Delivering a stellar season and “sticking the landing” in what was one of the finest series finales of the past decade.

The series, inspired by the 1995 film of the same name, never quite found the broader audience it deserved – a fact that becomes baffling when you actually watch the show, with its unique blend of ambitious narrative and deep respect and reverence for its characters.

The writers had been made aware of their limited remaining episodes prior to the third season, allowing them to comprehensively plot out the final 20 episodes in one go. As a result, in what can only be a testament to the value of allowing storytellers more freedom from commercial pressures, the final season was a masterclass in television.

23. The Middle

Deciding they wanted to depart on their own terms, the creators of The Middle ended the series after the ninth season. 

“The decision for us to end the show was a personal decision,” executive producer Eileen Heisler told TV Guide in August 2017. “We had all talked together as creators and cast. I kind of feel like that moment for us when we felt it was time was wanting to leave when people still wanted more of it rather than staying so long that people go, ‘Whatever, why did they stay for so long?'”

24. Nashville 

Nashville got its second cancellation in 2018. After being canceled in 2016 by ABC it was saved by CMT, but in November 2017 CMT announced that the sixth season would be the show’s last.

Unlike its first cancellation, this time the series got a chance to go out on its own terms. The final season of Nashville sent the show off with all the joy, passion, twists, and turns that fans had come to expect from the show for six years.

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