31 of Our Favorite TV Shows That Were Canceled in 2022
Reading Time: 7 minutesWestworld, The Flash, Los Espookys, and many more TV shows have been pulled this year.
It has not been a good year for those shows you like. If you mostly watch crime procedurals like CSI, NCIS, and Blue Bloods, or Yellowstone-adjacent shows, then you’re probably fine; otherwise, there’s a good chance you’ve felt the loss of a favorite show.
The single biggest culprit is The CW. Following a purchase by Nester Media, the network is dumping almost all of its original programming: ten series were canceled outright, with The Flash, Nancy Drew, and Riverdale all ending, allegedly on their own terms. Surviving shows like Kung Fu, Superman & Lois, and Walker aren’t looking terribly secure.
Meanwhile, streamers have shown themselves far less likely to hang on to shows that aren’t hitting whatever numbers are most relevant at any given time. Netflix, for example, is dropping several shows; and then there’s HBO, which has adopted a cancel-then-dump-it strategy, being less worried about completing stories than with dumping underperforming shows into the nearest well.
There also seem to have been an inordinate number of decently-performing LGBTQ-adjacent shows canceled this year (the phenomenon getting its own hashtag, #CancelYourGays). It’s a little hard to quantify that given everything that’s gotten canceled this year, but the end result is that next season is going to be a lot less queer. For 2023, I’m going to save myself the heartbreak and only watch old shows that I know ended on their own terms. Here’s what was canceled this year.
One of the biggest surprises this year, and one that bodes poorly not just for its cast and crew but for HBO itself, Westworld was once one of the network’s highest-profile shows. Ratings were down in the most recent years while costs had risen, but the fourth season saw a creative resurgence that was leading into a long-planned fifth season finale. Instead, the ambitious, often convoluted, and frequently Emmy-nominated show will end on a cliffhanger, and has already been removed from HBO Max (a penny-pinching move that mostly ensures that actors won’t see residuals). Moves like this make it harder to commit to new shows with complex narratives; it seems the odds are against them ever wrapping up satisfactorily.
Where to stream: Apple TV and Vudu have episodes for digital rental or purchase. HBO Max now only has the 1973 film.
The quirkiest and queerest of the DC/CW stable ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, though seven seasons ain’t a bad run. Ratings were likely less of a factor here than a change in corporate strategy after the network’s purchase by Nexstar Media; nearly all of the network’s regular shows were canceled with either delayed or immediate effect. Remember when Gary got his nipple bitten off by a unicorn and it became a major subplot? That’s the kind of thing we’ll miss.
Where to stream: All seven seasons are on Netflix.
Another DC show down, another queer superhero unceremoniously dumped after three seasons.
Where to stream: All three seasons are on HBO Max.
And another queer, Black superhero gone after just a single season. There was a lot of potential here and the promise of a new generation of supers.
Where to stream: HBO Max.
The lighter-tone to the Brec Bassinger/Luke Wilson super-show was a highlight, but Stargirl‘s cosmic staff was clearly no match for the staff at The CW, whose job it is to cancel shows.
Where to stream: The first two seasons are on HBO Max; season three is streaming from CW.
Let’s keep it rolling with the CW shows, shall we? The network gets some credit for shows like Tom Swift, with a several gay Black characters (including the lead) as well as a trans love interest, but loses most of it for, in this case, canceling it after five episodes. The show was a spin-off of Nancy Drew, which will end in 2023 (apparently less a cancelation than a planned conclusion).
Where to stream: HBO Max.
The cumulative 17 seasons of Vampire Diaries-related shows conclude (for now, at least), with the cancelation of Legacies, set at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted and lead by vampire/witch/werewolf Hope Mikaelson.
Where to stream: All four seasons are on Netflix.
Bad year for reboots, as we’ll see: This second adaptation of the Roswell High book series wound up lasting a season longer than the earlier Roswell series that ended way back in 2002.
Where to stream: All four seasons are on Netflix.
While the soap opera reboot had its fans, Dynasty never had nearly the pop culture impact of the ’80s-era original, and also none of the staying power: The CW canceled the series after five seasons. It did the original one better, though, by wrapping up its major storylines in the finale rather than going out on a cliffhanger as did the earlier series.
Where to stream: All five seasons are on Netflix.
The updated Charmed had a fair number of fans, and did decently in the ratings, none of which was enough to save it from The CW’s purge. In the end, it wound up running for about half as many seasons as the original.
Where to stream: All four seasons are on Netflix.
I think that the cancelation of this reboot of the 2004–2007 series finally concludes the CW bloodbath, but only because we’re not including the planned endings next year of The Flash (after nine seasons) and Riverdale (after seven).
Where to stream: Episodes are available for purchase on Amazon and Vudu.
Gentefied, the critically-acclaimed (and funny) series about three Mexican-American cousins dealing with gentrification and its impacts on their family and business in East LA, was canceled by Netflix after just two seasons.
Where to stream: Netflix
Black Monday is an ’80s-set Wall Street drama that debuted to mixed reviews, but was powered by an impressive cast lead by Don Cheadle and Regina Hall. It was canceled by Showtime following the conclusion of its third season.
Where to stream: Showtime
While Lana Wachowski was directing the (wildly underrated) Matrix Resurrections, sister Lily was producing this excellent comedy-drama created by, and starring, Abby McEnany as a self-described ‘fat, queer dyke’ (the show is based, in part, on Abby’s own life) who enters into a complicated but transforming relationship. Work in Progress hasn’t aired since October of 2021, but Showtime didn’t get around to canceling it until January.
Where to stream: Showtime
Another show canceled well after its last episode aired, The Baby-Sitters Club seemed like a minor hit when it was released back in 2020. It quickly developed a passionate fanbase and a broad appeal…none of which was able to sustain it past two seasons. It’s too bad: The show had a real YA appeal, while also appealing to families more generally.
Where to stream: Netflix
The fifth Saved by the Bell series was an awful lot of fun, and seemed to be developing a fanbase of its own. Alas, we’ll have to wait for the next iteration of the 35-year-old franchise.
Where to stream: Peacock
Oh wait…another CW show. In the Dark didn’t have quite the sexy-young-adult and/or superhero vibe of many of the network’s other shows, instead involving a troubled blind woman getting into the murder-solving game.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Tina Fey/Robert Carlock series Mr. Mayor got off to a slow start, but was a lot of goofy fun in a TV landscape that mostly wants things that are a bit more serious. Ted Danson and Holly Hunter as the mayor and deputy mayor of Los Angeles were one heckuva pairing.
Where to stream: Freevee
Ridley Scott’s ambitious, and beautifully chilly high-concept Raised By Wolves won’t get a proper conclusion, at least not at HBO (which not only canceled the show, but scrubbed any evidence of its ever having existed from HBO Max). Scott’s production company has been shopping the series around, but given the cancel-everything mindset these days, those odds probably aren’t great.
Where to stream: Apple TV, Amazon, and Vudu have episodes for purchase.
Gentleman Jack, the rather well-done drama of old-timey lesbians, was canceled by HBO after two seasons, though not scrubbed from the HBO Max site…so at least it’s been accorded that much dignity. Co-producer BBC would like to continue the series with a different partner, so fingers crossed there.
Where to stream: HBO Max
Los Espookys, the surreal cult comedy about horror-movie fans who use their unique knowledge to either scare or inspire people into changing their lives, was too good—and much too weird—to live.
Where to stream: HBO Max
Of all HBO’s cruel cancelations this year, Minx‘s cancelation feels the meanest: The comedy about a young feminist starting up an erotic magazine for women in the 1970s was renewed…and then un-renewed by HBO, and now it’s been scrubbed from HBO Max. Producer Lionsgate is hoping to find a new home for the show.
Where to stream: Good luck. There isn’t so much as a DVD.
Joss Whedon’s latest, The Nevers, had the misfortune to have been released at just the moment that the creator’s career blew up amid a string of allegations involving abusive behavior…which is unfortunate, as the show itself wasn’t bad. His stepping down didn’t seem to have made much of a difference, and the show was canceled following its initial run of six episodes. Those episodes have been removed from HBO Max, and a subsequent six episodes, already in the can, won’t stream there, if anywhere.
Where to stream: Episodes are for sale on Apple TV.
TNT’s take on Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer never had quite the bite of that earlier adaptation, but the Daveed Diggs and Jennifer Connelly-led series eventually developed its own unique take on the climate apocalypse. The cancelation (to take effect following a fourth season airing in 2023) comes as TNT is ceasing all production of original shows, so it isn’t necessarily ratings-related.
Where to stream: The current seasons can be streamed via TNT.
In Woke, Lamorne Morris starred as a character based on cartoonist and co-creator Keith Knight. It’s been a unique blend of live-action and animation, and got generally sharper and funnier in its second season.
Where to stream: Hulu
Though Paper Girls did well with fans and critics, it seems to have gotten lost and under-promoted—it was a series that I had been looking forward to, and then didn’t even realize it had been released until after it had happened.
Where to stream: Prime Video
Though it seemed to be doing decent numbers, Netflix decided not to go forward with a third season of the live-action series Fate: The Winx Saga (based on the Winx Club Nickelodeon animated series). The show got mostly middling reviews in the first season (and earned itself a well-deserved whitewashing controversy), but seems to have picked up in the second. Now it ends on a cliffhanger, sadly.
Where to stream: Netflix
Mike Flanagan’s latest (and last) series for Netflix, The Midnight Club was a young adult-aimed series with some chills but a lot of heart. Ratings may not have been a factor here, as Flanagan and executive producer Trevor Macy are leaving Netflix for Prime Video.
Where to stream: Netflix
No more reprieves for Step Up, a spin-off of the film series. Two seasons of the show were released on YouTube, before YouTube realized that it didn’t actually need to make its own programming. Much as Cobra Kai was picked up by Netflix, Step Up was taken over by Starz, but that’s only lasted for a single season.
Where to stream: Starz
Even the queer cartoons weren’t safe, as the popular fantasy series that marked nearly the entirely of Disney’s LGBTQ+ representation got the axe (it didn’t fit with the brand, according to creator Dana Terrace). At least the show is getting a series of specials to wrap things up, the last of which will air in 2023.
Where to stream: Disney+
Despite a devoted fanbase and a social media campaign to secure a third season, Netflix dropped Warrior Nun midstream. It’s been a focus for the #cancelyourgays hashtag, about the number of seemingly well-performing shows with queer characters that have been canceled this year. (Warrior Nun‘s regularly been in the Netflix top-ten streamed, and no Netflix original has a higher Rotten Tomatoes audience score). The forecast for TV in 2023 is looking depressingly straight.
Where to stream: Netflix
Reference: https://lifehacker.com/31-of-our-favorite-tv-shows-that-were-canceled-in-2022-1849916745