- DC Universe's"Swamp Thing" was canceled after airing just a single episode.
- This isn't the first time this has happened — a handful of other shows were also axed that quickly.
- CBS reality competition "Secret Talents of the Stars" lasted just one day.
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There are plenty of reasons a TV show gets canceled, from high production costs to low viewership to a loss of interest from the actors.
But these 13 TV shows barely got a chance to prove they were worth watching before getting removed from our airwaves. Most, but not all, were critically panned.
Do you remember these shows that barely made a blip in TV history?
DC's streaming service canceled "Swamp Thing" after less than a week.
"Swamp Thing" was canceled on June 6, just a week after it premiered on DC's streaming service, DC Universe, on May 31, and after airing only one single episode. Allegedly, this was due to budgeting issues.
The show was based on a DC Comics character, Swamp Thing, that is half-human, half-plant. It starred "Teen Wolf" actress Crystal Reed, Virginia Madsen, and Andy Bean as the titular character.
The Mark Wahlberg-produced reality show "Breaking Boston" was cancelled after a week by A&E.
"Breaking Boston" revolved around a group of blue collar women in Boston trying to make their way in the world and improve their status. It was produced by famed Boston native and actor Mark Wahlberg.
A&E canceled the show in March 2014, a week after it premiered, citing "underperformance," according to Variety.
"Osbournes Reloaded" was supposed to be the Osbournes' triumphant return to TV, after the success of "The Osbournes," but it wasn't able to replicate the same magic.
"Osbournes Reloaded" was supposed to be a variety show starring Ozzy, Sharon, Jack, and Kelly, complete with skits, musical performances, and comedy.
Unfortunately, it didn't connect with viewers — Vulture called it "terrible"— and Fox pulled the plug after a single episode.
"Secret Talents of the Stars" was a reality TV tournament competition in which celebrities performed their hidden talents on stage for the viewing public to vote on. It was canceled the day after it premiered.
One of the biggest issues with "Secret Talents of the Stars" was the voting system. Viewers only had the few minutes between commercial breaks to vote for their favorite stars, and people on the West Coast couldn't even vote at all because of the time difference.
Perhaps that's why CBS axed the show on April 9, 2008— it had premiered the day before. Or maybe it was the dismal ratings.
"Quarterlife" was a huge success when it aired on MySpace, but failed to find its audience on NBC, and was canceled after the premiere.
"Quarterlife" originated as a web series on MySpace that featured eight-minute episodes that all aired simultaneously. It was such a big hit on the social networking site that NBC acquired the rights to air it on their network after the webisodes aired, in 2008.
Unfortunately, it barely got any attention on TV, and pulled historically low ratings for the network. In fact, the show about a group of artists in their twenties, earned the network its worst ratings in the Tuesday, 10 pm slot in 17 years.
Eight episodes of "The Hasselhoffs" were filmed, but only the first two were shown on premiere night.
A&E believed that viewers would want to follow "Baywatch" and "Knight Rider" star David Hasselhoff in his day-to-day life, Kardashian-style. Unfortunately the network was wrong. Less than a million people tuned in in December 2010 to watch the premiere, and A&E canceled the show a few days later.
"The Rich List" was a trivia-based competition from the people behind "The Weakest Link." It did not inspire the same fandom.
"The Rich List" was a competition that involved two teams, betting, and trivia — but proved to be a little too convoluted for audiences to follow. Perhaps that's why Fox canceled the show two days after its first episode aired in November 2006.
"Emily's Reasons Why Not," based on a book of the same name, was canceled after dismal ratings on night one.
The sitcom, which starred Heather Graham as the titular Emily, premiered in 2006, was unfavorably compared to "Sex and the City," and said to employ the most basic of gay stereotypes.
Though ABC spent a significant amount of money promoting the show, once the less-than-stellar premiere numbers came in (6.2 million viewers), the show hit the chopping block.
"The Will" was created by Mike Fleiss, the man behind "The Bachelor," but it didn't reach the same level of success.
"The Will"revolved around a multi-millionaire from Arizona called "The Benefactor," whose friends and family were to compete to inherit his prized possession, a ranch in Kansas.
The show aired a single episode in January 2005 before CBS canceled it — perhaps its standing as the network's lowest-watched show that week had something to do with it. A re-run of "Cold Case" replaced it.
"Beware of Dog" aired two episodes consecutively in one night — and then never again.
"Beware of Dog"was a sitcom that aired on "Animal Planet" for a single night, after airing two episodes back-to-back in August 2002. The show was narrated by a border collie who was adopted by a family after he tricked them into believing he was injured.
The show was canceled before it could air again the next week after lukewarm reviews.
"Anchorwoman" was a reality mockumentary-style TV show that followed former "Price Is Right" model Lauren Jones on her journey to becoming an anchorwoman. It was canceled after the first night.
The show was partially scripted, partially improvised, and asked the question, what would happen if you dropped a model in the middle of a small town in Texas and told her to read the news?
The show was criticized for being unfunny and making light of the actual industry of local news. It was canceled after a single night in 2007.
"The Bussey Bunch" aired its first two episodes in a night before TLC took it off the air and scrubbed it from its website.
"The Bussey Bunch" premiered in 2008 — just a few months after another show about a certain blended family premiered — and focused on a family in Texas that promoted professional wrestling. TLC took it off their schedule and website after a week, most likely due to poor ratings.
"The Xtacles" was an animated comedy that aired on Adult Swim for one single night only.
The show was a spin-off of "Frisky Dingo," which itself only aired for two seasons. It focused on the Xtacles, a private army filled with Iron Man-esque super-soldiers.
Adult Swim declined to fund any more episodes after premiere night in November 2008, and the animation studio behind the show shut down just a few months later in January 2009.
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