Hey! Come back! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re focusing on the most popular shows that were canceled but eventually saved - sometimes by a new network entirely. Beware of a few spoilers ahead.
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00:00 "Good news everyone! Those asinine morons who cancelled us were themselves fired for incompetence!"
00:06 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're focusing on the most popular shows that were cancelled but eventually saved,
00:12 sometimes by a new network entirely. Beware of a few spoilers ahead.
00:15 "Oh well, congratulations! Ya poor! I am so sorry, money really changes you."
00:20 Number 10. Community. Six seasons and a movie.
00:24 That was the prophecy made by self-aware character Abed way back in Community's second season.
00:30 "This show's gonna last three weeks!"
00:32 "Six seasons and a movie!"
00:34 Since then, the ensemble's sitcom has battled a controversy surrounding star Chevy Chase,
00:38 the creator being fired and rehired by the network in an entire season referred to as "The Gas Leak Year."
00:43 "And what happened to Annie, the unstoppable go-getter?"
00:46 "Oh, there was that gas leak last year."
00:48 NBC finally put the show out of its misery after five seasons, but the prophecy was somehow kept alive by Yahoo's Green,
00:54 who came out of nowhere to fund a sixth and final season.
00:57 Now with a movie in development at Peacock, this low-budget gem has scrapped its way to an impossible dream.
01:02 "Show may be cancelled and moved to the internet where it turns out tens of millions were watching the whole time may not matter."
01:06 Number 9. Lucifer.
01:08 "I don't know what this is about, Lucifer. We caught the murderer. I don't know why you'd think..."
01:12 "The detective isn't here, which means I'm invulnerable."
01:16 One of the more out-there comic book adaptations, Lucifer follows DC's version of the Devil
01:21 as he abandons Hell to run an LA nightclub. As you do.
01:24 Fox took a chance on the fantasy drama which premiered in 2016,
01:27 but the network doesn't exactly have the best track record for letting shows come to their natural ending,
01:32 as you'll see in our countdown, and Lucifer was cut short after season three.
01:35 "It's all true."
01:38 "Detective?"
01:42 "It's all true."
01:44 Knowing the cancellation was coming, the showrunners intentionally set up a huge cliffhanger,
01:48 and the hardcore fans did the rest.
01:50 One online petition and a Twitter hashtag later, Netflix saved the show,
01:54 airing three more seasons to massive viewing figures.
01:57 "Do you want to yell at me, punch me in the face, run away again?"
02:00 "I... I think I just want to get back to work."
02:04 "That's all?"
02:06 Number 8. Nashville.
02:07 Starring Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere as rival country music stars,
02:11 Nashville opened on ABC to almost 9 million viewers.
02:14 "I know you! You're burning it up out there, girl."
02:16 "Oh, thank you. My mama was one of your biggest fans.
02:19 She said she'd listen to you while I was still in her belly."
02:22 "Well, bless your little heart."
02:24 Though the numbers declined each year, the show's cancellation at the end of the fourth season
02:28 still remains a mystery.
02:29 "Look, I would love to be the guy that didn't make the same mistake twice."
02:33 "Twice? Deacon, it's been a lifetime."
02:38 ABC had only just hired new showrunners, and the production company knew there was more story to tell.
02:43 Lionsgate was so confident in a revival that it actually changed the season's ending
02:46 to make it a cliffhanger instead of giving the fans closure just in case.
02:49 "Tell me what's going on."
02:51 "We received a distress call. We've lost contact 90 miles west of Nashville."
02:57 Sure enough, CMT and Hulu joined forces to bring back the show,
03:00 and fans enjoyed two more seasons of Country Bops.
03:03 Number 7. Veronica Mars.
03:04 "Because you had a bad day, you're taking one down, you sing a sad..."
03:12 "Anxious to find out how far I'll go? Or are you ready to give me that name?"
03:16 Starring Kristen Bell as a high schooler turned private investigator,
03:20 Veronica Mars was axed by The CW in 2007.
03:23 The show enjoyed three seasons of steady ratings,
03:25 and it was this fanbase who was able to band together and take matters into their own hands.
03:29 Bell and creator Rob Thomas launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2013
03:33 hoping to raise funds for a Veronica Mars movie.
03:36 The $2 million goal was smashed in a mere 10 hours.
03:39 "So, you're saying there's nothing I can do?"
03:43 "I didn't say that. I never say that."
03:47 The movie released the following year, but for patient fans, the good news didn't stop there.
03:51 Hulu brought the character back for a one-off season in 2019,
03:54 and the series got its conclusion on the small screen 15 years after its debut.
03:59 "I haven't worked a case since I transferred to Stanford."
04:01 "And why is that?"
04:04 "The price was too high."
04:06 Number 6. Star Wars The Clone Wars.
04:08 "I must get you to safety, General."
04:09 "Retreat you must. On the moon below is my mission. There, I must go."
04:15 Star Wars The Clone Wars opened on the big screen in 2008 to mixed reviews at best.
04:19 Later that same year, the story found its feet as a TV series,
04:22 premiering on Cartoon Network and becoming the channel's most-watched premiere of all time.
04:26 The animated series' continued success was brought to an end in 2013 with the new owners, Disney,
04:31 keen to banish expanded universe material from the Star Wars canon.
04:35 "Ahsoka, you are making a mistake."
04:38 "Maybe, but I have to sort this out on my own, without the Council, and without you."
04:46 The Clone Wars wouldn't go down so easy, though.
04:48 Netflix released new episodes in 2014, forcing a U-turn from the studio.
04:52 A new season streamed on Disney+ in 2020,
04:55 and the Star Wars website includes links to each episode in their official story order.
04:59 That sounds like canon to us.
05:00 "CT-1409."
05:03 "I don't believe it."
05:04 Number 5. Arrested Development
05:06 "Yes, this is his family. So why is Michael so happy?"
05:10 "Because he's decided to never speak to these people again."
05:14 It's often in the conversation for greatest sitcom of all time,
05:16 but Arrested Development didn't get there the easy way.
05:19 The show found a cult following from its beginnings on the Fox network, but you know what happens next.
05:23 Failing to reach a wider audience, Fox cut the series short just three seasons in.
05:27 "Well, I don't think the Home Builders organization is going to be supporting us."
05:32 "Yeah, the HBO's not going to want us. What do we do now?"
05:34 "Well, I think it's showtime."
05:36 The fanbase kept growing in its absence, however,
05:38 and the cast of comedy icons never gave up on a reunion.
05:41 Some years later, an opportunity formed in the rise of Netflix,
05:44 and the streaming service offered the sitcom two final seasons.
05:47 With a total of five now spanning 16 years,
05:50 Arrested Development finally got the send-off it deserved in 2019.
05:53 "Hey, what happened to Michael and George Michael? It's like they never showed up. It's like..."
05:57 "Where the hell are they going?"
05:59 "Probably pulling the car around."
06:01 "Actually, I think they might be ready to move on."
06:03 Number 4. Futurama
06:05 "Name?"
06:06 "Uh, Fry?"
06:08 "I'm Leela. Now, it's New Year's Eve, so I'd like to decide your fate quickly and get out of here."
06:13 Futurama follows a pizza delivery boy who wakes up a thousand years in the future,
06:17 which is almost as long as this show has been on the air.
06:19 The animated sitcom premiered on Fox way back in 1999,
06:22 but the network pulled the plug after just four seasons.
06:25 Not long after, Comedy Central took up the mantle,
06:27 leading to the highest-rated Thursday in the network's history.
06:30 "Yes, I'm afraid the brainless drones who run the network cancelled our license."
06:35 "Bah, bah, bah."
06:36 "We were cancelled?"
06:37 "Oh, it's terrible."
06:39 The show was scrapped again after a few more seasons,
06:41 despite its consistent high quality and six Emmy Awards to back it up.
06:45 Futurama now airs on Hulu, where two decades and three networks later,
06:48 it'll finally surpass the 150-episode mark.
06:51 "Remember that show, All My Circuits?"
06:53 "The one that got cancelled three times?"
06:55 "Exactly! New episodes of that!"
06:59 "That's our pitch."
07:00 Number 3. The Expanse
07:02 "Even if we all survive, we're leaving behind an unexploded bomb."
07:07 "Sooner or later, someone will set it off."
07:09 Fittingly for a show about colonizing the solar system,
07:12 there is an alternate universe where The Expanse only got to tell half its story.
07:16 The modern science fiction classic had critics on side from the very first season,
07:20 but it never quite had the ratings to match.
07:23 "How would I know why they did that?"
07:25 "I've been locked up since the last time I saw you."
07:28 The sci-fi network canned the show after its third season,
07:30 and fans went to extreme lengths to find it a new home.
07:33 An online petition was signed over 100,000 times,
07:36 and money was raised to fly a plane with a banner reading,
07:38 "#SaveTheExpanse" around Amazon Studios.
07:41 Prime Video did pick it up for three more seasons,
07:43 and the show went out with a budget and fan base to do its expansive storytelling justice.
07:47 "Every week, another colony ship filled with our constituents shows up at the blockade,
07:52 and we make them wait. They're sitting ducks for pirates.
07:54 They want to explore new worlds. We should let them."
07:56 Number 2. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
07:58 "Jake Peralta?"
07:59 "Yes?"
08:00 "There's an armature wedding. It's set to explode at 5.30. Everyone inside will die."
08:05 "So... that was not the gate guy."
08:12 Yet another show canceled by Fox, Brooklyn Nine-Nine took under 30 hours to re-home.
08:16 The show got the axe after its fifth season, leading to frantic negotiations that included Hulu and TBS,
08:21 and a Twitter backlash led by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
08:24 "I'm here for you, Jake."
08:25 "I'm gonna go to the bathroom."
08:27 "You know what? He's gonna hurt like hell."
08:29 The Nine-Nine came full circle to land at NBC,
08:31 the network that launched star Andy Samberg and had originally passed on the cop comedy.
08:36 Brooklyn Nine-Nine gave us three more seasons of cold opens,
08:38 and character work to end as one of the most popular sitcoms of the century.
08:42 "We need music. Oh, I brought a Jock Jam CD for the wedding!"
08:45 "Oh, we didn't talk about that."
08:47 "It was gonna be a surprise."
08:48 Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
08:51 Manifest - high-viewing figures persuaded Netflix to make its own final season.
08:55 "How many more months are you gonna be staring at the same patch of ocean?"
08:57 "Different patch every day."
09:00 "And many more to come."
09:02 "Until our airplane decides to present itself."
09:04 Star Trek The Original Series - one of the first fan campaigns to ensure the Star Trek legacy.
09:08 "Love him. I love the life he led."
09:12 "The power of a starship commander."
09:15 One Day at a Time - the first show dropped by Netflix to be picked up on a traditional TV network.
09:20 "Did you decide what we're watching for movie night?"
09:23 "No. It's like there's nothing good on Netflix anymore."
09:26 You - Lifetime passed on a second season, which is still going strong on Netflix.
09:30 "It's temporary. Regroup. Get some cash together. Figure out next moves. Go. Never look back."
09:37 "It's a chance to get back to who I really am."
09:40 Sense8 - fan backlash convinced Netflix to conclude the series with a one-off finale.
09:44 "You tell me the choice you made was a mistake."
09:47 "No, the mistake is thinking we're back in the same place. We're not."
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10:07 Number 1 - Family Guy
10:09 "Ah, so beautiful. It's almost as if this world was created especially for me."
10:16 "You think he's onto us, Kristoff?"
10:18 "No, he's an idiot."
10:19 First airing in 1999, the early days of Family Guy were weighed down by poor viewing figures.
10:24 The Seth MacFarlane animation, now one of the longest-running comedies of all time, was cancelled twice in the early 2000s.
10:30 First after the second season, then for good after season three, or so we thought.
10:34 "Everybody, I got bad news. We've been cancelled."
10:37 "Oh no, Peter, how could they do that?"
10:39 "Well, unfortunately, Lois, there's just no more room on the schedule."
10:42 In a surprise redemption arc for Fox, the network revived the series after huge DVD sales.
10:47 Remember those?
10:48 Family Guy returned with new episodes in 2005 and never looked back.
10:51 At the time of writing, the show is currently slated for at least a 23rd season, with seemingly no end in sight.
10:57 "I am so proud of you."
10:59 "No, you're not."
11:00 "What? Of course I am."
11:02 "Ah, gotcha."
11:04 Agree with our ranking? And which cancelled TV shows do you wish got a final send-off?
11:08 Let us know in the comments.
11:09 "So what does this mean for us and our many fans?"
11:12 "It means we're back on the air!"
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11:23 [ ♪ Outro ]