Predicting The Biggest TV Flops Of 2025
In the good old days when there were only three TV channels, you could pretty much count the number of new shows each year on your hands. But thanks to cable TV and now streaming, there are so many new shows every single TV season that it's hard to keep track. And with so many new projects, it's inevitable that a lot of them will be complete failures in the ratings, if not downright awful. After all, there are only so many shows that people can watch, so it takes something special to rise to the top.
While highly-anticipated shows are already receiving rave reviews, there are plenty more still on the docket, and there are plenty that look destined to be bombs. You might be looking forward to some of them, but we don't think they'll live up to the hype — if there is any — and we're warning you now not to get too excited.
We're not necessarily saying that all of these shows will be awful (but most of them probably will be) — they just may be flops in the commercial sense: low audience scores, little viewership, or a swift cancellation. From superhero sitcoms to legal dramas and even a groan-worthy biblical epic, these are the shows we're predicting to be the biggest flops of 2025.
Ironheart
When Disney+ announced its first slate of small-screen Marvel originals, they were all hotly anticipated and mostly lived up to the hype. Further shows released on the platform, however, have been something of a mixed bag, with the likes of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" and "Secret Invasion" getting roasted by audiences, if not critics. These days, new Marvel shows feel less like an extravagant, catered event and more like a quick bite of processed fast food. And we fear that the first MCU entry on the small screen in 2025 will be the latter.
Slated for a June release, "Ironheart" stars Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, whose advanced tech has created a successor to Tony Stark's Iron Man suit. She'll face off against a mysterious supernatural villain called The Hood (Anthony Ramos). Initially, there was some buzz about "Ironheart" tying into a larger story that would involve the Don Cheadle-led "Armor Wars," but since that project has been on ice for years, nobody knows if Riri Williams' story will mean anything to the MCU. There's also been almost no hype surrounding the series, in part due to extensive delays that saw the show pushed back more than a year from its originally planned debut.
Throw in the fact that Williams' first appearance in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" wasn't met with any real enthusiasm and that the current MCU has been heavily overhauled since it started filming, and we're wondering if anyone still cares. "Ironheart" could surprise us, but the odds that the series will be a huge hit seem to be dwindling by the day.
Wonder Man
Unfortunately, like "Ironheart," we have a bad feeling that "Wonder Man" will let us down despite a talented lead who seems perfect for the role. That lead is "Watchmen" star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams, a Hollywood actor and superhero who takes a role in a comic book TV show within the show. Taking inspiration from the '90s version of the character, which saw the one-time villain-turned-hero embark on an acting career, the small-screen adventure seems like a fun idea on paper.
There's a few problems, though, the biggest being that Marvel doesn't seem to have any idea what it's doing with the character: Is he going to be a future Avenger, as he is in the comics? Is this largely a standalone tale? The promotion for the series has been almost nonexistent and there has been zero word on whether it will lead to a bigger MCU role for Abdul-Mateen II. As a result, many fans may be wondering why they should tune in. Abdul-Mateen II knows something about this, as his previous film, "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," flopped at the box office for a similar reason — fans knew the franchise wouldn't continue in the already-announced DCU reboot.
Marvel also seems to be thumbing its nose at fans thanks to the presence of Ben Kingsley in the principal cast. No shade to the Oscar-winning star, but his Trevor Slattery may be one of the most hated Marvel characters ever seen on screen; His appearance in "Iron Man 3" was a major reason fans disliked the threequel. And a superhero TV show about a superhero TV show? "She-Hulk" tried that kind of meta-narrative satire and it didn't play well with audiences.
Sherlock and Daughter
Adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective have always been popular, but they haven't always been successful. For every "Elementary," there's a "Holmes and Watson" that bombed at the box office, while recent years have seen a flurry of new adaptations. Many of these are reinventions of the concept, including Millie Bobbie Brown's "Enola Holmes," which did reasonably well on Netflix. However, we don't suspect that this latest version, "Sherlock and Daughter," will be a big success.
Starring David Thewlis as Holmes, the series centers on a young Native American woman (Blu Hunt) who befriends the famous detective while investigating the murder of her mother. The case predictably leads to a confrontation with Holmes' infamous nemesis, Dr. Moriarty (Dougray Scott). Though the cast seems decent, we're forced to wonder if TV needs yet another version of Sherlock Holmes that tries to take the character in a totally different direction.
Airing on the CW, "Sherlock and Daughter" probably won't be action-adventure like Guy Ritchie's 2009 "Sherlock Holmes" film, nor the darker, mind-bending drama of BBC's "Sherlock." Clearly trying to appeal to a younger audience, the show has an attractive young woman as its lead, which is probably not what serious fans of the character are looking for. With a glossier sheen and a more light-hearted tone, too, we're really not sure who the audience is for this. At the same time, Paramount+ just launched its own new adaptation of Conan Doyle's works with the medical procedural "Watson," so suddenly "Sherlock and Daughter" feels more than a little superfluous.
Spartacus: House of Ashur
The 2000s were a good time for dramas set in ancient times, with "Gladiator" and "Kingdom of Heaven" at the movies and "Rome" and "Spartacus" on television. The latter was led by the late Andy Whitfield as the legendary slave who led a revolt against the Roman Empire. Sadly, when Whitfield was diagnosed with cancer, it dramatically changed the TV show, with new actor Liam McIntyre stepping into the sandals of Spartacus for three subsequent seasons.
More than a decade after the show came to an end, "Spartacus: House of Ashur" is a direct follow-up, with original series creator Steven S. DeKnight back as showrunner. But the story isn't about Spartacus at all, instead following the character of Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay), who supposedly died at the end of the original show's second season. Now he's back as a gladiator, with the show promising a whole new story unlike anything we've seen before. And that's where we think it might go wrong.
"Spartacus" was a hit in 2010 with Andy Whitfield, and though Liam McIntyre did a good job taking over the role, the series was never able to capture the success of its first year. Now, with a decade in between, we just don't see many audiences clamoring to return to that world. DeKnight also doesn't have the best track record of late, with his last success being Netflix's "Daredevil" a decade ago, and flops like "Pacific Rim: Uprising" and "Jupiter's Legacy" in between.
Suits: LA
Every successful show needs a spin-off, but do we really need another "Suits"? Sure, the original — a slick legal drama starring Gabriel Macht — was a huge hit, running for nine seasons on the USA Network from 2011-2019. It's the show that made Meghan Markle a star before she was a royal, and it makes sense that the suits at the network would want to keep the franchise going. In 2025 they'll try with "Suits: LA," an extension that takes the action from New York to Los Angeles and a new cast of hotshot lawyers.
Gina Torres ("Firefly") will return in a recurring role, but none of the main cast returns from its predecessor. Former Arrowverse star Stephen Amell leads the show as New York prosecutor Ted Black, who relocates to the West Coast. The real question we have here is why this show is even happening: while "Suits" was undoubtedly a hit, it's already had a spin-off that was a spectacular failure.
Titled "Pearson," the first "Suits" extension starred Torres in the role of Jessica Pearson, and it was canceled mere weeks after the season concluded its 10-episode run. Ratings were abysmal in spite of solid reviews from both critics and audiences. Perhaps the studio thinks it can do better with a different cast, but the reality is it may simply not be able to capture this particular lightning in a bottle twice.
A Thousand Blows
Not to be confused with "Spartacus: House of Ashur" showrunner Steven S. DeKnight, British writer-director and "Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight also returns to screens in 2025 with an original period drama, "A Thousand Blows." Set in London in the 1880s, the show puts a spotlight on an all-woman crime syndicate called the Forty Elephants. But the show's real conflict comes between Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), an underground boxer, and fellow brawler Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham) who has come into the employ of Forty Elephants ringleader Mary Carr (Erin Doherty).
The premise sounds promising, but period dramas are always hit or miss. And while Disney and Hulu are probably banking on Knight's success with "Peaky Blinders" and "Taboo," the real worry comes when looking at his more recent track record. He hasn't had a big hit since "Blinders," with disappointing projects like "A Christmas Carol," "Great Expectations," and "The Veil" sullying his resume over the last five years or so. It's possible he can right his ship with a darker, more serious drama, but with little star power and almost no promotion — has anyone even heard this is coming? — it's more likely to be another miss. That said, if any series on our list of predicted flops has a chance to beat the odds, it might be this one.
Good Cop/Bad Cop
Outside of teen dramas, sci-fi, and fantasy, The CW doesn't have the best track record of producing long-lived hits. So when the hour-long drama "Good Cop/Bad Cop" was first announced, it didn't offer a lot of high hopes. The cast doesn't inspire much confidence either, fronted by former teen series veterans Leighton Meester of "Gossip Girl" and Luke Cook from "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina." Not to disparage either actor, but neither has had a hit in quite a while, while their presence suggests this isn't going to be any kind of gritty cop procedural.
A mix of ideas we've seen before, "Good Cop/Bad Cop" seems to be billing itself as a light-hearted police drama, this time centering on a family of police officers a la "Blue Bloods" (which also has the distinction of being at least partially based on a real police family). Meister and Cook play Lou and Henry Hickman, semi-rival detectives and siblings who both work under the administration of their own father, Hank Hickman (Clancy Brown). A story that feels cobbled together by an algorithm, with elements taken from other, better shows, "Good Cop/Bad Cop" will have to have some serious comedic chops if it's going to set itself apart from the competition.
Ultimately, police procedurals are a dime a dozen, and it takes something truly special to rise above the rest. We're just not seeing anything here to suggest "Good Cop/Bad Cop" has what it takes to last more than a season.
House of David
"House of David" brings us a sweeping, big-budget biblical TV epic — the kind of show that sets off giant flashing red alarm bells. You've probably never heard of any of the people involved, but you've almost certainly heard of the story: a young boy named David, against all odds, defeats the giant known as Goliath using little more than a single stone. That's right, one of the Bible's most famous stories is getting its own sprawling TV series, and from the looks of it, it will flop hard.
Airing on Prime Video, "House of David" looks handsomely produced on the surface, but one glimpse of the trailer makes us think this might be better suited to a Christian TV network. It's brimming with mediocre acting, drama school dialogue, and a flat voiceover from the perspective of David's mother. David himself, meanwhile, is played by newcomer Michael Iskander, making his screen debut, and we certainly hope this doesn't ruin his potential career.
Biblical epics are rarely major hits, and since the tale is one of the most well-known in popular culture, it feels like a story that didn't need to be told. We all know who is going to win — and we even know how (the trailer even contains a groan-worthy hint about David's stone-wielding prowess). While historical dramas can certainly work when done right, this one faces an uphill battle.
We Were Liars
In early summer 2024 it was announced that Emily Alyn Lind, Joseph Zada, Shubham Maheshwari, and Esther McGregor were joining the cast of "We Were Liars," a new Prime Video series based on the young adult novel by E. Lockhart. McGregor is the daughter of Ewan, who co-starred with Lind in "Doctor Sleep," so there's a modicum of star power, or at least some serious talent in front of the camera. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where anything interesting about the series begins and ends.
The series is a mystery-thriller set on a small island off the coast of New England owned by the Sinclairs, a powerful and wealthy family who spend each summer on the isle. Lind plays Cadence Sinclair, a teenager who experiences a traumatic incident one summer and represses her memory of what happened. Even if it didn't sound so trite and cliched, "We Were Liars" has an awful lot going against it, led by the fact that it's taken from a YA novel, a genre rife with bad TV adaptations.
While "13 Reasons Why" was a hit for Netflix some years ago, the only recent entry in the genre to have much success was "Percy Jackson," a series that took two adaptations to get right. Without much fantasy in "We Were Liars," what we're left with is a psychological thriller aimed at adolescents — another sub-genre that often struggles.
All's Fair
Ryan Murphy is one of TV's most in-demand talents and has worked on both great and terrible shows in a variety of genres, including the macabre hit "American Horror Story," the tongue-in-cheek emergency procedural "9-1-1," and the sensational teen dramedy "Glee." But Murphy doesn't always churn out greatness, and in fact much of what he produces flops; his success mostly comes from how prolific he is. In 2025 we're getting a new Ryan Murphy joint, "All's Fair," and we're betting this will be one of his failures.
A legal drama with a superstar cast, "All's Fair" stars Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, and Kim Kardashian. But Close isn't the show's lead — that's Kardashian, as a divorce lawyer who leads an all-woman firm. The choice to have reality TV star Kardashian lead a high-profile streaming series ("All's Fair" will air on Hulu) is of course the most questionable decision here, especially when there are so many great talents elsewhere in the show. Rather than choosing the best actor for the role, it seems Murphy went for stunt casting to earn eyeballs, as Kardashian's only real starring role came in 2023's "Delicate," the 12th season of "American Horror Story."
Ultimately, we think there's a chance that "All's Fair" will be a ratings success, especially given the talent involved, as it does look like the kind of Ryan Murphy show that people will be curious to check out. But we don't think this one will be loved by critics, and probably won't be adored by audiences either.
Adults
Coming-of-age stories are a staple of movies and TV, and tales of young people discovering their place in the adult world are low-hanging fruit for show creators. That's exactly what "Adults" seems to be going for: The series revolves around a group of early twenty-somethings navigating their life in New York City, as well as each other, their friendships and rivalries, yada yada yada ... you've heard this a dozen times before.
An ensemble of fresh-faced newcomers leads the series, including Jack Innanen, Lucy Freyer, Owen Thiele, and Gabi Samels. You've probably never heard of any of them, which is a red flag to be sure, but the most worrying sign is that the show is created and run by the duo of Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold. Labeled as a "comedy couple" by Paste, their only writing credits are for "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," which doesn't give us confidence.
At best, "Adults" could wind up being a 21st-century TV show version of movies like "Singles" or "Reality Bites," and at worst it might be a more dramatic imitation of "Friends" for Gen Z. But to us it just looks like a long-form version of a bad "SNL" sketch populated by newly-minted not-ready-for-prime-time players.