TV Shows That Will Never Be Completed

Television is a constantly shifting landscape of entertainment. Shows come and go with the simple passage of time, but they also come and go for any number of other reasons beyond reaching a natural end point. Whether it's due to low ratings, a weird time slot, a streaming service's executive decisions, or a combination of all three, TV shows leave too soon all the time, and some of them leave a lot of unfinished business on the table.

Fortunately, in an age of many different TV venues, some of those shows get a second chance at closing out their story, even if it might take a few years. Then there are those shows that, despite a clear fan following and an expectation of more story, just never had an opportunity to wrap things up. Some of them are outright classics, some of them are huge hits, others are cult shows that never got enough time to grow into what they could have been. However they got here, here are 12 beloved shows that, for one reason or another, will never be completed.

During the Golden Age of "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City," HBO started taking more chances with its programming, and "Carnivale" remains one of the strangest creative leaps in the network's history. Created by Daniel Knauf and premiering in 2003, the period fantasy drama remains one of the HBO's weirdest shows, but wasn't able to survive despite a devoted fanbase.

Set in the Dust Bowl in 1930s America, the series set up an epic battle between good and evil framed through the story of a traveling carnival, the young man with healing powers (Nick Stahl) who joins its show, and the menacing radio preacher (Clancy Brown) who shares the young man's dark visions of a coming struggle. Rich with period detail and slowly weaving its own complex mythology into its storytelling, "Carnivale" rewarded close viewing and earned devoted fans.

Sadly, the show couldn't survive for long. After two seasons, HBO canceled the series, citing the massive production costs of the period setting and the massive ensemble cast. Despite fan efforts to save the series, "Carnivale" never returned to finish its story, though Knauf and company did shed light on the larger mythology in subsequent years through things like the original series pitch document. Today, the show remains a hidden HBO gem.

One of several major superhero TV series developed for The CW in what became the "Arrowverse" universe of shows based on DC Comics, "Legends of Tomorrow" came into its own and forged its own path to becoming a must-watch series for comic book fans.

Over the course of seven seasons, the show shifted locations, tones, characters, and perspectives to tell a sweeping, epic, time-hopping tale that was often comedic, meta-fictional, and just plain weird. Fans who came to the show through series like "Arrow" and "The Flash" were ultimately won over by its singular take on DC Comics, and the show developed a strong core of fans throughout its run.

Unfortunately, by 2022, the winds were changing when it came to DC Comics adaptations. The "Arrowverse" was winding down, The CW was changing direction, and most importantly, James Gunn had begun work on building a new shared universe via DC Studios, including new TV projects. That meant that, despite enthusiastic fan campaigns to save the series, "Legends" was not renewed by The CW, nor was it picked up elsewhere. With a new DCU emerging on the big and small screens, it seems fans will never get to see what might have happened next, despite a Season 7 finale that left plenty of loose ends.

Premiering in 1999, "Freaks and Geeks" is now hailed as one of those TV series that was ahead of its time, a modern classic that helped give rise to some of the biggest comedic talents of a generation. Set in the early 1980s in Michigan, the show followed a group of teenagers as they deal with the highs and lows of high school life, and featured an ensemble cast including Jason Segel, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Busy Phillips, Linda Cardellini, and more. 

Despite early critical acclaim and even an Emmy win, the show's erratic scheduling by NBC, coupled with initial low ratings, meant that only a fraction of the episodes produced were aired. Creator Paul Feig and producer Judd Apatow later revealed that MTV offered them a chance to revive the show, but they declined due to what would have been a dramatic reduction of the series budget.

Today, "Freaks and Geeks" will forever be unfinished, but its legacy is secure because of everything its cast and crew has done since. And if you're curious about what would have happened next on the show, Feig did eventually reveal where he planned to take each of the major characters in future episodes.

A fictionalized version of a real 1980s professional wrestling promotion, "GLOW" arrived on Netflix in 2017, and quickly became one of the streamer's most acclaimed shows. With a deft balance of comedy and drama and an ensemble cast led by Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin, the series won fans over with its look at a group of women trying to tell their own stories their way.

After three seasons, "GLOW" was renewed for a fourth by Netflix in late 2019, and entered production on that fourth season in early 2020. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on all film and TV production in the spring of that year, including "GLOW," leaving the show's future in doubt. Then, tragedy struck for "GLOW" fans in the fall of 2020, when — citing higher production costs and the difficulty of making the show under COVID safety conditions – Netflix made the shocking decision to rescind its Season 4 order, canceling the series.

Brie told Collider that the cast "shot the first one and a half episodes" of Season 4 before Netflix pulled the plug, adding, "That will never see the light of day." Given that everyone involved has moved on to many other projects since then, it's safe to consider "GLOW" done.  

Every show on this list has been the subject of some kind of revival talk, but perhaps none of them have been pursued as fervently as "Hannibal." Created by Bryan Fuller and adapted from Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter novels, the serial killer drama follows Dr. Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and FBI investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) as they engage in an elaborate, twisty, cat-and-mouse game across three unforgettable seasons.

"Hannibal" was met with critical acclaim upon its release, and quickly developed a rabid following who dubbed themselves "Fannibals." Sadly, despite energetic support on social media and two renewals from NBC, the show was not picked up for a fourth season after its third wrapped up in the summer of 2015. This was especially frustrating to fans because the show ended by plunging Hannibal and Will over a cliff, with the tease that Fuller might one day tackle "The Silence of the Lambs" for the show.

In the years since "Hannibal" went off the air, talk has frequently turned to the chances of a revival, giving fans a bit of hope that they might see Hannibal and Will again. That said, it's now been years and everyone involved has moved on to many other projects, so while "never" might be sad to hear, it's looking more and more likely.

"Jericho," a CBS drama series that aired in the late 2000s, is still remembered not just for its story, but for one of the most successful campaigns to save a show ever waged by a fan group. Set in a fictional Kansas town left cut off from the world by a nuclear attack on major U.S. cities, the series debuted in 2006 and quickly won fans for its premise, its story of a small society trying to get back on its feet, and the ways in which it grew its story with new mysteries and threats.

Fans loved the series so much that, after "Jericho" was canceled at the end of its first season, they launched a massive campaign to save it, sending tons of peanuts (referencing a line in the season finale) and thousands of emails to CBS. It was finally enough to renew the show, but after a second season resulted in more low ratings, "Jericho" was canceled again, this time for good. A brief attempt to revive the show through a feature film also fell through.

If you're really curious where the story might have gone, there are two comic book series that tell "Season 3" and "Season 4" of the "Jericho" story — though they are rather hard to find these days.

"Lois and Clark" had a pretty good run — at least for its first three seasons — in the mid-1990s. Starring Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain as the title characters, the ABC series focused on the romance between Lois Lane and Clark Kent, with lots of Superman adventure thrown in, and at its peak was one of the most talked-about shows on television.

Then came the fourth season, and "Lois and Clark" just kept stumbling. Attempts to move the show around into new timeslots meant that it was harder for viewers to find, which meant the ratings slipped even more, and by the end of the season the writing was on the wall. "Lois and Clark" was canceled after a cliffhanger ending that saw the title characters in sudden possession of a Kryptonian baby, leaving fans wondering what might have happened next. 

As time went on, and new versions of Superman hit both the big and small screen, it became clear that we'd never see what was meant to be the show's fifth season. If you're itching for more from this world, though, there are tie-in novels and comics to be found, for those willing to look.

Overseen by director and executive producer David Fincher, "Mindhunter" emerged in 2017 as the ultimate prestige drama for true crime fans. Based on the book of the same name co-written by real-life FBI profiler John Douglas, the series follows the rise of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit through fictionalized versions of real people, and delves into the psyches of some of America's most notorious serial killers. The show's all-star cast, led by Jonathan Groff, and its attention to detail in recreating the killers and their lives, made it an immediate hit for Netflix, but it didn't last long.

After two acclaimed seasons, "Mindhunter" was put on hold while Fincher went to work on film projects like "Mank," and in the meantime the actors were released from their contracts, leaving them free to pursue other projects. "Mindhunter" wasn't exactly canceled, but as more time passed after the release of Season 2 in 2019, it started to look like the show actually was scrapped in its own, drawn-out way. In 2023, Fincher confirmed that Season 3 was unlikely to ever happen, citing the cost of the show and the energy it required to get each season rolling. More than five years after the show last aired an episode, it seems like "Mindhunter" really is finished, despite loads of material for future seasons.

One of the most ambitious and audacious genre shows to come out of Netflix's post-"Stranger Things" production boom, "The OA" was planned as a five-part story told across five seasons, and came out of the gate with big ideas.

The series followed a blind woman named Prairie (played by co-creator Brit Marling), who returns after a seven-year absence with mysteriously restored sight and a new identity. She is now "The OA," a mysterious figure who recruits a group of followers to help her in defeating her captor, saving missing people, and even hopping dimensions. The show was critically acclaimed and found a devoted following online, but despite a Season 2 cliffhanger that took things into metafictional territory, Netflix canceled the show before Season 3 could arrive.

At the time, some fans hoped that the cancellation news was part of an elaborate meta-conspiracy as the show continued to bend the reality of its narrative, but in 2019, Marling addressed fans of the series directly to confirm that "The OA" was indeed over, and thanked them for copious social media campaigns and petitions to keep the series afloat.

Like the later "Hannibal," "Pushing Daisies" is a Bryan Fuller-created series that earned a rabid fanbase and went through lots of revival talk before finally fading away for what feels like forever.

Set in and around an idyllic bakery, the series was part murder-mystery, part romance, and followed a piemaker named Ned (Lee Pace), who has the strange ability to bring dead people back to life with a single touch and send them back to the land of the dead with a second touch. When he touches his childhood sweetheart, the murdered Chuck (Anna Friel), and brings her back to life, Ned realizes he's still in love with her and can therefore never touch her (thus killing her) again.

This gripping premise, coupled with the show's quirky sense of humor and beautiful production design, made "Pushing Daisies" a critically acclaimed darling when it premiered in 2007. By the end of the second season, though, timeslot shifts and declining ratings meant that ABC did not renew the show for a third season. With lots of story left to potentially continue the series, Fuller explored various options, including a comic book series and a possible Broadway musical, both of which went nowhere, leaving "Pushing Daisies" a two-season cult classic fans are still discovering.

A horror-comedy series that took typical sitcom formulas and added lots of gory bite, "Santa Clarita Diet" earned both critical acclaim and lots of fan love when it arrived on Netflix in 2017. It starred Drew Barrymore as Sheila, a seemingly ordinary housewife who becomes a zombie and must eat human flesh while keeping up appearances in and around her neighborhood, with the help of her husband (Timothy Olyphant) and children.

The show was well-received, and Netflix renewed "Santa Clarita Diet" for a second season, then a third. With the show's future in question, creator Victor Fresco and his team deliberately wrote Season 3 to end on a cliffhanger that changed Sheila's family dynamic forever, in the hope that an unresolved narrative would entice Netflix to renew the series one more time. It didn't happen, and the series was canceled. Despite intense fan love, years after its cancellation, Fresco reflected on the show in interviews as something that was definitely now firmly in the past.

There was a time when it seemed almost impossible for "Westworld" to be canceled before its time. Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, adapted from the film of the same name written and directed by Michael Crichton, the ambitious sci-fi series chronicled an android uprising that begins in the theme park of the same name, then radiates out into the wider world. When it premiered, it was one of the most talked-about shows on TV, and one of the most successful, with Nolan and Joy making it clear that they were working toward a clear ending point.

But by the show's fourth season, which launched in 2022, ratings and critical interest were both down, the show's complicated timeline was getting even more complex, and both Joy and Nolan were publicly hoping that HBO would allow them a fifth and final season to wrap up their story. It was something most fans expected, but in the fall of 2022, HBO canceled the series, leaving an entire season of untold story left only in Nolan and Joy's imaginations. At the time there was talk of moving the series to another network, but with its high production costs and in-demand ensemble cast, "Westworld" really had nowhere to go, and fans were left with an unfinished (but still largely satisfying) saga.