It’s about that time year again where midseason report cards are rolling in for TV land. Network’s are deciding which of your favorite shows get a free pass and which ones have got to go stat. Do they kill it with fire, or spare it the bloody axe that has come down on so many shows in their infancy?
Regardless of whether they were series with potential or a horse way past being beaten to a pulp, here are a few shows from the 2015-2016 line up that will exit stage left in the next few months.
America’s Next Top Model: If anything is assured in this world, it was Tyra Bank’s ability to conjure another season of ANTM out of thin air like some reality TV genie. Like many of the reality competition shows that got their start in the early 2000s, ANTM seemed to come with an innate no-kill factor.
To put it poetically, it was a cockroach in a nuclear war for high program ratings. Even as years passed and competitions claiming to be the hot new thing burst onto the scene, and then faded away like a dying star, the modeling show remained a constant. Many young girls grew up watching this show back when reality TV was a relatively new staple for television and pop culture.
For 22 cycles (seasons) Banks and her esteemed and fierce judge panel curated one crazy challenge after another to push a new crop of girls to hysteria. Season after season, viewers watched aspiring young models go through the ringer, devolving into meltdowns and engaging in their fair share of controversies.
Viewers lived for Bank’s drastic makeovers, the inevitable breakdowns during confessions, Bank’s sometimes borderline life threatening runway challenges, the wild and weird photo shoots, but most of all, the tense but horribly staged elimination moments at the end of an episode.
Sometimes the contestant accepted their fate quietly, but not without some ugly weeping. Sometimes the contestant blew up, which is what the viewer was hoping for all along. Or, plot twist, sometimes it was one of the judges that completely lost it. Banks sure did in a memorable moment back in season 4, the likes of which will live forever in infamy on the internet.
For over a decade, Banks has been supplying some valuable modeling expertise and well intentioned—albeit questionable—advice. Even after the merge between TV networks UPN and the CW back in 2006, ANTM had remained one of the biggest ratings draw for the new network.
By the 2010s, when television was being oversaturated with reality shows, producers on the show tried their best to keep things fresh, utilizing social media to give the models live feed back and opening up the previously all girl competition to males.
After 12 years, the CW confirmed that the former model’s reality TV show was on its last leg. With the series finale set for December 4, Tyra took to social media in October to give a second confirmation to fans. After all, is it real if it doesn’t come from the horse’s mouth?
“Thinking #ANTM22 should be our last cycle. I truly believe it’s time…”she tweeted. Now that the plug is being pulled, I have so many questions. Will we ever again hear the coined phrases “Booty Tooch”, “TYRA MAIL” and “Smize”? Who will carry on her legacy?
Of course, I don’t watch it, but it was always a comfort to know that it was there. The disappointed 12 year old in me wants to use her phrasing against her: “I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you. How dare you?!”
American Idol: Speaking of cockroaches, American Idol emerged a particularly bedazzled one in 2002. Original judges Paula Abdul (the sweetheart), Simon Cowell (the mean one) and Randy Jackson (the tie breaker) all played a memorable part in the country wide search for the nation’s next superstar.
Contestants from all walks of life, with all manner of sob stories, flocked to the auditions to win the hearts of the judges and the American audience. While talented crooners were welcome, viewers mostly tuned in to see who would choke under the pressure or, in some cases, deliberately make a fool of themselves on national television.
Just like America’s Next Top Model, this competition was prone to surviving nuclear blasts, video games, judge panel swaps, and an endless cycle of contestants who either found their footing in the industry, or faded into obscurity.
Even still, there is no denying the star power of American Idol—Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Phillip Phillips, Fantasia Barrino, Adam Lambert, Chris Daughtry and Ruben Studdard all made a name for themselves. Even Clay Aiken released a Christmas album and later became a congressman.
Like America’s Next Top Model, it will be a celebratory season with most likely a retrospective special airing towards the end. Maybe even forgotten one time co-host Brian Dunkleman will make an appearance.
Hannibal: NBC’s gorish exploration of the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and his twisted relationship with patient Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) was surprisingly yanked off air near the end of the summer much to the dismay of fans.
The show followed FBI criminal profiler Will who has a particularly disturbing affinity for empathizing with serial killers–enter Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, his esteemed psychiatrist. Artfully crafted, philosophical, and dark, perhaps the prequel extended its reach too far, venturing toward that border at the edge of pretentious and dry.
Fans of the drama were shocked by the news that NBC had decided not to pick up the show up for a fourth season, holding out hope for a potential Netflix or Amazon resurrection. While Amazon holds the streaming rights to Hannibal, with the passing of time it was made clear that those streaming sites would also be passing on the show.
Hannibal closed out its final and third season in late August. While the dipping of ratings are a sure way to get network execs to entertain canceling a show, the rights to the character Clarice Starling, from the iconic Silence of the Lambs film, may also be the basis of the cancellation.
It was speculated that producers may have been potentially courting the idea of utilizing her character for the next season. Executive Producer Bryan Fuller has been beckoned to greener pastures as co-showrunner on writer Neil Gailman’s American Gods series over on Starz.
19 Kids and Counting: I’m sure many people were praying on bended knee and tossing coins into wells in hopes that TLC would pull the plug on this reality show in the wake of a scandal involving child sexual abuse. Two of the older Duggar sisters, Jill and Jessa, were identified as victims of their older brother Josh’s abuse when they were younger.
A police report from the mid 2000s also surfaced in In Touch of a statement he made about his misconduct with other underaged girls. Josh Duggar has also admitted to being unfaithful to his wife, and mother of his four children, Anna Duggar.
The show, which started in 2008, carried on into the 2010s as the already middle-aged Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar were still sowing oats. The title has gone through several iterations to play to this, including 17 Kids and Counting, 18 Kids and Counting, etc. You can imagine them referring to the title as reassurance, with that many kids it’s hard to keep track.
When accusations of Mama June (Here Comes Honey Boo Boo) dating a convicted sex offender came to light, TLC dropped the show like a hot potato, especially when it was alleged that he had victimized her young daughter.
However, when it came to the Duggars, TLC wasn’t so quick to draw. According to CFO Andrew Warren, that might have something to do with the reported $19 million loss TLC and Discovery Communications would suffer due to restructuring charges.
While it is the end for 19 Kids and Counting, the floor remains open for potential spin-offs, because what else can you expect from a network as classy as TLC?
Zhana Johnson
Senior Features Editor