10 TV Show Finales Fans Totally Rejected

10. How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother is a textbook example of a series that really didn't need to pull off a big surprise in its final episode - all it had to do was stick the landing by sewing up Ted Mosby's (Josh Radnor) nine-season search for The One.

And with the introduction of The Mother aka Tracy (Cristin Milioti) at the end of season eight, it honestly seemed like a fittingly traditional happy ending was on the cards for Ted and his charming love interest.

But the series finale pulled perhaps the most pervasively despised last-minute swerve in TV history, by revealing that Tracy actually dies from a terminal illness and Ted is implied to end up with Robin (Cobie Smulders) instead.

Fans were fuming, to be kind, unable to shake the feeling that the writers threw in a totally unnecessary twist ending simply to subvert expectations, despite it not serving the story or characters at all.

In addition to derailing Ted and Tracy's happily-ever-after, it also ruined Robin and Barney's (Neil Patrick Harris) marriage by contriving a divorce, after fans spent the entire season watching the build-up to their nuptials.

The reaction was so negative that an alternate ending was included on the series' DVD release, re-editing existing footage to keep Tracy alive and imply that Barney and Robin get back together.

Still, for many the damage had already been done and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time had been fundamentally tarnished.