5 Once Loved TV Shows That Descended Into Total Failure

By Joseph Dempsey /

Every TV show has its shelf life, no matter how great it may have seemed when it first aired on the small screen. Friends, which happily ran into a tenth season, was a consistently great TV show yet it was unanimously decided by 2004 that it had ran its course. All good things, after all, to hark back to that age-old cliché, must come to an end. Yet there are some programmes that just don't understand the word "quit". Shows that started out okay, but for some reason or other have somehow lost their way throughout the course of their run and yet manage to stay on our screens. These shows outstay their welcome and simply aren't allowed to fade away with even a morsel of dignity. Instead, executives and producers continue to flog away at them like the proverbial horse carcass while hoping to milk every last ounce out of them. Here, we examine 5 such programmes and relive 5 shows that were once loved yet descended into total failure.

5. Big Brother

Now, you're probably thinking to yourself "Big Brother was never 'loved'" but it certainly used to be a lot more passable than the horrid waste of air time we're currently being endured to wade through over on it's new home of Channel 5. The show, which is created by Endemol and has been airing since 1999, was at first an intriguing social experiment when it first appeared on our screens over a decade ago. Putting a bunch of strangers in one house and them filming them as they descended into madness and cat fights was entertaining... Up until season 3. By that point the show's format had grown tired and repetitive and the housemates that went in became increasingly more ridiculous and outlandish. The show died a death in 2011 when it was dropped by Channel 4, or so it seemed. It was eventually "rescued" by Channel 5 but Davina McCall, who presented the show for almost all of its run, departed and was replaced by the unlikable Brian Dowling and then the even more unlikable Rylan Clark. If Davina had stayed on board it might have had a chance but as it is, it's now one of the more detestable shows on television.