7. Terra Nova - $4 Million Per Episode
20th Century Fox TelevisionTerra Nova had all the signs of a success story in the making. It had a huge name behind it (Steven Spielberg who acted as producer) and it was being made by a studio (Fox) which was willing to spend a fortune in order to make the show look as good as possible. Terra Nova dealt with a group of people who, although originally from the future, end up travelling back in time to the era of the dinosaurs. This required a lot of special effects in order to get the dinosaurs to look realistic and menacing. As a result of this, Terra Nova required a sizable budget of about $4 million per episode. Unfortunately, the big bucks spent on visuals did not translate into success and the show was cancelled after one season when the ratings were nowhere near expected considering how expensive each episode was to make. Right from the beginning, the show was a massive money pit. The pilot alone cost a whopping $20 million, way over its initial budget. This is because filming had to be postponed over and over again due to torrential rains in Queensland, Australia where Terra Nova was shot.