10 TV Shows That Led To Other TV Shows Being Cancelled (And Why)
1. The Unstoppable Jay Leno Offed Southland, Too
As if NBC hadn’t done enough for Jay Leno by cancelling My Name is Earl to focus on the 2011 project he nabbed from the hands of fellow late night staple Conan O’Brien, the network tripped over itself again by cancelling this promising crime drama after its first season. The reason given was, once again, that they needed the timeslot for Leno’s forthcoming show, not that this made the expensive folly any less of a failure.
Fortunately this is a rare case of a cancelation story which ends happily, as the show found a new home on TNT where its stellar reviews saw it garner numerous Emmy nominations and comparisons to the likes of The Wire and The Shield over its further four seasons.
Yes, it ended after five seasons in 2013, but this was after making its not inconsiderable mark in the history of TV cop dramas, and presumably NBC showrunners can nowadays rest easy without the grim spectre of an insatiable Jay Leno looming over the survival of their series.