10 TV Shows That Should've Been Cancelled Sooner

Well known even outside those who watched it as an infamous example of a show that outstayed its welcome, drama series Heroes stars a group of ordinary individuals who mysteriously develop superhuman powers, and follows them as they subsequently navigate their new lives and team up to avert catastrophe. The show sought to offer a comic book style in both visuals and tone, and initially received immense popularity and positive critical reception, in large part thanks to extremely creative marketing alongside the high quality of the show.

Unfortunately, this didn’t last for long. While the second season started strong, ratings successively declined throughout the series thereafter, and many felt the show had become overly serious, contrived, and full of itself and its own complicated mythology. Following the fourth season’s exceptionally low ratings, industry insiders were uneasy over the show’s future, despite showrunner Tim Kring reportedly fully believing that a fifth season would be commissioned.

Unfortunately for him, the former were right, and despite ideas for a limited run to wrap up the show, Heroes was shelved by NBC, leaving the series to go out not with a bang, but a pitiful whimper. It was a great shame to see a cast who had been consistently excellent despite the material they were given lose out, but the show had reached a point where no one really wanted to ‘save the cheerleader, save the world’ anymore. Let the cheerleader die already, and get the end over with.