10 TV Shows That Went One Season Too Long
6. How I Met Your Mother
Much has been said about the crushing disappointment of How I Met Your Mother's baffling series finale, which killed off the mother of Ted Mosby's (Josh Radnor) children, Tracy (Cristin Milioti), all for the sake of a contrived last-minute romantic reunion between Ted and Robin (Cobie Smulders).
But the series' ninth and final season was a wholly over-extended mess, best evidenced by the fact that all of the season's 24 episodes take place over the weekend of Robin and Barney's (Neil Patrick Harris) wedding.
It stank of a show desperate to claw its way to the finish line using any gimmick in the book, but HIMYM creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas very nearly ended the show a season prior when there was uncertainty about Jason Segel signing on for yet another year.
The series was clearly out of comedic and dramatic juice by the end of season eight, and so it would've made far more sense to instead introduce Tracy mid-way through season eight rather than the season finale, allowing things to end gracefully before the mouldy storytelling began to stink.
But alas, no such luck.