8 TV Shows That Were Terrible (But We Couldn’t Stop Watching)

'Are you still watching?' 'Yes, but I don't know why.'

True Blood Bill Billith
HBO

When it comes to TV, one of the hardest things is to actually give up on a show. While it doesn't happen to every series, there comes a point in the life of many-a-show where either the quality has completely declined, or you realise it simply wasn't very good in the first place.

It might be one dumb decision that makes you rage quit, or ratger the build-up of years of decreasing returns that makes you realise it isn't worth dedicating hours of your life to. But there are also those where, no matter how bad they might be, whether from the start or over time, you somehow don't turn off.

Whether it's trash TV, a guilty pleasure, or something you've committed to and feel like you're trapped in a relationship with, there are all kinds of terrible TV shows that people keep on watching.

Honourable Mention: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead Rick
Gene Page/AMC

Once upon a time, The Walking Dead absolutely would've qualified. The show had always fluctuated in quality, but it became consistently bad in Season 7 and 8, and yet the Season 7 premiere broke all kinds of ratings records. Even across Season 7, the ratings dipped, but it was still bigger than just about anything else around.

Season 8 is when people finally started to give up, with the ratings dropping back to what they were around Season 1, and it's only gotten worse since then, with the show that a couple of years ago hit 17m viewers now struggling to hit 5m. So it was terrible, but people were starting to tune off. The twist, though, comes with that 5m audience: that came in Season 9, which meant its lowest ratings yet, but at a time when the show was creatively turning things around and delivering its best run of episodes in years.

It went from being a terrible show that everyone watched, to a terrible show that people were gradually giving up on, to an actually pretty decent show that people had given up on.

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.