List Of Television Series Notable For Negative Reception

This list includes a number of television shows which have received negative reception from both critics and audiences alike, some of which are considered the worst of all time.

Criteria

Factors that can reflect poorly on a television series include inherently poor quality, the lack of a budget, rapid cancellation, very low viewership, offensive content, and negative impact on other series on the same channel. Multiple outlets have produced lists ranking the worst television series, including ''TV Guide'', ''Entertainment Weekly'' and ''Mail Online''. ''TV Guide'' published lists in 2002 and 2010, each of which had contemporary shows near the top of the list.

The following is a list of television series notable for negative reception—some of which are considered the worst of all time by critics, network executives, and viewers (with extremely low viewership despite high promotion). Situation comedy shows make up a large percentage, so they are listed in a separate page.

Animated shows

;''The Brothers Grunt'': Created by future ''Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy'' creator Danny Antonucci, ''The Brothers Grunt'' premiered on MTV in August 1994 in the network's attempt to capitalize on their earlier success of Mike Judge’s ''Beavis and Butt-Head'', but the show was canceled after seven months and derided by critics and viewers for its gross-out content.Hofstede (2004), p. 85-87 Kenneth R. Clark of the ''Chicago Tribune'' wrote that MTV "created the most repulsive creatures ever to show up on a television screen". Charles Solomon of the ''Los Angeles Times'' deemed it a "sophomoric half-hour that leaves the viewer longing for the refined good taste of Alice Cooper." ''The Boston Globe'' called the show "moronic", while Steve Hall of ''The Indianapolis Star'' commented: "Compared to this ... ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' looks like a masterpiece of social satire." Jean Prescott of ''The Pantagraph'', in 1999, cited ''The Brothers Grunt'' as an "animation disaster". In their 2002 book ''North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980'', authors William Beard and Jerry White called the series a "failure". Writer David Hofstede included the show among his selection of "The 100 Dumbest Events In Television History" in 2004: "Given the ... grotesque appearance of the characters, it's not surprising that the series didn't last."

;''Bucky and Pepito'' : The 1959 syndicated series ''Bucky and Pepito'' has been criticized for its poor production quality and racial stereotyping. It was produced by Sam Singer, who is referred to as "the Ed Wood of animation" by Jerry Beck for his low-budget and generally ill-reviewed style. The show was described by ''Fast Company'' technology editor Harry McCracken as setting "a standard for awfulness that no contemporary TV cartoon has managed to surpass". In his 2011 book ''Television Westerns: Six Decades of Sagebrush Sheriffs, Scalawags, and Sidewinders'', author Alvin H. Marill wrote that the show "managed to set TV animation back to the early crude days", and castigated Pepito—who was voiced by white actor Dallas McKennon — as "pure Mexican stereotype—from the huge sombrero that covered his eyes to isslow, lazy ways ... mentioned in the show's theme song." Writer David Perlmutter described ''Bucky and Pepito'' as being "racially troubling" and having "poor animation and cliché-ridden writing". Media historian Hal Erickson called Pepito "non-politically correct ndstereotyped" and the show's animation "arguably the worst of any TV cartoon of the 1950s." One episode was featured on Beck's Cartoon Brew webseries ''Cartoon Dump'' in 2007.

;''Father of the Pride'': ''Father of the Pride'' was a 2004 primetime computer-animated series that centered around a family of white lions whose titular patriarch stars in a Siegfried & Roy show in Las Vegas, but pre-release publicity was affected by Roy Horn being attacked by a tiger during a 2003 performance while the show was in production. Despite studio DreamWorks Animation marketing the show to younger audiences, NBC was forced to return $50,000 in funding to the Family Friendly Programming Forum after airing a series of promos during the 2004 Summer Olympics that showed characters making sexual references, and the program itself was panned by critics for its crude adult-oriented humor. The ''Las Vegas Sun'' commented: "''Father of the Pride'' isn't suitable for children. Unless, of course, you consider references to sex acts and bestiality OK for younger ears." The combination of pre-release issues, negative reviews and poor ratings led to the show's cancellation after only thirteen episodes. ''Newsday'' named ''Father of the Pride'' one of the "worst shows of the 21st century", and ''The Daily Beast'' rated it among NBC's "most embarrassing flops of the last decade". Chris Longridge of ''Digital Spy'' said in 2017, " tdidn't help that Roy Horn was attacked by one of his own tigers before the show got to air. File under catastrophic misjudgment."

;''Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"'': ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' creator John Kricfalusi rebooted his original 1991 series for the relaunch of The National Network as Spike TV, as part of its new adult animation block. ''Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"'' premiered in June 2003 and contained significantly more vulgar content than its predecessor, which resulted in only three of nine ordered episodes being aired by the network. Rob Owen of the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' described it as "just plain gross. ... They don't pay me enough to watch cartoon characters eating snot." Charles Solomon of the ''Los Angeles Times'' criticized the show as "'adult' only in the sense that you wouldn’t want kids watching them." ''Tucson Weekly'' and ''Exclaim!'' both labeled it "disastrous". DVD Talk praised the show's animation, "but the weak stories epitomize empty, heavy-handed shock value." Matt Schimkowitz of Splitsider opined that the show's intended audience was "the 16-year-olds who grew up on the riginalshow and are ready to handle such hilarious topics as spousal abuse and eating boogers." Comic Book Resources, in 2018, called it "perhaps the most hated animated reboot ever." The negative reaction to the show tainted Kricfalusi's reputation and resulted in a 2016 pitch for a ''Ren & Stimpy'' feature film being rejected by Paramount Pictures. Billy West, who voiced Stimpy in the original series, had turned down Kricfalusi's offer to reprise the part in ''Adult Party Cartoon'': "It would have damaged my career. It was one of the worst things I ever saw."

Live-action children's shows

;''Minipops'': This 1983 Channel 4 show featured children between the ages of eight and twelve singing contemporary pop songs, often dressed and made up to resemble the original artists. The programme made many adult viewers uncomfortable when some of the juvenile singers imitated the provocative styles of adult performers. One performance by eight-year-old Joanna Fisher sparked outrage when, while performing the Sheena Easton song "9 to 5", she sang the lyrics "Night time is the right time/We make love". Despite the show's popularity, the resulting controversy caused ''Minipops'' to be cancelled after only six episodes. John Naughton of ''The Radio Times'' named ''Minipops'' the second-worst UK television show in history in 2006. ''The Daily Telegraph'', in 2019, called ''Minipops'' an "all-round televisual travesty".
;''Barney & Friends''
: Ranking 50th on the ''TV Guide'' 2002 list of worst television shows in American history (the only public television series, PBS or otherwise, to make the list), ''Barney & Friends'' has been subject to a barrage of vicious and often dark anti-Barney humor and vitriol since its debut in the late 1980s (as the direct-to-video ''Barney and the Backyard Gang''). ''Barney'', and the intense backlash it drew, are the subject of the 2022 documentary miniseries ''I Love You, You Hate Me'', a name partially taken from a schoolyard mockery of Barney's signature song. Quoth W. J. T. Mitchell, a media theorist, in his book ''The Last Dinosaur Book'': "Barney is on the receiving end of more hostility than just about any other popular cultural icon I can think of."

Dramas and soap operas

;''The Colbys'': Although much hyped in 1985, garnering high ratings for its premiere episode, and also the winner of a 1986 People's Choice Award for New Dramatic TV Program, ''The Colbys'' was ultimately a ratings disappointment. The first season finished in 35th place, in part due to competition with NBC's ''Cheers'' and ''Night Court'' on Thursday nights (by comparison, ''Dynasty'' finished in 7th place the same season). The series was renewed for a second season, but fared much worse. Now, not only being scheduled opposite NBC's multi-camera sitcoms, ''Cheers'' and ''Night Court'', but also rival soap ''Knots Landing'' on CBS, and later in the season, having to compete with another multi-camera sitcom, ''The Cosby Show'', ''The Colbys'' finished a dismal 76th for the year prompting the network to cancel the show. The series did not fare well among critics either, with one of its main criticisms being that it was simply a copy of ''Dynasty''. The ''Los Angeles Times'' stated "It's not a spinoff, it's a clone—as close a replica as ABC and the ''Dynasty'' producers could concoct, right down to the credits." The ''Pittsburgh Press'' compared the scripts to ''Dick and Jane'' books for children. In their ''Directory To Primetime TV Shows'', television historians Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh stated that the series likely failed because it was "too close a copy" of ''Dynasty''. Even some cast members were vocal about their dissatisfaction with the series. In 1986, Barbara Stanwyck opted to end her contract and leave the series after its first season, reportedly calling it "a turkey" and telling co-creator Esther Shapiro "This is the biggest pile of garbage I ever did" and that "It's one thing to know you're making a lot of money off vulgarity, but when you don't ''know'' it's vulgar – it's plain stupid." On the contrary, Charlton Heston always had supported the show and stated its cancellation "was premature" as "we were coming closer to being a creative production team that could make the kind of show we'd planned on from the beginning."
;''Cop Rock'': This musical police procedural, which aired on ABC in 1990, has been cited as one of the worst television series ever as it ranked No. 8 on ''TV Guide''s 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time list in 2002. The show was a critical and commercial failure from the beginning and was canceled by the network after 11 episodes. Owing to the combination of its bizarre nature and its high-powered production talent (including an Emmy win for composer Randy Newman), it became infamous as one of the biggest television failures of the 1990s.

;''Eldorado'': This BBC soap opera from 1992 was, despite heavy advertising, a notorious flop. Many of the cast were inexperienced actors whose limitations were clearly exposed on such a new and ambitious project; the acting was derided as amateurish, while the attempt to appear more 'European' by having people speaking other languages without subtitles or bizarre/unconvincing accents was met by viewers with incomprehension and ridicule. ''Eldorado'' is remembered as an embarrassing failure for the BBC, and is sometimes used as a byword for any unsuccessful, poorly received or overhyped television programme.

;'' Ironside'' (2013): NBC's remake of Raymond Burr's 1967 crime drama was canceled after only four episodes due to poor ratings, and drew protest beforehand from disabled actors for casting Blair Underwood as the wheelchair-using title character. NBC responded that an able-bodied actor was needed to perform flashback scenes, but actor Kurt Yaeger likened it to "having a white guy do blackface". Neil Genzlinger of ''The New York Times'' wrote that the show's "plodding writing" and Underwood's performance "makes the title character an unpleasant combination of macho and brusque," and ''Slant'' noted Underwood's "oppressive, angry" portrayal as "a protagonist who believes his impairment gives him the authority to act like a total ass". The show was described by ''Complex'' as "an eye-rolling, monotonous, procedural mess", and by the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' as an "unnecessary remake" that was "too grim and unengaging". Tim Goodman of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' commented, "It's just another detective show. And it's not even a very good one." ''The A.V. Club'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''New York Post'', and ''USA Today'' named ''Ironside'' among their worst shows of 2013.

;'' Skins'' (U.S. remake): MTV's 2011 remake of the 2007 British series generated controversy over its sexual content and raised accusations of child pornography, since many of the actors were under the age of 18. Outcry from the Parents Television Council, along with numerous companies pulling their advertising from the program, led to the series being canceled after one season of ten episodes.

;'' The Spike'': Irish drama series on RTÉ, set at a secondary school. Episode five featured "the briefest glimpse of naked flesh". The episode sparked debate in Dáil Éireann and was condemned by the Taoiseach Jack Lynch, despite him having never seen the programme. On the day that the sixth episode was due to air it was axed. The remaining episodes remain locked away and have neither been broadcast on RTÉ nor viewed by members of the general public. ''The Spike'' was later featured on RTÉ's scandal series, ''Scannal'', with the ''Irish Independent'' naming it as one of their "Top 10 Worst Irish TV Programmes".

;'' Supertrain'': ''Supertrain'' was the most expensive series ever aired in the United States at the time. The production was beset by problems including a model train that crashed. While the series was heavily advertised during the 1978–79 season, it suffered from poor reviews and low ratings. Despite attempts to salvage the show by reworking the cast, it never took off and left the air after only three months. NBC, which had produced the show itself, with help from ''Dark Shadows'' producer Dan Curtis, was unable to recoup its losses. Combined with the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics the following season, which cost NBC millions in ad revenue, the series nearly bankrupted the network. For these reasons, ''Supertrain'' has been called one of the greatest television flops. ''The A.V. Club'' noted that ''Supertrain'' has a reputation as "one of the worst television series ever made...it was hugely expensive, little watched, and critically derided".

;''Triangle'': A soap opera about a British ferry that starred Kate O'Mara, ''Triangle'' is remembered as "some of the most mockable British television ever produced". The series is even humorously mentioned in passing in the BBC comedy series '' The Young Ones -'' "Even ''Triangle'' has better furniture than this!"

;''Viva Laughlin'': CBS's 2007 American adaptation of the British series ''Blackpool'' lasted only two episodes, one in Australia. Like the aforementioned ''Cop Rock'', the series was an attempt to create a musical TV drama; in this case, the series had a fatal flaw in that the lead actors sang over hit records with the original vocal tracks intact. The opening line of ''The New York Times'' review said, "''Viva Laughlin'' on CBS may well be the worst new show of the season, but is it the worst show in the history of television?" ''Newsday''s review started with, "The stud is a dud. And that's only the first of a dozen problems with CBS' admirably ambitious but jaw-droppingly wrongheaded new musical/murder mystery/family drama ''Viva Laughlin.'' Let us count the ways it bombs..."

Fantasy and science fiction shows

;''Galactica 1980'': The 1979 cancellation of ''Battlestar Galactica'' prompted a letter-writing campaign by fans that convinced ABC to revive the show as ''Galactica 1980'', but with a significantly reduced budget that resulted in the setting being changed to Earth three decades after the events of the original program, while the cast was overhauled save for Lorne Greene and Herbert Jefferson Jr. ''Galactica 1980'' was negatively received as a result and canceled after ten episodes. ''GamesRadar+'' named the show among its "Top 25 Worst Sci-Fi and Fantasy TV Shows Ever" in 2012, lambasting its "cardboard cut-out heroes" and having "more loathsome kids than any other SF show ever." Gordon Jackson of io9 criticized it as "ill-advised" and "lack ngany of the zest of the original series." Carol Pinchefsky of ''Syfy'' wrote in 2017, " ease, oh please, let’s not think about ''Galactica 1980"'', and ''The Guardian'' called the show "woeful". Luke Y. Thompson of ''Nerdist'' deemed it "extremely difficult to defend," and considered the absence of original series star Richard Hatch a factor in its demise. Hatch had rejected reprising his role as Captain Apollo, as he felt the changes "ruined the story. I just wasn’t interested." In 2020, 40 years after the show's broadcast, ''Medium'' described ''Galactica 1980'' as "having earned its dubious place in the history of televised science fiction".

;''Inhumans'': The 2017 eight-episode miniseries—based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name—was canceled by ABC after one season due to low ratings, and is regarded by critics as one of the worst works by Marvel. The IMAX premiere of the first two episodes was poorly received and grossed only $2.6 million in its opening weekend, with Comic Book Resources commenting that "''Inhumans'' is already a disaster" that "sounded a sour note with fans". ''The Hollywood Reporter'' criticized the "poorly developed characters ndconfusing superpowers", and ''Entertainment Weekly'' noted the "terrible acting". The series was described as "look nglike the worst Marvel show out there" by ''The New York Times'', "a disappointment on every level" by IGN, "a messy, miserable show" by ''io9'', and by '' Vox'' as "jaw-droppingly awful television. Even worse, it’s boring." Uproxx opined that ''Inhumans'' "has no reason to exist except that Marvel wanted it to, by any means necessary.” IndieWire declared that the series was "the worst thing Marvel has done in decades".

;''Manimal'': ''Manimal'' was scheduled by NBC opposite CBS's ''Dallas'', and was canceled after eight episodes due to low ratings. It was a part of NBC's 1983 fall line-up, which featured eight other series that were canceled before their first seasons ended (including ''Jennifer Slept Here'' and ''Bay City Blues''). John Javna's book ''The Best of Science Fiction TV'' rated ''Manimal'' among its "Worst Science Fiction Shows of All Time". ''TV Guide'' ranked ''Manimal'' number 15 on their list of the 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time in 2002. In 2004, readers of the British trade magazine ''Broadcast'' voted ''Manimal'' as one of the worst television shows ever exported by the US to the UK.

Game shows

;''Don't Scare the Hare'': The premiere of the 2011 British game show hosted by Jason Bradbury drew 1.93 million viewers for a 15% audience share, but was canceled after only three of nine planned episodes due to poor ratings. Jim Shelley of the ''Daily Mirror'' wrote: "The idiots playing might have enjoyed themselves but even toddlers would have found the games dull and Jason creepy." ''The Stage'' observed: "The actual games are pretty feeble and uninspired, leaving the poor hare and his robotic novelty value to carry the show." John Anson of the ''Lancashire Evening Post'' opined: "If you're going to have a gimmick in your game show at least make it entertaining. ... Make the questions simple, involve bunches of kids and hey, presto it works... But primetime Saturday night viewing it ain't." Alex May of ''Now Then'' magazine called the show "without question, the worst game show in the world, ever." ''Complex'' said in 2011, "''Don't Scare The Hare'' was cancelled after only three episodes aired for a reason—the show was absolutely terrible". Caroline Westbrook of ''Metro'' listed the "frankly bizarre" show among her 2013 selection of "so bad they're brilliant" game shows. Digital Spy rated ''Don't Scare the Hare'' sixth among the "10 of the worst TV shows of all time" in 2016, and Scott Harris-King of Grunge included it in his 2017 list of "dumb game shows someone should've been fired for".

;''The Million Second Quiz'': Marred by a confusing and boring format that jeopardized the health of its contestants, excessive and unwarranted hype, banal questions, and a random decision to inflate the grand prize after it was won solely to set the record for most money won on a single game show, ''The Million Second Quiz'' was lambasted by critics and suffered from collapsing ratings throughout its short run in 2013. A review for ''The A.V. Club'' was indicative of the reception: "so deeply flawed and so universally unpopular that it is not going to remain in anyone's memory for long."

;''Naked Jungle'': A UK game show on Channel 5 that revolved around naturists performing an assault course. ''Naked Jungle'' was savaged by critics, denounced by nudists for being exploitative and even condemned in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. A group of TV historians later voted it the worst British TV show ever. Host Keith Chegwin later called presenting the show "the worst career move I made in my entire life".

;''Shafted'': A UK game show aired on ITV presented by Robert Kilroy Silk. It is most notorious for Kilroy-Silk's laughable actions on the show, which have since been frequently mocked on popular satirical show '' Have I Got News for You'' since late 2004. Particularly notable is his delivery of the show's tagline, "Their fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share or to shaft", and the associated hand actions. The show was dropped just four episodes after it started in 2001, and was listed as the worst British television show of the 2000s in the ''Penguin TV Companion'' (2006). A 2012 postmortem of the show read: "Nothing seemed to work for ''Shafted'' from the start. It looked derivative, it sounded derivative, the format was pretty unfair, the host was bad, and it just wasn't that interesting. So basically nothing worked out." In an article on ITV programmes, Stuart Heritage described ''Shafted'' as "Hamfisted" and stated it was "deservedly remembered as one of the worst television programmes ever made".

; ''Three's a Crowd'': A game show created and produced by Chuck Barris, and hosted by Jim Peck, which aired in syndication from 1979 to 1980. In it, a male contestant was asked pointed personal questions, which were then asked of both his wife and secretary, to find out which of the two knew him better. David Hofstede, author of ''What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History'' wrote that it "offered the chance to watch a marriage dissolve on camera years before ''Jerry Springer''", and noted that it received backlash from the United Auto Workers and the National Organization for Women. By the time the controversy settled in 1980, ''Three's a Crowd'' and all three of Barris's other shows (''The Dating Game'', ''The Newlywed Game'' and ''The Gong Show'') had been canceled. His next two projects, revivals of '' Treasure Hunt'' and ''Camouflage'', neither of which lasted beyond one season, were also failures; Barris, whose reputation was effectively ruined by both this and some not-safe-for-TV incidents Barris allowed and encouraged on ''The Gong Show'', would never again create a new game show and would stick to revivals of his previously existing shows for the rest of his career.

;''Who's Whose'': The 1951 panel game show was described at the time as "one of the most poorly produced TV shows yet to hit our living room screen," and "a miserable flop." while columnist Rex Lardner wrote that the show was "the worst ever to hit television." ''Who's Whose'', rushed into production to fill a hole caused when '' The Goldbergs'' refused to comply with the Hollywood blacklist, was the first television series to be canceled after one episode, and its host, radio personality Phil Baker, had his contract bought out; it would be Baker's only television hosting role.

;''You're in the Picture'': The premiere of this 1961 CBS game show hosted by Jackie Gleason received extremely hostile reviews that the following Friday, Gleason appeared in the same time slot inside a stripped-down studio to give what ''Time'' magazine called an "inspiring post-mortem", asking rhetorically "how it was possible for a group of trained people to put on so big a flop." ''Time'' later cited ''You're in the Picture'' as one piece of evidence that the 1960–61 TV season was the "worst in the hen13-year history of U.S. network television."

News

;''The Morning Program'': On January 12, 1987, ''The Morning Program'' made its debut on CBS hosted by actress Mariette Hartley and Rolland Smith, former longtime anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City. Radio personality Mark McEwen handled the weather, while Bob Saget did comedy bits. Produced by the network's entertainment division, the show ran for 90 minutes (7:30–9am local time) behind a briefly expanded 90-minute ''CBS Early Morning News'' (6–7:30am local; although most larger affiliates pre-empted all or part of the 6–7am hour to produce a local morning newscast), which had dropped "Early" from its title. However, ''The Morning Program'', with its awkward mix of news, entertainment, and comedy, became the joke of the industry, receiving scathing reviews. At one point, it generated the lowest ratings CBS had seen in the morning slot in five years. The format was aborted and the time slot returned to the news division after a ten-and-a-half-month run. Hartley and Smith were dumped, while Saget left to star on the ABC sitcom ''Full House'', which premiered later that same year. A longtime producer summed up this version of the program upon its demise by saying, "...everyone thought we had the lowest ratings you could have in the morning. ''The Morning Program'' proved us wrong."

Reality television series

;''The Briefcase'': An American reality TV series created by Dave Broome that premiered on CBS on 27 May 2015. In each episode, two American families undergoing financial hardship are each given a briefcase containing $101,000, and must decide whether to keep all the money for themselves or give some or all of it to the other family. Over the course of 72 hours, each family learns about the other and makes a decision without knowing that the other family has also been given a briefcase with the same instructions. ''The Briefcase'' was met with largely negative reception from critics. Ken Tucker, critic-at-large of Yahoo! TV, described it as "cynical and repulsive" for "passing off its exploitation...as uplifting, inspirational TV." Jason Miller of Time.com called it "the worst reality TV show ever". Others compared the show to fictional films and television that pitted the needy against each other, such as the '' Twilight Zone'' episode " Button, Button", or ''The Hunger Games''. A petition was made on Change.org to end the show with more than 60,000 supporters.

;''Here Comes Honey Boo Boo'': An American reality television series on TLC, featuring the family of child beauty pageant contestant Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson. The show premiered on August 8, 2012. Thompson and her family originally rose to fame on TLC's reality series ''Toddlers & Tiaras''. The show mainly revolves around Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson and "Mama" June Shannon and their family's adventures in the southern town of McIntyre, Georgia. Critical reaction to the series was largely negative, with some characterizing the show as "offensive," "outrageous," and "exploitative," while others called it "must-see TV." ''The A.V. Club'' called the first episode a "horror story posing as a reality television program," with others worrying about potential child exploitation.

;''Jersey Shore'': A string of controversies over the U.S. MTV series documenting members of the Guido subculture made this series one of the most controversial in television history.

;'' The One: Making a Music Star'': At the time of its premiere, according to overnight ratings from Nielsen Media Research, the first episode of ''The One'' was the lowest-rated series premiere in ABC history, and the second-worst such episode in the history of American broadcast television, scoring only 3.2 million total viewers (1.1 rating in the 18–49 demographic), and fifth place in its timeslot. In Canada, the premiere of ''The One'' on CBC had 236,000 viewers, which trailed far behind ''Canadian Idol'' on CTV and '' Rock Star: Supernova'' on Global, each scoring around one million viewers. The next night's results episode fared even worse in the United States ratings, sinking to a 1.0 rating in the 18–49 demographic. The re-run of night 1's episode (which preceded the results show) plunged to an embarrassingly low 0.6 average in the vital demo ratings. The poor performance of the show helped ABC measure its lowest-rated night in the network's history (among 18–49s), finishing tied for sixth place. The series was ultimately cancelled after a second week of poor results. According to CBC executive Kirstine Layfield, in terms of resources and money, ''The One'' "had the most backing from ABC than any summer show has ever had ''(sic)''."Canadian version of The One still possible: CBC executive
CBC.ca, July 28, 2006 ''The One'' was touted as a show that would dethrone ''American Idol'', then the most-watched show in the United States; such high expectations for the series made the resounding public rejection of it all the more spectacular. Canadian ratings have dipped as low as 150,000 – not necessarily out of step with the CBC's usual summer ratings, although much lower than the broadcaster's stated expectations for primetime audiences, in the one-million range. The CBC initially insisted that despite the cancellation, a planned Canadian version may still go ahead, citing the success of the format in Quebec ('' Star Académie'') and Britain (the BBC
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