In 2026, Chiwetel Ejiofor helped turn Kane Parsons’ debut film, Backrooms, into a box office hit, raking in $400 million globally. In fact, it’s become A24’s highest-grossing release to date. So it’s really hard to believe that just four years ago, the very same actor headlined a Showtime sci-fi series, The Man Who Fell to Earth, which became a complete flop. The show was cancelled after just one season and seems to be completely forgotten by the public. Of course, Ejiofor isn’t the only actor whose TV show quietly disappeared over the years.
Casting some of Hollywood’s hottest stars seems like a surefire way to turn any show into a massive hit. Unfortunately, TV fame is an even fickler mistress. It’s almost impossible to predict which shows will end up being the next Breaking Bad, and which will get the ax after just one season.
From high-budget epics to indie comedies, these 15 shows failed to make the huge splash they were after. Still, some of them live on as beloved cult classics – and a very curious part of many actors’ Wikipedia pages.
In this list, we’ve ranked the shows from 15 to 1 based on their audience, the star power involved, how critics received them and how quickly they vanished.
15. Baskets – Zach Galifianakis
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2016–2019 | FX | 4 | Hulu |
A show about the tragic life of a rodeo clown sounds designed to attract a very specific audience, yet the beautifully melancholic Baskets ran for four seasons from 2016 to 2019. Starring a post-Hangover Zach Galifianakis in one of his rare dramatic roles, the show was also a success for comedian Louie Anderson. Better known for his work in ‘80s and ‘90s comedies (including Coming to America and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), Anderson plays the mother of Galifianakis’s tragic clown, a role that earned him an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor.
14. Miracle Workers – Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2019–2023 | TBS | 4 | Digital purchase (Fandango at Home) |
For some reason, most anthology series lean into horror or sci-fi territory. Miracle Workers, on the other hand, quickly became the modern Blackadder, putting its talented cast in a myriad of comedic settings. From Heaven itself being run like a regular office to a post-apocalyptic madhouse, Miracle Workers enjoyed four seasons of witty jokes and tonal whiplashes. Though some of the cast changed with every season, Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi remained at the heart of the show’s identity.
13. The Crazy Ones – Robin Williams
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2013–2014 | CBS | 1 | Digital purchase (Amazon, Apple TV) |
2013’s The Crazy Ones plays like an ad-agency take on The Office, starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. This single-camera sitcom follows a father-daughter team constantly at odds with each other, as they struggle to run an advertising agency.
Williams plays his usual eccentric self, while Gellar provides some seriousness in their dynamic. Despite its potential – and a premiere that drew more than 15 million viewers – The Crazy Ones couldn’t hold on to its audience. The show was canceled after just one season – with anonymous sources later telling the press that the cancellation dealt a massive emotional blow to the already-vulnerable comedian.
12. The Alienist – Dakota Fanning
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2018–2020 | TNT | 2 | Digital purchase (Fandango at Home) |
The Alienist borrows the best elements of period dramas and psychological thrillers to produce a show that’s as gripping as it is visually gorgeous. Starring Dakota Fanning (who’s always a great addition to any thriller), the series adapts the works of the late Caleb Carr, particularly his books The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness.
As enticing as the first two seasons of The Alienist were, the show was yet another victim of the Warner-Discovery merger. At the same time, Carr passed away in 2024, and his third book in that world, Surrender, New York, jumps more than a century to the present day – hardly an easy fit for another potential season.
11. Chapelwaite – Adrien Brody
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2021 | Epix (now MGM+) | 1 | MGM+ |
There are so many issues with Chapelwaite’s marketing, it’s hard to pick just one reason why almost no one has heard of this Stephen King show. Despite the star power of the two-time Academy Award winner Adrien Brody, Chapelwaite was simply too ambitious for its own good.
The series adapts the story of Jerusalem’s Lot, one of King’s earliest short stories, and a prequel to ’Salem’s Lot. Unfortunately, Chapelwaite also introduces original plot points and characters that unnecessarily expand the short story into a possible multi-season period drama. Epix (now MGM+) eventually scrapped plans for a second season, leaving the series at just one.
10. Maniac – Emma Stone and Jonah Hill
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2018 | Netflix | 1 (limited, 10 episodes) | Netflix |
Directed by True Detective’s Cary Joji Fukunaga, Maniac was a rather trippy Netflix miniseries that, according to critics, could get just a little too weird for most viewers. Following the True Detective formula, Maniac stars two Hollywood A-listers, Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. They play two strangers who become involved in a shady pharmaceutical trial – one that ends in pure insanity and positively bizarre visuals.
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9. The Brink – Jack Black
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2015 | HBO | 1 | HBO Max |
The Brink was a cheeky political comedy about a geopolitical crisis in Pakistan, released in 2015. HBO got Jack Black as the lead, sharing the screen with the legendary Tim Robbins. The series ran for one mildly successful season, enough to convince HBO to order a second season. Unfortunately, the network reversed its decision at the last moment, pulling the plug on The Brink for good.
8. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Elijah Wood
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2016–2017 | BBC America | 2 | AMC+ |
Bizarre, colorful, and chaotic (even behind the scenes), Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency could have been a small cult classic; sadly, the show never stood a chance. Elijah Wood plays a bellboy-turned-detective-assistant whose life becomes infinitely more interesting once he meets Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett), a self-professed “holistic detective.”
The show’s creator, Max Landis, infused Dirk Gently with all the quirkiness he could muster. It almost got too quirky, as production costs skyrocketed by Season 2. Add to that the multiple allegations of misconduct against Landis that surfaced around – and after – its cancellation, and suddenly, it’s no wonder why we never got a third season.
7. Comrade Detective – Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Daniel Craig, and others
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2017 | Prime Video | 1 (6 episodes) | Prime Video |
Imagine a show that went missing for decades, until a team of Hollywood stars resurrected it and preserved it for posterity. That story isn’t true, of course, but that’s the premise of Comrade Detective, a very unique tongue-in-cheek comedy series about a supposedly “lost” propaganda TV series from the 80s that Channing Tatum and his team managed to salvage.
Some serious Hollywood star power dubs over the series, which – according to the show – was originally made in Romanian. Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Daniel Craig, Mahershala Ali, Nick Offerman, Chloë Sevigny, and even Kim Basinger are some of the celebrities who lend their voices to some of the wacky characters played by real Romanian actors.
Despite its ambitious presentation and its star-studded cast, this miniseries never became a massive hit. Luckily for us, Comrade Detective is a limited miniseries that solves its central mystery rather than ending on an unresolved cliffhanger – there are already too many of those to count.
6. The Little Drummer Girl – Florence Pugh
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2018 | AMC (US) / BBC One (UK) | 1 (limited, 6 episodes) | AMC+ |
Park Chan-wook’s The Little Drummer Girl came out in 2018, just a year before Florence Pugh jumped into international stardom. Based on the novel by John le Carré, this spy thriller didn’t quite reach the heights of Tom Hiddleston’s The Night Manager, but it proved Pugh was ready for mainstream success. The good news is that the show wasn’t canceled; it’s a great miniseries that won’t leave fans on one of those dreaded unresolved cliffhangers.
5. Catch-22 – George Clooney
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2019 | Hulu | 1 (limited, 6 episodes) | Hulu |
With Catch-22, George Clooney went back to his TV roots, and what a comeback it was. He didn’t just co-star in this Hulu miniseries; he also went behind the scenes to work as a director for two episodes. The show revolves around a WWII bombardier who tries to plead insanity to abandon his duties.
More of a dark comedy than a straightforward war drama, Catch-22 had all the markings of an instant hit. Sadly, it was released in 2019, a transitional time for Hulu as Disney was taking control of the streamer.
4. Trust – Brendan Fraser, Donald Sutherland
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2018 | FX | 1 | Hulu, Disney+ |
Some shows slip through the cracks due to some rather unfortunate timing. Trust, a show about the abduction of John Paul Getty III, came out only three months after Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World, a film that also portrayed Getty’s abduction. Not even Brendan Fraser, Donald Sutherland, or Hilary Swank were enough to convince audiences that they weren’t watching the same story they had already seen in theaters unfold.
To make matters worse, the two projects told the story in very different ways. While All the Money in the World played the kidnapping as a tense, serious thriller, Trust took a darkly comic approach – even suggesting the teenage heir had a hand in planning his own abduction. Not exactly a classy move there.
3. Kidding – Jim Carrey
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2018–2020 | Showtime | 2 | Digital purchase (Fandango at Home) |
Whenever he’s not making the most impossible faces, Jim Carrey has proved time and time again that he’s also a terrific dramatic actor. Kidding focuses on a Mr. Rogers-style children’s TV host whose life takes a dark turn after the loss of one of his twin sons. Despite Carrey’s indisputable acting chops, Kidding failed to capture a sizable audience and was canceled after two seasons.
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2. The North Water – Colin Farrell
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2021 | AMC+ (US) / BBC Two (UK) | 1 (limited, 5 episodes) | AMC+ |
Colin Farrell is slowly becoming the new Gary Oldman thanks to his impressively transformative roles. Seeing him wearing an agonizing fat suit for the entirety of The Penguin and The Batman almost makes you forget he did something similar for Horrible Bosses. Still, 2021’s The North Water takes the prize when it comes to pushing Farrell’s adaptability to its absolute limits.
In this show, Farrell plays a heavyset, bearded, and undeniably crude harpooneer on a whaling expedition through the Arctic Ocean. The miniseries is five episodes long and definitely worth your time, especially if you enjoy this sort of brutal period pieces; it’s like The Terror, only with a bit more swearing.
1. The Man Who Fell to Earth – Chiwetel Ejiofor
| Year | Network | Seasons | Where to stream (US) |
| 2022 | Showtime | 1 | Not currently streaming |
Now that Chiwetel Ejiofor is enjoying a (very much deserved) renaissance thanks to Backrooms, it would be the perfect time to check out The Man Who Fell to Earth. No, not the 1976 David Bowie cult classic, although that’s far better known than this show; we’re talking about the 2022 sequel series. Yes, this was a sequel to a cult sci-fi film from the 70s – and that’s far from being the only issue with this show’s marketing.
Though the show didn’t survive more than one season, the showrunners (Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, and John Hlavin) did everything they could to properly end the series’ plot. It mostly succeeded, and Ejiofor’s performance is awesome enough to be worth a watch.
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