ABC Cancelled Shows
ABC runs a traditional broadcast schedule where ratings decide renewals each spring. These are the ABC shows that did not survive that call.
61 cancelled ABC shows · 9% renewal rate
ABC's biggest cancellations — and why they ended
1. Castle
Castle ran for eight seasons on ABC, which is a genuinely impressive run for a procedural drama, but the show's final season made cancellation almost inevitable. The core relationship between Richard Castle and Kate Beckett, the romantic tension that had driven the series since 2009, was essentially dismantled in Season 8 when the writers separated the two characters for a prolonged stretch. Audiences who had invested years in that partnership did not respond well, and the ratings, which had been softening for a couple of seasons already, dropped more sharply. By the time the network reached its renewal decision, the numbers simply did not justify another season.
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2. Batman
Batman was a genuine cultural phenomenon when it launched in January 1966, airing twice a week in prime time and pulling enormous ratings on both nights. The problem was that the show's appeal was almost entirely built on novelty. The camp humor, the "POW" and "ZAPP" graphics, the deliberately wooden acting, the celebrity villain cameos, all of it was funny and fresh precisely because nobody had seen anything like it. Once they had seen it, the joke wore thin fast. By the third season ABC had already cut the episode order and moved the show to a single weekly slot, a clear signal that the audience had moved on.
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3. Designated Survivor
Designated Survivor arrived in 2016 as a high-concept thriller with genuine appeal: Kiefer Sutherland as an ordinary cabinet secretary thrust into the presidency after a terrorist attack wipes out Congress. ABC promoted it heavily, and audiences showed up. The pilot drew strong numbers, and the show rode that momentum through its first season, which felt like a complete story with real stakes and genuine mystery.
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4. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lois & Clark rode a genuine wave of popularity in its first two seasons, when the will-they-won't-they romance between the leads felt fresh and the show's lighter tone offered a welcome alternative to grimmer superhero fare. But by the third and fourth seasons, the series had exhausted much of what made it work. The central tension that drove early episodes, the question of whether Lois and Clark would ever get together, resolved itself when they married in the season four premiere. Without that narrative engine, the show scrambled to find new reasons for viewers to tune in, leaning harder on spy thriller plots and mythology that felt like a departure from what audiences had signed up for.
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5. According to Jim
According to Jim ran for eight seasons on ABC, which by network television standards is a respectable run. But the show's later years told a familiar story: declining ratings and an aging audience that networks increasingly viewed as less valuable to advertisers. By the time the show ended in 2009, it was no longer the reliable performer it had been in its earlier seasons, when it regularly drew millions of viewers. The sitcom formula that worked in the early 2000s, centered on Jim Belushi's everyman comedy, had simply worn thin.
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6. Quantico
Quantico arrived on ABC in 2015 as a flashy spy-thriller built around an FBI academy, anchored by Priyanka Chopra in her first major American television role. The show opened to solid ratings, drawing nearly 5 million viewers in its premiere, but that audience eroded steadily through its first season. By the second season, viewership had fallen below 3 million, and the third season—which aired in 2018—hovered around 2 million viewers per episode. For a network drama on a major broadcast network, those numbers were increasingly untenable.
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7. Big Sky
Big Sky fell victim to the ratings decline that plagued many network dramas during the early 2020s. The show arrived in November 2020 with strong initial viewership, riding on the appeal of a David E. Kelley-created mystery series with a solid cast, but ABC's audience eroded steadily through its three seasons. By the time it reached its final episodes in January 2023, the show was drawing a fraction of its premiere numbers. Network television had already begun its structural shift toward streaming, and ABC in particular was struggling to maintain the audience loyalty that once sustained hour-long dramas.
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8. Forever
Forever had the makings of a prestige drama. Ioan Gruffudd played Henry Morgan, an immortal medical examiner in New York City, bringing a melancholic weariness to a man who has lived for centuries and cannot die. The show had genuine appeal with viewers who found it, earning a strong 8.2 rating on IMDb and building a devoted following online. Yet ABC cancelled it after just one season, which suggests the problem was not quality but audience size.
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9. FlashForward
FlashForward arrived in 2009 with the kind of high-concept premise that networks love: everyone on Earth blacks out for two minutes and seventeen seconds, glimpsing their own futures six months ahead. It was exactly the sort of mystery-box show that could sustain a series, and ABC invested accordingly, giving it a prime fall slot and heavy promotion. The pilot drew strong initial ratings, and the network clearly saw it as a potential anchor for the season.
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10. Suburgatory
Suburgatory arrived on ABC in 2011 with a solid premise and a capable cast, but it never quite found the audience size that networks demand to justify keeping a comedy on the air. The show's satire of suburban life and upper-middle-class anxiety had merit, and critics gave it a respectable 7.2 rating on IMDb, but critical approval does not translate automatically into viewership. By its third season, the show was pulling in ratings that made it increasingly difficult for ABC to justify its slot in their primetime schedule, especially against the other comedies competing for the same demographic.
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All cancelled ABC shows
Frequently asked
- How many shows has ABC cancelled?
- IsItRenewed currently tracks 61 ABC shows with a settled cancelled verdict. The list updates as new cancellations are confirmed.
- Does ABC cancel more shows than it renews?
- Of the 67 ABC shows that have faced a renew-or-cancel decision, 6 were renewed and 61 cancelled — a 9% renewal rate.
- What is the most popular cancelled ABC show?
- By current audience popularity, Castle is the most popular ABC show with a cancelled verdict.
- Is a cancelled show ever revived?
- It happens, but rarely. A cancelled verdict reflects the current decision; if a show is picked up again, its verdict here changes to reflect that.