{"id":364316,"date":"2025-12-23T18:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364316\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T18:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:56:10","slug":"the-worst-tv-shows-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364316\/","title":{"rendered":"The Worst TV Shows of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWe are allegedly beyond the namesake apex of peak TV, yet the television landscape remains far too vast for anyone to watch it all; there\u2019s only so many hours in a day, let alone free ones. With so many new shows to navigate, there\u2019s no bigger let-down than turning on a series you were excited to indulge in, only for the experience to fall short. As TV critics, it\u2019s our job to tell audiences about the elevated storytelling, worthwhile characters, and transportive settings of the medium at its very best. (You can find our selections for the best shows of 2025 right this way<\/a>! There\u2019s plenty to feel good about.) Regrettably, the flip side of that pursuit means sharing the series that didn\u2019t quite capture our attention or imagination, to spare our readers the same disappointment.<\/p>\n

\n\tOur list of the year\u2019s worst TV shows includes spinoffs and stale IP, reminding us all why Hollywood desperately needs to open its doors to new creators and new ideas. There are also promising premises that failed to capitalize on their name-brand stars and intriguing concepts. As the year ends, Variety TV critics Alison Herman and Aramide Tinubu have identified eight series that we definitely wouldn\u2019t recommend to viewers in pursuit of a good time. Of course, everyone has their own unique tastes, so your own mileage may vary \u2014 though several of our picks have already been canceled, suggesting we weren\u2019t alone in our assessment. From lackluster procedurals to misguided attempts at prestige, read on to see Variety\u2019s picks for the least successful shows of the year (in alphabetical order).<\/p>\n

\t\u201cCountdown\u201d (Prime Video)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Nathan
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of Elizabeth Morris\/Prime Video\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom \u201cChicago Fire\u201d and \u201cChicago PD\u201d creator Derek Haas, Prime Video\u2019s \u201cCountdown\u201d \u2014\u00a0which Prime Video canceled<\/a> \u2014 follows an elite task force. Helmed by FBI Special Agent Nathan Blythe (Eric Dane), Task Force Hurricane is put in place following the shocking murder of a beloved Department of Homeland Security officer. Blythe brings in LAPD Detective Mark Meachum (Jensen Ackles), DEA Special Agent Amber Oliveras (Jessica Camacho), DHS Office Damon Drew (Jonathan Togo), FBI Special Agent Keyonte Bell (Elliot Knight), FBI Special Agent Evan Shepard (Violett Beane) and LAPD Detective Lucas Finau (Uli Latukefu) to find out who murdered the man. However, what they uncover is a years-long global conspiracy. Despite the action throughout the 13-episode first season, each episode is duller than the last. None of the characters is particularly compelling, and the storyline itself hangs by a thread. In fact, the mission itself is so lackluster that audiences will struggle to remain engaged throughout the season. Ultimately, there is nothing new or enriching about the series, which makes it woefully forgettable. (Link to full review.<\/a>) \u2014\u00a0Aramide Tinubu<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPulse\u201d (Netflix)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"PULSE.
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Jeff Neumann\/Netflix\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t
Netflix\u2019s first original English-language hospital-based show was unfortunately dead on arrival (and was subsequently canceled<\/a>). Created by Zoe Robyn, \u201cPulse\u201d has compelling themes, following the emergency and surgical residents at Maguire Hospital in Miami. Like most hospital dramas, the series is a remix of medical incidents and the doctors\u2019 personal lives. But \u201cPulse\u201d crashes and burns amid its horrid depiction of sexual harassment. The series opens as resident Dr. Danny Simms (Willa Fitzgerald) is unexpectedly promoted after filing a sexual harassment claim against her boss, Chief Resident Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell). Amid an impending hurricane, Xander is suspended indefinitely, and Danny takes over his role. However, as the backstory of the pair\u2019s relationship unfolds amid the show\u2019s disorienting structure, audiences realize that all isn\u2019t what it seems. In fact, all the back-and-forth is more irritating than revelatory. (Link to full review<\/a>.) \u2014\u00a0Tinubu<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPrime Target\u201d (Apple TV+)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"From
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Apple TV+\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is no shortage of espionage thrillers on TV, and with a robust cast led by Leo Woodhall, Apple TV+\u2019s \u201cPrime Target\u201d should have soared. Created by Steve Thompson, the series follows Edward Brooks (Woodhall), a Cambridge University Ph.D. candidate on the verge of making a world-changing discovery about prime numbers. However, he soon finds himself being hunted by those who have no interest in letting his world-altering prime finder come to life. Seeing that Ed\u2019s life is in peril, National Security Agency (NSA) agent Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell) takes it upon herself to try to keep him safe. Though the series has a wide-ranging, thorny plot, it is increasingly dull, relying too heavily on mathematics and side characters that never elicit true excitement. In the end, the show feels bewildering, as if Thompson mashed several TV shows together only to end it with a lackluster thud. (Link to full review<\/a>.) \u2014\u00a0Tinubu<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Runarounds\u201d (Prime Video)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"BEZ
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Jackson Lee Davis\/Prime\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOuter Banks\u201d creator Jonas Pate\u2019s YA music drama is egregiously terrible. The series follows 18-year-old Charlie Cooper (William Lipton), who, after graduating from high school, decides to get serious about taking his band, The Runarounds, to the next level. Though the show\u2019s music is excellent, it\u2019s bogged down by baffling plot points and lacks a fundamental grounding in present-day teen-dom. Moreover, the cast are musicians, not actors, which becomes increasingly apparent amid the bewildering dialogue. It also doesn\u2019t help that the plot is neither unique nor distinct, especially when it comes to representing young adult men of today. (Link to full review<\/a>.) \u2014\u00a0Tinubu<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSheriff Country\u201d (CBS)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"SHERIFF
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: CBS\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cFire Country\u201d spinoff takes place in the same California small town as its predecessor, but displays little sign of that procedural\u2019s proven appeal. Morena Baccarin stars as a divorced cop working to earn her community\u2019s trust while dealing with her chaotic family, including a daughter struggling with substance abuse. But \u201cSheriff Country\u201d isn\u2019t content to settle for small-scale character studies, deploying a series of cartoon villains (like evil weed growers who enslave college students) who feel jarringly out-of-place in the show\u2019s chosen setting. Even as the dialogue waxes poetic about how much Baccarin\u2019s Mickey Fox loves Edgewater and its people, \u201cSheriff Country\u201d never makes us understand the source of her deep feelings. There\u2019s an art to a good network law enforcement show, and \u201cSheriff Country\u201d suffers for its absence \u2014\u00a0but maybe a recently announced<\/a> Season 2 can make some much-needed corrections. (Link to full review.<\/a>) \u2014\u00a0Alison Herman<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSuits LA\u201d (NBC)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"SUITS
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Trae Patton\/NBC\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tRemakes and reboots rarely hit the ball out of the park, but \u201cSuits LA\u201d is truly a disappointment.\u00a0 \u201cSuits,\u201d creator Aaron Korsh attempted to showcase a new crop of lawyers on an entirely different coast. Unfortunately, the show lacks the original magic and intrigue that made the original such a success. The series (which was canceled shortly after its debut<\/a>) follows attorney Ted Black (a miscast Stephen Amell) as he tries to hold off a hostile takeover of his entertainment law firm while contending with the incidents that forced him to flee New York more than a decade earlier. Not only does the series look terrible visually, but its gimmicky cameos and a barely pieced-together narrative prove it never even tried to take itself seriously. (Link to full review<\/a>.) \u2014\u00a0Tinubu<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Terminal List: Dark Wolf\u201d (Prime Video)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Ben
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t
The problem with this prequel to the hit Chris Pratt series<\/a> isn\u2019t the overt jingoism \u2014\u00a0not that defenders care much what a coastal elite critic has to say about the series\u2019 creative shortcomings. Rather, it\u2019s the blatant mismatch between the espionage thriller implied by the premise, in which a CIA handler recruits an ex-Navy SEAL to work against Iran as the country negotiates its 2015 nuclear deal in Europe, and the brawny, brute force war fetishism that seems to be the true interest of author Jack Carr and co-creator David DiGilio. As hero Ben Edwards, Taylor Kitsch dons a stoic grimace that\u2019s belied by the explosions, gunfights and testosterone-fueled camaraderie \u201cDark Wolf\u201d captures with an admiring eye. This doomed marriage between delicate diplomacy and a barely contained desire to start blowing things up couldn\u2019t be over fast enough. (Link to full review<\/a>.) \u2014\u00a0Herman<\/p>\n

\t\u201cZero Day\u201d (Netflix)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"ZERO
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Netflix\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tHow could a limited series starring no less a luminary than Robert De Niro be so milquetoast and forgettable? That\u2019s the real mystery of \u201cZero Day,\u201d more than who\u2019s behind the cyberattack De Niro\u2019s ex-president is commissioned to investigate. A mumblemouthed statement on a smorgasbord of contemporary themes (partisanship! plutocrats! podcasting!), \u201cZero Day\u201d was so lifeless even the combined powers of De Niro, Jesse Plemons and Angela Bassett couldn\u2019t inject some much-needed verve. A thriller lacking tension and a political drama lacking insight, \u201cZero Day\u201d never built on De Niro\u2019s surprising presence on the small screen, turning an easy way to stand out from the crowd into an almost impressive fumbling of the bag. \u201cZero Day\u201d will be little more than a footnote in any of its stars\u2019 CVs, but those of us who watched may remember it for the wrong reasons. (Link to full review<\/a>.) \u2014\u00a0Herman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are allegedly beyond the namesake apex of peak TV, yet the television landscape remains far too vast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,156352,60414,54092,156353],"class_list":["post-364316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-suits-la","tag-the-runarounds","tag-the-terminal-list-dark-wolf","tag-worst-of-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}