2023 in Review: 16 Dumb Things TV Did This Year
Yes, we are lovers of TV, but sometimes it’s important to give honest feedback to the things you love most.
So today we’re doing just that. In the latest installment of TVLine’s Year in Review series, we are holding TV accountable for all the dumb things it did this year. Despite this year’s historic strikes putting our favorite shows on hold for a while, 2023 gave us a lot of choices to rage against.
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To be clear: We are not talking here about individual cancellations; that’s low-hanging fruit, well-discussed in dozens of other places on this site.
In the list below, we question Jeopardy!‘s strike-workaround strategy, come to terms with The Bear’s binge drop on Hulu and, of course, remember Netflix’s Love Is Blind live reunion gaffe. (We’ll never get over that one.) Plus, we’re taking umbrage with some of our beloved streamers’ decisions this year, including the messy Max rebrand, Apple TV+’s messaging surrounding Ted Lasso’s “final?” season and the redundancy that is “Paramount+ With Showtime.”
Read on as we lovingly call out TV’s biggest blunders of the year, with other moments from All Rise, Big Brother, Winning Time, RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Daily Show, Secret Invasion, a certain trolling HBO executive and more.
And still to come in TVLine’s Year in Review: Which Streamer Won 2023?, Shows We’re Excited For in 2024 and more!
1. Fox Hands 9-1-1 to ABC
Sure, there might be an economic justification for moving the Ryan Murphy procedural (which is produced by Disney-owned 20th Television) from Fox to ABC. But in its sixth season, 9-1-1 averaged more than 7 million total viewers and a 1.0 demo rating (with Live+7 playback), numbers that were not only good enough for No. 1 among all Fox dramas, but would’ve qualified as the most-watched and top-rated entertainment program on ABC. Why give a competing network a hit show on a silver platter? Plus, the move only stands to confuse casual viewers, who might be thrown off by 9-1-1 airing on ABC while its spinoff, 9-1-1: Lone Star, continues to air on Fox. —Ryan Schwartz
2. All Rise’s Weekend Burnoff
Hadn’t Simone Missick’s legal drama been yanked around enough? First cancelled at CBS, All Rise then moved to OWN for what became its third and final season, and more than a year passed between the airings of Seasons 3A and 3B. When the show finally returned for its last batch of episodes this September, it got shuffled from Tuesdays to the TV dead zone known as Saturdays, thus going out with a whimper it didn’t deserve. —Rebecca Iannucci
3. The Bear’s Big Binge
We understood why Hulu dropped The Bear‘s first season as a binge release last year, perhaps with little expectation that it would break out via word-of-mouth buzz to become one of the year’s most acclaimed shows. What we didn’t understand was Hulu using that same strategy for the show’s highly anticipated sophomore run, squandering what could have been months of discourse if new episodes dropped weekly instead of all at once. Can you imagine “Fishes,” “Forks” and “Bolognese” unspooling over three consecutive weeks?! Missed opportunity, chefs. —R.I.
4. Big Brother Challenges a Deaf Houseguest With an Audio Competition
It’s hard to keep track of all the dumb things Big Brother does each summer, but nothing quite tops Season 25’s audio-based veto competition, which deaf houseguest Matt Klotz to listen to clues through a set of headphones. Yes, you read that right — a deaf houseguest participated in a challenge that relied on hearing. While we totally sympathized with poor Matt (who was very upset afterwards on the live feeds), we have only two words for the show’s producers: Stupidity leak! —Nick Caruso
5. CNN’s Messy Town Halls
The cable newser’s first town hall pegged to the 2024 GOP primary saw former president DonaldTrump dodge questions, repeat the 2020 election lie and call moderator Kaitlan Collins “a nasty person.” (Even Anderson Cooper had to step forward the day after to do damage control.) Most recently, CNN gave a platform to Vivek Ramaswamy, who is polling at, like, 5% and is happy to spout right-wing conspiracy theories. In the network’s bid to be more centrist, simply too many guardrails were taken down. —Matt Webb Mitovich
6. The CW Goes Cheap, Pays the Price
The Nexstar-owned netlet’s acquired content strategy has seen more misses than hits. In just six months, The CW has pulled Aussie imports Bump and Barons midway through Seasons 2 and 1, respectively; travelogues Down to Earth With Zac Efron and Fantastic Friends after two episodes apiece; and comedies Run the Burbs (after one-and-a-half seasons) and Everyone Else Burns (after three outings, though subsequent episodes are streaming on the CW app). (Perhaps The Conners will fare better in 2024?) —R.S.
7. The Daily Show With …?
The relevance of Comedy Central’s political satire was already waning before Trevor Noah shocked higher-ups by vacating his post at the end of 2022 — and a full year of relying on guest hosts hasn’t helped matters. Sure, we can’t blame the network for what happened with presumed frontrunner Hasan Minhaj, but you mean to tell us they had no one else in mind for the gig come late 2023? To head into an election year without a new host already installed is, quite frankly, negligent. —R.S.
8. HBO Exec Was on a (T)Roll
Technically, this one didn’t happen in 2023 — but it did come to light this year, so we’re including. Thanks to court documents in a wrongful termination lawsuit, the world learned that in 2020 and 2021, HBO CEO and Chairman Casey Bloys funneled his ire at TV critics who panned HBO series by having an employee set up fake accounts to yell at the journalists. Bloys eventually copped to the backhandedness, citing his passion “about the shows we decide to do and the people who do them” and apologizing for what he called “a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration.” —Kimberly Roots
9. Jeopardy!‘s Tournament Obsession
Look, we get that the lengthy writers’ strike threw everyone into a desperate times/desperate measures-level crisis, but did the game show’s workaround this fall really have to involve more tournament play? We’re one bracket away from throwing in the towel on this franchise. —Michael Ausiello
10. Love Is Blind’s Live Reunion Leads to Dead Air
Netflix set aside its famous binge model to stage a live reunion for the hit dating show’s fourth season in April… and yeah, they probably should’ve just stuck with the binge thing. Technical difficulties led to a frustrating hour-plus delay, with fans seeing nothing but an error message, and when the reunion finally aired, it wasn’t even live anymore. Netflix was forced to apologize — and when Season 5 rolled around, they admitted defeat and just aired the reunion as a normal, non-live episode. —Dave Nemetz
11. Max Spoils HBO’s Pedigree With a Messy Rebrand
HBO Max was the home of prestige TV from HBO and classic films from Turner Classic Movies, but once it became Max in May, the classy offerings got drowned out by an avalanche of Discovery/TLC reality TV schlock like MILF Manor and Dr. Pimple Popper. Now it’s nearly impossible to find quality shows on Max amid all the 90 Day Fiancé spinoffs. Just another reason to curse David Zaslav’s name. —D.N.
12. ‘Paramount+ With Showtime’
The merged name “Paramount+Showtime” was RIGHT THERE, is all we’re saying. —M.W.M.
13. Shorter RuPaul’s Drag Race Episodes
For Drag Race viewers, Fridays are a holy day, which means it was basically sacrilegious (blasphemous even?) for MTV to shorten the hit competition show from 90 to 60 minutes. We’re just glad that this egregious error was corrected midway through the season. —Andy Swift
14. Secret Invasion Uses A.I. for Opening Credits
Really? No one thought twice about trumpeting the fact that the Marvel series’ opening credits were created using A.I. — the very technology squarely in the crosshairs of both the WGA strike and then-looming SAG-AFTRA strike? —M.W.M.
15. Ted Lasso Denied ‘Farewell’ Tour?
If we had a nickel for every cast and crew member who said on social media or in an interview that Ted Lasso was ending with Season 3 — only to then backtrack/delete their post — well, we could buy AFC Richmond. Maybe Apple TV+ wants to “BELIEVE” that Season 4 or a spinoff will happen, but if neither comes to pass, an acclaimed comedy was denied a proper victory lap. —M.W.M.
16. Winning Time Runs Out the Clock on Lakers’ Dynasty
We weren’t shocked when HBO cancelled its ‘80s basketball drama in September after two seasons, but we were shocked at where they decided to end it: with our heroes the L.A. Lakers losing a heartbreaking NBA Finals to their hated rivals the Boston Celtics. (And no, the hasty epilogue informing us that the Lakers went on to beat the Celtics the following year and win three more titles didn’t make up for it.) It’s not like they didn’t know how the story ended! —D.N.
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