27 Cancelled TV Shows That Ended on a Cliffhanger — Which One Hurt the Most?
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Sometimes all we want is a little closure.
More from TVLine
Max Comedy Sort Of to End With Season 3 - Read Creators' Statement
The Continental Finale Sneak Peek: Yen Clashes With a Bendy (and Unbreakable?) Gretel
Cancellations are a part of life as a TV fan, and we understand that our favorite shows can’t last forever. But there’s nothing worse than a show getting cancelled and not even being able to properly finish its story, leaving fans dangling on an agonizing cliffhanger that will never be resolved. Too often, we’ve been left disappointed by a TV show’s untimely demise and stuck with a bunch of unanswered questions — and though more shows are getting a proper ending these days, these unsatisfying endings still aren’t a thing of the past, as How I Met Your Father and Winning Time recently proved.
We here at TVLine dug through the archives to come up with more than two dozen TV shows that were prematurely cancelled and ended on a cliffhanger that never paid off. (NOTE: No such list can ever be comprehensive. And we did omit a few shows like ALF and the original Dynasty that later answered any lingering questions with a follow-up movie or revival.) So scroll down to see which shows we still have major questions about, from Quantum Leap to My So-Called Life to Legends of Tomorrow. Maybe we can’t get closure — but a little commiseration might be the next best thing.
Review and react to our list of 20+ shows that really left us hanging, and chime in with any suggestions of your own!
Angel
In the Buffy spinoff’s final episode, Angel and his team took part in one last stand against the secret society called the Circle of the Black Thorn. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, as Angel’s crew took out targets one by one, but Wolfram & Hart’s Senior Partners refused to go down without a fight, sending an army of demons down to raise hell on Earth… literally. Seconds before the credits rolled, Angel, Gunn, Spike and Illyria not only prepared to face evil incarnate, but an unknown and terrifying future as well.
The Exorcist
A long while after a devastated Marcus parted ways with Tomas, fearing he’d gotten too close to the young priest to be useful in their pursuits, he heard the voice of God urge him to find Tomas — which you just know meant something demonically hinky was afoot. Also, Father Bennett may or may not have killed someone while under the influence of evil? It’s unclear… and, unfortunately, doomed to stay that way.
Forever
Henry’s secret — that he’s immortal — was perilously close to coming out in the open when Jo not only was present at one of his deaths but also found evidence that the good doctor was more than 200 years old. And in the final moments of the ABC series’ first (and only) season, Henry seemed poised to tell her the truth. But would he have done so? Though series creator Matt Miller eventually gave up some details via social media, we’ll never see how the reveal actually would or wouldn’t have taken place.
The Glades
Just days after airing its Season 4 finale — which had drawn a season-high 3.4 million viewers — this A&E drama was suddenly snuffed. The problem? The season ended with lawman Jim Longworth being shot in cold blood — and on his wedding day to Callie, no less! “I think I know who killed Jim Longworth, but I probably can’t say it for another couple of years,” series star Matt Passmore told TVLine in 2014. “At the end of the day, ‘Who killed Jim Longworth?’ The network did.”
Hannibal
Leave it to a boldly unconventional show like Hannibal to end on a literal cliffhanger. The Season 3 finale ended with serial killer Hannibal Lecter and FBI profiler Will Graham taking a dramatic plunge off of a cliff together, seemingly to their deaths. We’d love to see if they survived that fall… but eight years later, we’re still waiting.
Heels
Fans of the Stephen Amell-led wrestling drama felt like they got body-slammed into the canvas when Starz cancelled it after two seasons. They were left hanging, too, since the Season 2 finale ended with Amell’s Jack Spade jumping off the top rope and hitting his brother Ace with a Shooting Star Press — and seriously injuring himself in the process. As Ace took the win, a tearful Jack admitted to his wife Staci that he couldn’t feel his legs.
Hindsight
VH1’s retro dramedy followed a woman named Becca who time-traveled back to 1995 to relive her young adulthood, and Season 1 ended with Becca attempting to time-travel again to salvage her frayed friendship with BFF Lolly. We thought we’d get to see if she made it back to the ’90s when VH1 renewed the show for Season 2… but it later reversed the renewal, leaving Becca stuck in that magical elevator for eternity.
How I Met Your Father
The cliffhanger is right there in the title! When Hulu pulled the plug after two seasons, viewers were left without an answer to the sitcom’s central mystery. (For what it’s worth, we had 14 other burning questions that had nothing to do with the dad.)
Joan of Arcadia
In the CBS series’ sophomore finale, the titular Joan learned that charming, dot-com millionaire Ryan also talks to God — except he has a sinister agenda. Speaking of sinister agendas, CBS cut Joan off from God and everyone else weeks later.
Julie and the Phantoms
Netflix pulled the plug on this super cute musical about a teen singer teaming up with the ghosts of a deceased rock band after just one season. That meant we never got to see what happened next after Nick showed up at Julie’s door with flowers — but she didn’t know he was possessed by the evil spirit of Caleb!
The Last Man on Earth
“Oh farts.” Those were the last words spoken by Phil “Tandy” Miller after it was revealed that he and his makeshift family were surrounded by dozens of fellow unidentified survivors of the virus. So who were those people? Why did they emerge from an underground bunker? And what was up with those gas masks? Series star/creator Will Forte eventually provided an explanation, but also said there was no actual vision for how to end the show.
A League of Their Own
This cliffhanger was meant to be resolved, making it even more painful: Prime Video initially renewed A League of Their Own for a four-episode final season, then later reversed the renewal after Hollywood’s dual strikes created production delays. Series co-creator Will Graham has offered hope for the show’s rescue, but it’s likely we’ll never find out what happened after Carson and Greta’s passionate goodbye kiss at the end of the baseball season was spotted by Carson’s husband, Charlie.
Legends of Tomorrow
When The CW unceremoniously axed the long-running series, it did so after a finale that dropped several bombshells on viewers, including the long-awaited introduction of Booster Gold. The iconic DC Comics character got the Legends arrested for time crimes, leaving their fates unknown, while another cliffhanger revealed that Sara was pregnant with Ava’s baby!
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Even the Man of Steel himself couldn’t stop ABC from axing this superhero dramedy after four seasons… even though the network had previously signed a two-season commitment after Season 3. So the finale left us with Lois and Clark discovering a newborn wrapped in a Superman blanket in their living room. Who left the baby there? Whose baby is it? Does the little tyke have superpowers too? Alas, those questions will never be answered.
Marvel’s Agent Carter
The good news: In the ABC series’ Season 2 finale, Peggy pulled Daniel into a series of increasingly heated kisses. The bad news: Jack got shot by an unseen assassin who then stepped over his body to steal a redacted file on Peggy’s morally gray stint with the British spy agency SOE. The very bad news: Agent Carter was cancelled 10 weeks later.
My Name Is Earl
NBC’s shaggy-dog sitcom starring Jason Lee as an unlikely do-gooder served up a shocking twist in the Season 4 finale, revealing that Darnell wasn’t Earl Jr.’s father after all. Joy had some explaining to do… but she never got to do it, since NBC canned the show. It ended with the ultimate indignity: a “To Be Continued” title card that never actually got to be continued.
“I was worried about doing a cliffhanger,” series creator Greg Garcia later said, “but I asked NBC if it was safe to do one at the end of the season, and they told me it was. I guess it wasn’t.”
My So-Called Life
A premature cancellation enshrined the short-lived ABC cult fave in a bubble of perfect TV, but it also left us wondering if Angela would ever change her mind about heartthrob Jordan and nerdy Brian. After learning that it was actually Brian who wrote Jordan’s swoony apology letter to her, she still chose Jordan… but for how long? Ah, the eternal torture!
Pitch
Baker and Lawson had gotten thisclose to a kiss, but hadn’t been able to discuss their smoldering attraction, by the time Ginny took the mound at Season 1’s final game. About that outing: She was well on her way to pitching her first Major League Baseball no-hitter when an injury took her out of the action and into an MRI machine, where she ended the hour without knowing whether the twist of fate would bench her for good.
Quantum Leap
The NBC sci-fi drama’s original five-season run ended on a sour note, with a title card informing us that leaper Sam Beckett “never returned home” from his time-traveling adventures. To add insult to injury, they even spelled his name wrong!
Salvation
As Season 2 of the CBS sci-fier drew to a close, the wayward asteroid dubbed “Samson” most curiously steered (yes, we said steered) into a turn toward Earth. “It’s here,” a rapt Darius declared. But Darius’ pals (and viewers) never learned what “it” was, since Salvation got grounded two months later.
Single Parents
For two seasons of the delightful ABC comedy, we assumed that “Will they or won’t they?” was just a rhetorical question where pals Angie and Will were concerned. But when the network failed to pick up the series for Season 3 — and we’re still pissed about it, thanks — the would-be couple was left at a terrible crossroads. As the finale ended, Angie remembered that the night before, Will had drunkenly admitted that he was in love with her. By then, however, she was already headed off to spend the summer with her ex Derek. D’oh!
Soap
When advertiser backlash to its then-controversial content prompted ABC to scrub its lineup of the daytime-drama spoof after four seasons instead of the planned five, viewers were left with not one but a whole bunch of sudstastic cliffhangers. Would a suicidal Chester really murder wife Annie and son Danny after catching them in bed together? Would Burt really be assassinated by his political enemies? And most distressing of all, would beleaguered heroine Jessica really be gunned down by a Communist firing squad?
Southland
The NBC-turned-TNT drama cheated death once, but its run came to an abrupt end with the Season 5 finale, which concluded with officer John Cooper being shot by the police after he brutally assaulted his neighbor. Sure, EP Jonathan Lisco suggested to TVLine that John could have survived, but we would prefer for it to be official canon.
Stumptown
In the closing moments of Season 1, Ansel opened his front door to reveal his long-estranged mother, whose appearance stunned older sister Dex. It was then that the episode cut to black, before viewers got a peek at Mama Parios, who would’ve been formally introduced in Season 2. But ABC rescinded its renewal when COVID delays made a second season cost-prohibitive.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Oh, how this one still hurts. Season 2 of Fox’s take on the film franchise ended with Weaver, a T-1001, traveling with John to the future to follow John Henry. After making said leap, John finds himself face to face with Kyle Reese — though neither his father nor anyone else in the resistance he is fated to lead has ever heard of John!
The Wilds
The Prime Video drama’s title was fitting, because that unintentional series finale (and the show as a whole) was wild and bonkers. After thinking they had finally escaped Gretchen’s facility, all the teen plane crash survivors made it to the rooftop, only to discover that they’re still stuck on an island, and Gretchen’s spy, Seth, is alive. Plus, what of Gretchen’s plan for a new control group for the mysterious Phase 3? Did she really escape the feds? And what about “Shoni”?
Winning Time
HBO’s ’80s basketball drama aimed to chart the rise of the L.A. Lakers to NBA dominance, but Season 2 ended with the Lakers suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of their hated rivals the Boston Celtics in the 1984 NBA Finals, and a swift cancellation made sure the story ended right there. Yes, a hastily tacked-on montage at the end told us that the Lakers went on to beat the Celtics in two of the next three Finals — but that doesn’t make up for us not actually seeing it!
Best of TVLine
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
