HBO’s Worst Shows Ever — Up to and Including The Idol
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HBO is famously the home of groundbreaking, award-winning television — but even a great network can produce some not-so-great shows.
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For decades now, we’ve counted on HBO to deliver top-quality TV series, but as The Idol‘s much-maligned run recently reminded us, a few flops have still managed to slip through the cracks over the years. (Hey, nobody’s perfect.) It’s actually a credit to HBO’s consistently stellar output that so few duds can be found in its lineup… and when they do show up, they stand out like sore thumbs. Even HBO’s bad TV shows tend to have A-list stars and intriguing premises, but they fall victim to sloppy execution and outsized ambition.
After suffering through The Idol for five long weeks, we thought we’d dig into the HBO archives and see what other stinkers we could unearth. (Some of these have been buried quite deep, with no streaming footprint to speak of, but we found them anyway.) Read on to see the worst TV shows HBO has put out in its history, dating back to its infancy in the early ’80s and stretching all the way to today. Plus, we added inside tidbits on the flops from the stars, producers and executives that made them from Tinderbox (shop Amazon), the comprehensive HBO oral history by James Andrew Miller.
Want to tell us that one of our picks is good, actually? Or suggest one that we missed? Meet us in the comments below and make your voice heard.
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1st & Ten (1984-91)
One of HBO’s first attempts at original programming, this proudly crass sports comedy about a fictional pro football team bore little resemblance to the prestige TV that followed it, with heavy doses of crude locker-room humor and gratuitous nudity. Oh, and did we mention the cast included (gulp) O.J. Simpson? “It wasn’t a good show,” former HBO boss Chris Albrecht now admits, adding that it “had no connection to reality.”
Any Given Wednesday (2016)
Sportswriter Bill Simmons found great success with his website The Ringer and his podcasts on Spotify — but TV was not his forte, as this short-lived talk show proved. Despite a lineup of big-name guests (Ben Affleck, Bill Hader, Aaron Rodgers), Any Given Wednesday lacked the signature zing that Simmons brought to other formats, and it was unceremoniously cut after just 17 episodes. “My big mistake was not understanding that it’s more fun to listen to interviews on a podcast than watch them on TV,” Simmons himself says.
Arli$$ (1996-2002)
This Robert Wuhl vehicle about a big-time sports agent wheeling and dealing his way through L.A. was the Entourage of its time, welcoming an All-Star roster of guest appearances from the likes of Kobe Bryant, John Elway and Derek Jeter. But its mediocre jokes paled in comparison to the more ambitious series HBO was beginning to offer in those days. It did keep Sandra Oh gainfully employed for seven seasons, though. “I was so happy,” Oh says of the experience. “I didn’t know anything about sports. I was 24 and working with a bunch of dudes all the time. I cut my teeth on Arli$$.”
Avenue 5 (2020-22)
A sci-fi comedy starring Hugh Laurie from the creator of Veep? Sign us up! Actually, on second thought, don’t, because this series set on an intergalactic cruise ship that got knocked off course felt like a very long voyage to nowhere. Laurie was joined by an interstellar cast of comedy veterans like Josh Gad and Zach Woods, but the laughs were few and far between. Galaxies apart, even.
The Brink (2015)
Jack Black and Tim Robbins joining forces for a savvy political satire should’ve been an easy sell. But it seems that geopolitical conflict and goofy comedy don’t really mix, and the zany antics and over-the-top caricatures made this one a certified misfire. In fact, it suffered the rare indignity of having an initial Season 2 renewal later reversed.
Camping (2018)
Another seemingly can’t-miss combination — Jennifer Garner starring in a Lena Dunham-penned series! — found a way to miss in this stunningly unfunny comedy about a control-freak mom organizing a birthday camping outing for her husband, played by David Tennant. Garner’s high-strung hysterics were supposed to play as cringe comedy… but we could only cringe.
Here and Now (2018)
This family drama looked great on paper: a new series from Six Feet Under‘s Alan Ball starring Holly Hunter and (again) Tim Robbins. But the result was a dull and meandering slog through the lives of highly privileged and yet still miserable people, filled with post-Trump angst and insufferable navel-gazing. “The show I wanted to do and the show HBO wanted to do were not the same show,” Ball remembers. “It didn’t seem like there was much of an appetite for this show from audiences.”
The Idol (2023)
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has shown he likes to push boundaries, but he pushed them way too far in this lurid tale of a pop starlet who falls under the spell of a shady club promoter. It might’ve worked as dark showbiz satire… if they had toned down the graphic sex scenes that were purely in there for shock value and cast someone with actual presence and charisma as club promoter Tedros, instead of saddling the series with The Weeknd’s hopelessly flat performance.
Little Britain USA (2008)
Some things get lost in translation, and that seems to be the case for the humor in this import of the hugely popular UK sketch show. Matt Lucas and David Walliams attempted to transplant their quirky characters to an American setting, but the transplant didn’t take, despite appearances from Paul Rudd, Rosie O’Donnell and Sting. They were sent back across the pond after just a six-episode run.
The Mind of the Married Man (2001-02)
Mike Binder’s sleazy sex-com about immature married dudes was clearly intended to be the male equivalent of HBO’s mega-hit Sex and the City. But its critically reviled two-season run made it clear that we don’t actually want to know what’s going on in the minds of married men. “We were having fun with it, just poking fun at what guys talk about,” Binder recalls. “But when it came out, we were just shocked by the vitriol.”
The Time Traveler’s Wife (2022)
Theo James and Rose Leslie certainly make a dreamy romantic pairing, but this sci-fi drama based on the bestselling novel was more of a nightmare. Starring James as a man who spontaneously travels through time and Leslie as the woman who loves him, the series was marred by random side plots and uncomfortable age differences. At one point, James’ character — a grown man, mind you — time-travels back to when Leslie’s character was a child and tells her they’ll be married one day. Yikes.
Vinyl (2016)
It’s easy to see why HBO said yes to a sprawling chronicle of the 1970s New York music scene executive-produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger. Bobby Cannavale starred as record executive Richie Finestra, joined by Olivia Wilde and a pre-Ted Lasso Juno Temple. The soundtrack was great, but “there were a lot of cooks in that kitchen,” showrunner Terence Winter says, and the ratings didn’t exactly top the charts. HBO eventually had to face the music, scrapping a previously ordered second season.
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