With the disastrous reception of Everything is fair dominating the cultural conversation, there’s no better time to look back at some of the other TV shows that were considered the worst ever upon their release, from Inhumans has Velma And The idol. It takes a lot of work to make a TV show, and it takes a lot more work to make it good.
Perhaps this maxim, along with their respective millions of dollars in net worth, will comfort Ryan Murphy and Kim Kardashian amid the criticism their new series has received. Everything is fair. A legal drama starring Niecy Nash-Betts and Naomi Watts, Everything is fair is notable above all for its incredibly poor critical reception.
From The United States today dubbing Everything is fair “The worst TV show of the year” The GuardianLucy Mangan of , bequeathing the series an extremely rare 0 star review, to Everything is fairWith a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score on its release day, the drama is a true historical fiasco. However, this is far from the first show to be called the worst of all time.
7
Work it
Canceled after only two episodes, Work it was a satirical sitcom set in St. Louis. The series focuses on two male characters, Lee and Angel, who decide to dress as women to get jobs due to the terrible economy of the early 2010s. If that sounds like a misguided and potentially transphobic nightmare, that’s because it was.
Not only was it Work it criticized by the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, but the ABC sitcom also managed to draw the ire of another group entirely thanks to a gag in its pilot. Puerto Rican viewers did not appreciate one character’s assertion that he would be “Excellent for selling drugs» thanks to his heritage.
6
The idol
A more recent flop, that of 2023 The idol was heavily promoted in preview by HBO thanks to its animated creator and stars. Euphoria Creator Sam Levinson directed R&B legend Abel Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp in this dark, gothic tale of a bigoted nightclub owner who sets his sights on an innocent young pop star.
This premise seems to set the stage for a dark and potentially daring romantic thriller, but that’s not what viewers took away. The idol. Instead, The Hollywood Reporter‘s dismissive article pointed out the series’ problems by noting that “by trying so hard to be transgressive, the series ultimately becomes regressive.”
Far from being shocking, The idol fell flat, feeling comically disconnected and taking itself and its vampiric villain far too seriously for its own good. What could have been a bold, self-aware satire of show business ended up becoming a profound career low point for everyone involved, and one of the first truly mortifying television flops of the 2020s.
5
Creatures of the Capitol
To be fair to Creatures of the Capitolmany other TV shows have tried to rip off The Simpsons when the animated sitcom proved to be a global phenomenon of unexpected magnitude in the early 1990s. The difference is that every other contestant on the show had at least some semblance of justification for their existence, no matter how well-worn it was.
family dog was a blatant scam The Simpsonsbut it was developed by Brad Bird and Tim Burton with Steven Spielberg producing the series, and it was based on an acclaimed episode of Amazing stories. Fish Police was, inexplicably, a show about the fish police, but the series was at least based on a beloved cult comic book.
On the other hand, Creatures of the Capitol was an adult-oriented cartoon about talking animals living in Washington, D.C., which used these anthropomorphic creatures to comment on hyper-specific and topical personalities and political issues. Dull, almost instantly dated and precisely designed to please no one, Creatures of the Capitol was too mature for children and too childish for adults.
4
Fred: The show
YouTube creator Lucas Cruikshank was once the king of the platform, with the Fred channel being the first to surpass one million subscribers in 2009. However, the actor has always struggled to make his on-screen persona work on the much-maligned side. iCarly 2010s episode “iMeet Fred” is critically anticipated Fred: the movie.
While Cruikshank was still incredibly young when his Nickelodeon series debuted in 2012, the hits the previous film received might have given him a clue as to the response another play centering on this controversial character might engender. Effectively, Fred: The show was soon dubbed Nickelodeon’s worst show by critics who didn’t understand the appeal of the hyperactive character.
Still a popular creator on YouTube, Cruikshank hasn’t been seen much on the small screen since 2013. While Fred may have been a big hit with the under-12s uploaded, those credits haven’t transferred to TV stardom, and Fred: The show remains one of the lowest-rated television series of all time.
3
Inhumans
Fred: The show might have had the star power of a famous YouTube creator behind him, but that pales in comparison to 2017’s pedigree. Inhumans. One of the first small screen additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Inhumans must have been as big as its predecessors, Agents of SHIELD And Agent Carter.
Then the show happened. Struggling with terrible reviews and even worse ratings, Inhumans was quietly canceled after just one season. Despite bolstering A-list talent like Anson Mount, Serinda Swan, and Iwan Rheon, the MCU series earned a comically low 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and received nothing but embarrassed reactions from critics.
Called “Terrible”, “A Complete Failure”, “Messy” and “Miserable” Inhumans was arguably the first sign that the once-indefatigable MCU was beginning its slow, gradual decline. Despite its three-season plan, Inhumans was quickly forgotten after its cancellation and only survived in Mount’s alternate universe cameo from 2022. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
2
Cop Rock
Inhumans had a lot going for it, from big-name stars to its much-vaunted ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, even this major failure pales in comparison to the absurdly misjudged 1990 procedural musical mashup, Cop Rock. With music by Randy Newman and future NYPD Blue star James McDaniel in the lead, Cop Rock seemed destined for great things.
The problem was the premise of the series. As the title suggests, Cop Rock was a musical police procedural that followed a group of police officers and detectives who broke out into song and dance while investigating homicides and a drug deal. As crazy as it sounds, the series hasn’t skimped on dark and gritty drama at all.
Therefore, Cop Rock was perhaps the only show in television history where viewers could watch a police officer try to help a drug addict locate their baby after she sold him to human traffickers, only for the duo to then randomly break into a choreographed dance number. Viewers just weren’t ready for this in 1990.
Met with extremely negative reviews, Cop Rock only lasted 11 episodes before being canceled. Some retrospective reviews have argued that the series deserved recognition for trying something truly, genuinely new, but that the end result was too ill-considered to defend.
1
Velma
A project centered on Velma Scooby-Doo the reboot with Mindy Kaling as the main character is a pretty solid idea. VelmaThe R rating was an odd decision, but the involvement of A-list talent like Sam Richardson, Melissa Fumero, and Glenn Howerton made this risky creative choice seemingly viable.
Then the caravans arrived. Since his first promotion, Velma was engaged in a bizarre battle with the Internet, with the show itself complaining that purist fans hated the show before it even started. It goes without saying, Velma‘s preventive defense convinced no one, leaving the restart in the same historical garbage heap as Inhumans, The idolAnd Everything is fair.
- Release date
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November 4, 2025
- Network
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Hulu
