11 Canceled TV Shows That Won’t Return in 2025
From Squid Game to Stranger Things to Sweet Magnolias, there’s no shortage of new seasons of your favorite shows to look forward to in 2025. Streamers like Netflix have a full slate of fresh releases on the horizon, while broadcast networks are kicking off the new year with new and returning shows as well. But not every show will be back in 2025. Several fan-favorite series took their final bow in 2024, including Blue Bloods, Quantum Leap, and NCIS: Hawai’i. We’ve pulled together a list of some notable TV shows that were canceled or ended over the past 12 months. Is your favorite on the list?
‘Blue Bloods’
CBS bid goodbye to the Reagan family in December 2024, when the show signed off after 14 seasons on the air. Fans had a long time to prepare for the end – CBS announced that it would not be renewing the show a full year ahead of the series finale. But it was still a bittersweet farewell for the cop drama, especially because several cast members made it clear they’d be happy to continue filming new episodes.
‘NCIS: Hawai’i’
There was plenty for NCIS fans to be excited about in 2024, including the premiere of NCIS Season 22, the debut of the Gibbs-focused prequel series NCIS: Origins, and a season 2 pickup for international spinoff NCIS: Sydney. But the news was not so good for NCIS: Hawai’i. CBS announced in April 2024 that the Vanessa Lachey show would not be back for a fourth season. High production costs and low ratings were behind the decision, Variety reported.
‘The Good Doctor’
CBS wasn’t the only network on a cancellation binge in 2024. ABC issued a do-not-resuscitate order to The Good Doctor in early January. The medical drama, which starred Freddie Highmore, wrapped up its run with a strike-shortened 10-episode seventh season in May 2024.
‘Station 19’
ABC’s Station 19 also came to an end in 2024 after seven seasons. The Grey’s Anatomy spinoff was done in by poor ratings, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It was unhappy news for fans, but the silver lining was that the cancellation news came early enough for the show’s writers to craft a proper ending to the series.
‘Young Sheldon’
Young Sheldon signed off in May 2024 with a bittersweet finale that saw the title character (Iain Armitage) heading off for his new life at CalTech and the entire Cooper family mourning the sudden death of patriarch George Sr. (Lance Barber). But it wasn’t a permanent farewell to the Coopers. The spinoff series Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage continues to follow Sheldon’s older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) and his wife Mandy (Emily Osment) as they navigate their life as young parents.
‘Bob Hearts Abishola’
CBS’s heartwarming sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola sputtered to an end with an abbreviated fifth season in 2024. While the show about an American sock factory owner’s romance with a Nigerian nurse got a proper ending, co-creator, executive producer, and star Gina Yashere lamented the network’s decision to cancel the show.
“It always happens that way. Some big event galvanizes all these networks and causes people to go, ‘Oh, no, equality. We need to be less racist,’” she told The Wrap. “And then they do this big show of performative bookings and employment of people. Then, when the zeitgeist dies down, they start quietly letting go of all these big ideas that they originally were singing about to the rooftops. It’s that last in, first out thing.”
‘Magnum P.I.’
Magnum P.I. got a second lease on life in 2022, when NBC picked up the Jay Hernandez crime drama after it was canceled by CBS. But its time on the new network was short-lived. In May 2023, NBC revealed that the show – a reboot of the popular 1980s Tom Selleck series – would end with its fifth season. The series finale aired in early January 2024.
‘Quantum Leap’
Magnum PI wasn’t the only NBC reboot that bit the dust in 2024. In April, the network announced that it has canceled Quantum Leap after two seasons. The news came more than a month after the last episode of season 2 aired in February 2024. The show’s writers knew a renewal wasn’t guaranteed, so they crafted a season finale that also worked as a series finale. That’s a better outcome than fans of the original show got. After the Scott Bakula series was abruptly canceled in 1993, the creators had to add titled cards to the end of the final episode to explain that leaping Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home.
‘Walker’
The CW has severely trimmed its slate of original scripted series in recent years, so it didn’t come as a huge shock when it announced that Walker would end with season 4. The decision came down to the network’s desire to cut costs, Deadline reported.
Series star and executive producer Jarad Padalecki called it “a tough piece of news” in an Instagram post, but said he was “thankful” for “the years I got to spend with the cast and crew and studio and network and fandom that made this all possible.”
‘Chucky’
The killer doll from the Child’s Play franchise met his end – for now – when Syfy and USA Network’s Chucky got the ax after three seasons. But don’t count Chucky out just yet. Creator Don Mancini has said he had plans for a fourth season and has hinted the iconic character will eventually return to the screen in some form. “Chucky will return! He ALWAYS comes back,” he said, according to Deadline.
‘Life Below Zero’
It wasn’t just major broadcast networks canceling shows. Several reality shows came to an end this year, including National Geographic’s long-running series Life Below Zero.
Life Below Zero wasn’t the only reality series to get the ax at National Geographic. The network also canceled Wicked Tuna after 13 seasons, while The Incredible Dr. Pol wrapped up its 13-year run on Nat Geo Wild in July 2024.
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