Remakes and reboots have become a fairly common occurrence in movies. Snake Eyes is the most recent example, as it attempts to reboot the GI Joe movie universe. Reboots aren't exclusive to the big screen, though. For as long as they've been happening in movies, TV has been just as guilty of trying to milk established properties by relaunching them with new casts.
While some TV reboots fly high, even surpassing the original series--Battlestar Galactica, for instance--the list of rebooted and remade TV shows that failed is a long one. You might even be surprised at some of the shows Hollywood has attempted a second time, only for them to be canceled after a few episodes and never heard from again.
We dug through the TV reboot dumpster to scrape up the 14 absolute worst of the worst. Whether it was a poorly produced new version of a beloved show, or even a second shot at a series that bombed the first time, these shows simply did not work, crashing and burning upon release. In fact, you may even be surprised at some of the old shows that were rebooted more than once, only to have failed each time.
Take a look below at the 14 worst TV reboots and sound off in the comments if we missed our one the one you love to hate the most.
There's no denying that the Mission: Impossible movie franchise is a juggernaut. Less so was the attempt to revive the show in 1988. Half-reboot/half revival, Mission: Impossible came back to life on TV 15 years after it was originally canceled (and X years before its successful resurgence on the big screen), with only one original cast member returning. A new group of IMF operatives were introduced that essentially rehashed old plotlines from the first series and--not surprisingly--it didn't work out. The second take on Mission: Impossible was canceled after 35 episodes and a number of different time slots that the network hoped would work out.
When Heroes first debuted in 2006, it was a massive hit. In a time before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was a sprawling superhero story being told over multiple high-end episodes of TV. However, what started as an intriguing series about people realizing they have superpowers, grew into convoluted stories of superheroes, government operatives, and unending threats against the world. Ultimately, it was canceled in 2010 after four seasons.
What's this, a reboot based on a TV show that failed the first time around? The original V, about an invasion of aliens on Earth, was a continuation of a beloved TV miniseries. However, the show, itself, was a critical and ratings dud, being canceled after a single 19-episode season in 1985.
Cut to 2009, when it was rebooted. The pilot episode of the series was well-received, for the most part, but the show itself was too predictable for many. It didn't help that some critics interpreted the series as a commentary on Barack Obama's presidency, with the alien race coming to Earth in peace promising change and offering things like Universal Healthcare--though they actually had more nefarious goals for the planet they were invading.
Ultimately, V's ratings dropped and the show was canceled after two seasons. The fans it had tried to rally and get it revived on another network, but that never came to pass.
This entry is a bit peculiar. While it's technically a revival of the original Munsters series, it's also definitely a reboot. It has a new name, a new cast playing the characters, and is set in the modern-day times of 1988. However, it also claims to be a continuation of the original series. How, you ask? In the first episode, it's revealed that Grandpa Munster accidentally sealed the family in a sleeping chamber for 22 years at the end of the original series. Now they've been awoken. Yes, it's incredibly dumb, but so is this entire show.
The '80s were known for some very bad sitcoms and The Munsters Today is among the worst, rife with cheesy humor, wildly dated references, and episodes that look like they were filmed as cheaply as possible--which is a bad thing when you have vampires and Frankenstein's monster as leading characters. Yet, somehow, it lasted for 3 seasons. There are 73 episodes of this show out there somewhere.
That's right, The Munsters is on this list twice. In 2012, Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) tried to create his own version of the series. It was a dark supernatural drama and, honestly, just not very The Munsters. What was originally envisioned as a possible TV series eventually aired a single installment, a pilot episode that was broadcast as a Halloween special on NBC. The network opted against going any further with it.
The original incarnation of MadTV ran opposite Saturday Night Live for well over a decade, creating a number of stars in the process--Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Alex Borstein, and Ike Barinholtz, just to name a few. When the CW attempted to revive the series for primetime, it simply didn't measure up. The sketches weren't all that interesting, the cast didn't have the same level of charm, and being stuck in primetime meant the comedy couldn't be nearly as biting as a late-night show.
That 70s Show was a success for Fox, so the network decided to see if it could apply the format to another decade, thus That 80s Show was born. Unfortunately, what the new series didn't have was a cast that had the chemistry of the gang on That 70s Show. Also, the 80s weren't as cool as the 70s, which more or less doomed it from the start. We have to note, though, that this show was smart enough to cast a young Glenn Howerton before It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was a thing.
Someone, somewhere decided that of all the shows the world needed more of, The Love Boat was the primary candidate. The Love Boat: The Next Wave debuted in 1998 (more than a decade after the original was canceled) and featured an entirely new cast of characters living at sea on a cruise ship. Somehow, against all odds, this show lasted two seasons. To be fair, though, Season 1 only consisted of six episodes.
While Knight Rider was a hit in the '80s, Team Knight Rider attempted to recreate that phenomenon in the late-'90s. The new series followed a group of young people, all fighting evil with their own talking cars. What the new series--and the next one on our list--failed to recognize, is that what made the original Knight Rider work so well was star David Hasselhoff.
A second Knight Rider remake? Yeah, it happened. No, it didn't work out. This new take focused on a new Michael Knight, who also happens to be the son of the original Michael Knight. As with the original, new Mike had his own KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer). He essentially worked as a covert operative, taking down bad guys with a team that included his ex-girlfriend.
The short-lived streaming service Quibi featured two revamps of classic MTV game shows. The first was Punk'd--a practical joke series hosted by Ashton Kutcher from 2003 which launched the careers of Dax Shepard, BJ Novak, and Bill Hader. Famous celebrities got pranked, and we got to see they were just like us.
Quibi's version of the show was actually the revived/rebooted take. For the short-lived streaming service, Chance the Rapper was the host. Much like the rest of Quibi's shows, each episode was short, so everything felt pretty rushed. And more than anything else, watching people get pranked lost its appeal, as there's an over-saturation of guys with sideways hats already doing that on Twitter.
The second MTV reboot was none other than Singled Out, which originally aired on MTV in 1995 and launched the careers of Jenny McCarthy, Carmen Electra, and Chris Hardwick. The dating series had a contestant pick from a pool of potential dates by answering questions about their preferences--with more innuendo than you can handle. Eventually, that pool narrowed down to one person, and the match made in heaven--or on cable TV--was made.
Quibi's streaming reign was short, lasting from April 2020 to December 2020. Singled Out debuted at launch and it felt like a shell of its former self. Since Quibi was about bite-sized content--meaning shorter episodes--the pacing of Singled Out was wildly quick, and it just wasn't fun. It didn't work, and it was actually one of the few shows not picked up by Roku and rebranded as a "Roku Original" in 2021. What makes this even wilder is that Singled Out had been rebooted by MTV two years prior to this.
That's right, MTV rebooted Singled Out in 2018 in the hopes of reaching a new demographic, trying to connect to a younger audience who only sees MTV as the network that plays Ridiculousness 24/7. The show was hosted by Justina Valentine and Conceited, and it's a little bit different than you remember.
The single folks looking for a date were called the picker, and there were in-studio contestants, called "IRL," and backstage contestants, called "URL." Some of the URL contestants could actually have been a catfish though--because MTV also had a show called Catfish, based on a documentary. While the hosts embodied the over-the-top, silly, charismatic duties their predecessors did, the show added way too much to a format that worked, and nothing needed to be fixed.
Time and time again, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been rebooted on TV, with a new version of the characters introduced for seemingly every generation. While most takes on Ninja Turtles are pretty good, however, there's one that's flat-out terrible. The Next Mutation was a live-action Ninja Turtles series, produced by Saban (the company behind the Power Rangers franchise), and it's without a doubt one of the cheapest TV shows ever made. That's a big problem, considering the characters are large walking, talking, and fighting turtles. The suits look incredibly bad, every costume on the show looks like it was slapped together with scraps from other Saban productions, and the introduction of a female turtle--which should have been an awesome upgrade--just didn't work. The Next Mutation is the worst incarnation of the Ninja Turtles yet. Yes, it's somehow worse than the Michael Bay-produced movies.