;
The Dennis James Carnival (October 31, 1948): A
variety show presented by
CBS,
The Dennis James Carnival showcased various
vaudeville-style acts under the premise that host
Dennis James was trying to keep afloat a carnival that he had inherited from his uncle. The reaction to the program was mostly negative, and its sponsor,
General Electric, was dissatisfied with the carnival setting. ; ''
Who's Whose (June 25, 1951): A panel quiz show hosted by Phil Baker that aired on CBS in which four celebrity panelists (Robin Chandler, Basil Davenport, Art Ford, and Emily Kimbrough) tried to determine which of three contestants was married to a fourth contestant. This show replaced The Goldbergs'', which was dropped when its creator
Gertrude Berg refused to fire the
blacklisted actor
Philip Loeb. While one source has classified this show as a
television pilot, contemporary news accounts confirm that this was a series that was dropped by its sponsor (
General Foods) after one airing. ;
Turn-On (February 5, 1969): An
ABC variety comedy series; a racier derivative of ''
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the show alarmed broadcast officials and sponsors who immediately perceived it as offensive because of its strong sexual and political humor. At least one station (WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio) made known their cancellation of Turn-On'' as the program aired (and inspiring an
urban legend that WEWS pulled the program after the first commercial break), and others on
west coast delay refused to air it at all. ABC canceled the show before airing another episode. ;
The Melting Pot (June 11, 1975): A
BBC sitcom written by
Spike Milligan, who also starred as Mr. Van Gogh, a Pakistani illegal immigrant in London, whom Milligan portrayed in
brownface alongside
John Bird. Aired as a one-off pilot on BBC1, a further series of five episodes was commissioned and produced in 1976, but these remaining five episodes have never been seen. ;
Co-Ed Fever (February 4, 1979): A
CBS sitcom that attempted to imitate the then-successful ''
National Lampoon's Animal House''. The pilot was aired as a "special preview" of the upcoming season, but the series was canceled shortly thereafter. The other five completed episodes remain unaired in the United States, but were shown in
Vancouver,
British Columbia,
Canada on
BCTV in a late-afternoon weekend timeslot. ; ''
Heil Honey I'm Home!'' (September 30, 1990): A comedy on British satellite channel
Galaxy that spoofed American sitcoms of the 1950s and 1960s by featuring caricatures of
Adolf Hitler and
Eva Braun who live in matrimonial bliss until they become neighbours to a Jewish couple. The series was canceled not only due to controversy but also due to
British Satellite Broadcasting's merger with
Sky; seven other episodes were filmed but not aired. ; ''
Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos (September 3, 1992): A spin-off of Australia's Funniest Home Videos'' hosted by
Doug Mulray that depicted videos of sexual situations and other sexually explicit content (such as animal privates, people playing with
condoms, and various
wardrobe malfunctions.)
Kerry Packer, the owner of
Nine Network at the time, ordered the program to be taken down partway through its first and only episode while watching it, as he was so offended by its content, he phoned the network's master control and angrily demanded "Get this shit off the air!" Most stations pulled the sole episode at varying points, airing an episode of
Cheers for the remainder of the timeslot. ;
Public Morals (October 30, 1996): A
Steven Bochco-produced CBS sitcom about a
vice squad unit of the
New York City Police Department. The cast included
Bill Brochtrup, reprising the role of John Irvin, a recurring character on another Bochco series,
NYPD Blue. Thirteen episodes were produced, and the pilot was originally scheduled to air first, but several affiliates refused to show it. CBS then decided to air a different episode from the thirteen produced, which was the only one aired. Brochtrup and his character returned to
NYPD Blue, becoming a regular member of the cast. ;
Lawless (March 22, 1997): A
Fox action series starring former
American football star
Brian Bosworth as a
private investigator. ;
Dot Comedy (December 8, 2000): An ABC series featuring an early attempt to translate
humorous material from the internet to a mass television audience. ;
Comedians Unleashed (October 8, 2002): An attempt by
Animal Planet to mimic
Comedy Central's
stand-up comedy shows, but with animal-themed jokes. The episode was rerun a few times before being removed from the programming lineup. This is not to be confused with the 2006 syndicated series
Comics Unleashed, hosted by
Byron Allen. ;
The Will (January 8, 2005): A CBS reality show in which family members and friends competed to be named the beneficiary of a
will. The series eventually aired in its entirety on
Fox Reality Channel, and aired in New Zealand as well. ; ''
Emily's Reasons Why Not'' (January 9, 2006): An ABC sitcom starring
Heather Graham as a single career woman, unlucky in love, who employs a list-making system to help her determine when it is time to give up and move on. The series was canceled on January 10 by ABC programming chief Steve McPherson when he decided that it was "not going to get better and we needed a quick change". It was reported that ABC executives had committed to the show without seeing its pilot. ;
El invento del siglo (June 18, 2006): A talent show produced for
Antena 3, which sought to reward a great invention that "changed and improved people's living quality". Initially planned to run for three episodes, only the first was aired due to poor ratings. ;
The Rich List (November 1, 2006): A game show by the British producers of
The Weakest Link and
Dog Eat Dog, adapted for the US from an ITV pilot that was not picked up. Despite being heavily promoted on Fox during the
World Series, the show was axed on November 3 following low ratings.
GSN revived the show in 2009 as
The Money List, hosted by
Fred Roggin; this iteration, the first GSN original to employ a returning-champion aspect, lasted nine episodes. The remaining episodes from the original series remain unaired. After the US version's failure, the format was produced for broadcast in the UK, where it aired as
Who Dares Wins for 12 years, from 2007 to 2019. ;
The Debbie King Show (March 5–6, 2007): Aired in the UK on the controversial channel
ITV Play with no publicity, the show (like all the others on the channel) was a live
premium rate phone-in quiz presented by Debbie King who had previously hosted the popular
Quizmania. As well as being a quiz, viewers were invited to phone/text in views towards current events. However, earlier the same day ITV announced that transmission of the ITV Play channel was being suspended after that evening's programs as a result of an investigation into its premium-rate phone services. Despite this, ITV still decided to push ahead with the launch of the series. The following week, it was decided that the ITV Play channel would permanently cease transmission due to the
numerous irregularities involving call-in/SMS quiz shows in the UK. Although ITV Play did continue as a limited service on
ITV1 The Debbie King Show ended after only 2hours on the air. ;
Quarterlife (February 26, 2008): An
NBC broadcast version of the popular
MySpace series, with an intent to air on Sunday nights following its debut as a stopgap solution to present some 'new' form of programming during that season's
writers' strike. Following the dismal reception of the premiere episode, the other five episodes were aired in a marathon on
NBC Universal sibling channel
Bravo on March 9. ;
Secret Talents of the Stars (April 8, 2008): A CBS reality talent show where celebrities competed by participating in talents that differed from their profession. Although the show was to follow a seven-week tournament-style structure with home-viewer voting (which would have taken the show through May 13 with a May 22 "grand finale"), the series was pulled after its debut because of extremely low ratings. ;
Osbournes Reloaded (March 31, 2009): A Fox variety show hosted by The Osbournes –
Ozzy,
Sharon,
Jack, and
Kelly. The remaining five episodes were immediately shelved because of a combination of bad reviews and several Fox affiliates (including the entire
Raycom and
Local TV LLC station chains) either airing the program in an early-morning timeslot or not at all because of content concerns. ;
1000 Ways to Lie (March 3, 2010):
Spike's spin-off to the show
1000 Ways to Die was immediately canceled after its first episode due to very negative reviews and poor ratings. The original show ran for 74 episodes between May 2008 and July 2012, though the final four episodes were burned off by the network, with the show being canceled not long afterwards. ;
GosDep (State Department) with Ksenia Sobchak (September 7, 2012): A political talk show aired on
MTV Russia; only one episode titled "Where is Putin leading us?" aired, the show having been cancelled thereafter. ;
Kookyville (November 25, 2012): An unscripted comedy
sketch show that aired on
Channel 4 in the UK. The tag line for the show was "These people are not actors or comedians, and there's no script... they're just real funny people." The show was met with negative reviews and was canceled after a single episode had aired. ;
Ford Nation (November 18, 2013): A
talk show hosted by
Mayor Rob Ford of
Toronto and his brother, city councillor and future
Premier of Ontario Doug Ford, on
Sun News Network in
Canada, initially indicated as being a weekly program airing Monday nights. The Ford brothers had been in the news because of an
ongoing scandal involving a video showing the mayor smoking
crack cocaine. Despite garnering record ratings for the fledgling news/opinion channel, the show was nonetheless canceled after a single episode, reportedly because of unexpectedly high production costs (the one-hour program was reported to have taken five hours to record and an additional eight hours to edit) and advertiser concerns about being associated with the controversial politicians. Network executives, as well as Doug Ford, would later claim that the program only had a one-episode commitment and was not necessarily intended as a long-term series. ;
Breaking Boston (March 13, 2014): A reality show produced by
Mark Wahlberg for A&E about four young women working to change their lives in the eponymous city. Seven episodes were subsequently made available on the
Hulu website; by June1, 2015, the seven episodes were switched to the A&E website, and later on became available for purchase on other commercial websites. ;
Mesmerised (October 15, 2015): An
Australian hypnosis show helmed by British hypnotist
Peter Powers broadcast on the
Seven Network. It was dropped after one episode, which featured a man marrying an
alpaca as its centerpiece, following dismal ratings. Five produced episodes remain unaired. ;
Host the Week (June 22, 2017):
Channel 4 in the UK commissioned a topical unscripted comedy series in which a different
guest host each week, joined by a troupe of
improvisational comedy performers, would introduce comedy and entertainment features, without having had access to a script or rehearsals. Episodes were produced during the week of transmission to remain topical.
Scarlett Moffatt was the host of the first edition of three billed; the underperformance of this program, down more than 60% on the average audience of the slot, saw production of the billed second edition – to be hosted by
Jack Whitehall – scrapped, and a third show – the host of which was not confirmed ahead of time – also did not air. ;
Barstool Van Talk (October 17, 2017):
ESPN2 canceled the sports humor and commentary show, a collaboration with the sports website
Barstool Sports and hosted by
Pardon My Take podcasters,
Dan Katz and
PFT Commenter, after one episode had aired, following internal and social media protests from
ESPN employees over the perceived misogynistic nature of Barstool's content. ;
Back with the Ex (April 18, 2018): An Australian
reality series in which four sets of ex-partners attempted to give their broken relationships a second chance. The underperformance of this episode resulted in the remaining episodes being moved to
Channel Seven's streaming service. ;
Ahora, la Mundial (June 20, 2018): A
football talk show that
Telecinco planned to air after
Spain's matches in the
2018 FIFA World Cup. It was heavily criticized for relying on panelists not linked to sports journalism but to the network's gossip shows such as Kiko Matamoros or Alessandro Lecquio. Telecinco commentator and former Spain coach
José Antonio Camacho refused to appear on the show via satellite from Russia after hearing about the program's format. After the criticism and the poor ratings of its premiere, Telecinco scrapped the show altogether. ; ''
Herman Cain's America'' (June 27, 2020): A conservative talk show hosted by businessman, media personality and presidential candidate
Herman Cain on
Newsmax TV. One episode was produced before Cain fell ill with
COVID-19; he died on July 30, 2020. ; ''The Chop: Britain's Top Woodworker'' (October 15, 2020): A
Sky History reality series in which
woodworkers were to participate in competitions to determine the best woodworker in the United Kingdom. The series was suspended on October 20, 2020, as one of the contestants had an "88" face tattoo that was questioned by viewers for having
neo-Nazi and white supremacist symbolism, though the contestant claimed it was an innocent tribute to his father's 1988 death. The entire series was canceled 10 days later on October 30, 2020, after it was found out the contestant's father (who was estranged from him) was alive and well, and his other head tattoos suggested further white supremacist symbols and numbers. ;
La Campos móvil (March 10, 2021): A
Telecinco talk show hosted by
María Teresa Campos, which was filmed inside a transparent box in the back of a moving truck, where Campos would interview her guests. The pilot episode was aired as part of Telecinco's daily afternoon show
Sálvame, featuring
President of the Community of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso as guest, and had a poor ratings performance in its allocated timeslot. Days after the premiere, it was reported that Telecinco had put the show on hiatus while they considered possible tweaks to the format or outright cancellation. The show never returned to air and Campos died in 2023. ; ''Let's Make a Love Scene
(May 13, 2022): A reality dating show for Channel 4, hosted by Ellie Taylor, in which single contestants are paired up and tasked with recreating sensual scenes from popular films, with the assistance of intimacy coordinator Rufai Ajala and acting coach Emma Crompton. Two episodes were ordered, and billed for broadcast on May 13 and 20 in a 10p.m. slot; after the first edition was negatively received, the second episode was pulled from the May 20 schedule, replaced with an episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''. Unlike some shows pulled from the schedule, the second episode was never put out via its streaming service, with the format shelved in 2023. ;
Storms from Space (May 2, 2025):
5 had scheduled the second episode for 9 May 2025 at 8p.m., but pulled the program in favor of a repeat of
Electric Cars: Which One Should You Buy?, a consumer advice show with
Alexis Conran. ==Canceled after a two-episode premiere night==