50 of the Worst TV Shows Ever Made, According to Rotten Tomatoes

‘Fleabag’ and ‘The Wire’ are objectively great. These TV shows are the opposite of that.

 

 

Judging the merits of television shows is a highly subjective business. But sometimes a series is just so good that it doesn’t really seem up for debate—classics like The Wire, Fleabag, Seinfeld, and so on. Anyone even moderately plugged into pop culture probably doesn’t need to be reminded roughly when these shows were on the air or who starred in them. 

But for every sitcom or prestige drama that made it big, there are handfuls of others that faded into obscurity practically while they were still on TV. Maybe the marketing budget was too small to make an impact or the network chose to kill a show before it found its niche. Or maybe it was just a really bad show.

Below are 50 TV series whose Tomatometer critic scores are all 0 percent. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the show itself was universally hated. If a program gets a 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it means 0 percent of critics gave it a positive review—and most of these shows have fewer than 10 reviews in total. 

There are also several entries whose audience scores far outperformed the critic scores. The 2016 Syfy drama Hunters, for instance, earned a 59 percent from regular viewers. Not quite high enough to clear the threshold needed to achieve a full popcorn bucket on Rotten Tomatoes’s site—60 percent—but not abysmal. 

Others did clear that threshold. Not a single one of the 10 critics who appraised season 1 of Miami Medical gave it a positive rating; but since all nine user ratings were positive, its audience score is an impressive 100 percent. The situation with Rob Schneider’s autobiographical sitcom Real Rob is similar: 0 percent of eight critics submitted a positive rating, but 80 percent of 116 regular viewers did.

All that said, if you’re looking to indulge in some of the worst TV ever to grace the small screen, this list is a stellar place to start. There are extremely specific reality shows (such as the U.S. version of Farmer Wants a Wife, which needs no explanation), movie spin-offs that crashed and burned (see My Big Fat Greek Life), and so much more.

Scroll on for the bottom 50, and check out Rotten Tomatoes’ full list here.

  1. Baby Talk (1991-1992)
  2. Real Rob (2015-2017)
  3. Work It (2012-2013)
  4. The Michael Richards Show (2000)
  5. Charlie's Angels (2011)
  6. The Family Man (1990-1991)
  7. The Alec Baldwin Show (2018)
  8. Work With Me (1999-2000)
  9. Dads (2013)
  10. Hunters (2016)
  11. Dellaventura (1997-1998)
  12. Miami Medical (2010)
  13. My Big Fat Greek Life (2003)
  14. Hit the Road (2017)
  15. Living With Fran (2005-2007)
  16. Uncle Buck (1990)
  17. 100 Questions (2010)
  18. Ask Harriet (1998)
  19. South of Hell (2015)
  20. Going Places (1990)
  21. Laurie Hill (1992)
  22. Secret Agent Man (2000)
  23. The Chevy Chase Show (1993)
  24. Tucker (2000-2001)
  25. Charlie Hoover (1991)
  26. E.A.R.T.H. Force (1990)
  27. Julie (1992)
  28. Killer Instinct (2005)
  29. Stark Raving Mad (1999)
  30. $#*! My Dad Says (2010-2011)
  31. On Our Own (1994)
  32. That's Incredible! (1980)
  33. Timecop (1997)
  34. Top of the Heap (1991)
  35. Desire (2006)
  36. Farmer Wants a Wife (2008)
  37. Glory Days (1990)
  38. The Benefactor (2004)
  39. Age of Love (2007)
  40. Amazing Grace (1995)
  41. Daddio (2000)
  42. George (1993-1994)
  43. Minor Adjustments (1995)
  44. Point of Honor (2015)
  45. Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll (2007)
  46. Rescue 77 (1999)
  47. Saint George (2014)
  48. Tequila and Bonetti (1992)
  49. The Trouble With Normal (2000)
  50. Center of the Universe (2004-2005)