Dumb Things TV Did In 2016
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DEAD RECKONING
Through a steady stream of BTS photos shared on social media, The 100 misled fans into thinking that Lexa (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey) would be present throughout all of Season 3, rather than just making a brief reappearance after the LGBTQ character's extremely unceremonious death.
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DANCE'S LATEST MISSTEP
Having learned nothing from last year's questionable "Stage vs. Street" theme, So You Think You Can Dance tried again to reinvent itself — this time with kids in the spotlight instead of adults. The result? Series-low ratings, zero buzz and a squandered opportunity to bring back the SYTYCD we knew and loved.
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DAYTIME DRAMA
A disproportionate amount of secrecy by Disney-ABC brass allowed longtime Live headliner Kelly Ripa to be blindsided by the announcement that cohost Michael Strahan would be leaving the chatfest for a full-time Good Morning America gig. Feeling dissed, Ripa took several days off to "process" the news; execs in turn reportedly tendered an apology.
Castle Stana Katic Fired
COP, OUT
In an ultimately fruitless bid to be a more attractive (read: affordable) renewal prospect for ABC, Castle didn't invite female lead Stana Katic (nor Tamala Jones) back for Season 9, which would have revealed that Beckett died (or, worse, "died") in the series-ending shootout.
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HOW TO (ALMOST) GET AWAY WITH CENSORSHIP
Sometimes, it's not a suit pulling six figures who makes a nationally televised blunder. Citing an "excess of modesty" demonstrated by an unsupervised female editor, Italy's Rai 2 public TV station removed from How to Get Away With Murder's pilot episode the Connor/Oliver sex scene — triggering tweeted outrage from showrunner Pete Nowalk and EP Shonda Rhimes, among others. (After apologizing, Rai 2 slipped the sequence back in for a subsequent airing.)
Saturday Night Live - Season 40
FIRED! FROM NEW YORK!
Eventually explaining that "change is the lifeblood of the show," Saturday Night Live overlord Lorne Michaels cut Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah from the cast for Season 42 — even though both vets had time left on their contracts and were ready to juggle SNL with their new Showtime comedy gigs.
Amazon's 'The Man in the High Castle' Panel at the TCA Summer Press Tour, Day 11, Los Angeles, USA - 07 Aug 2016
UNMANNED HIGH CASTLE
At the TCA summer press tour, it was revealed that in the wake of Frank Spotnitz abruptly stepping down two months into production, Season 2 of The Man in the High Castle continued without a showrunner. "We're running, in many ways, like a republic," said EP David Zucker. "We have a system that is working as good as we can make it." And how did that experiment work out? Look no further than the 64% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, coupled with a 60 Metacritic score.
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PENNY ANTE
Penny Dreadful creator John Logan knew going in that Season 3 would be the drama's swan song and yet he relegated Eva Green's Vanessa to a veritable bit player in the final two episodes?! He figuratively buried the lead before literally doing so, and we're still not OK with it.
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BRYAN FULLER'S STAR TREK ENDS
Even though having the prolific producer helming the first new Star Trek series in more than a decade fueled many a fan's optimism, CBS couldn't come to terms with Fuller on the CBS All Access flagship's direction and demands, effectively ejecting him from Discovery's captain's chair.
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EXTRANEOUS TWIST
In September, NBC put into development "a sexy, contemporary take" on Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, centering on a twentysomething woman who teams up with a group of outcasts to catch wealthy criminals. Please, sir, may we have none of this?