Summer TV Winners & Losers: Epic Fantasy, Late-Night Diversity, Marvel, OMITB, The Boys, The Bear And More

In the summertime, when the weather is high... the TV landscape is typically riddled with reruns. But in the #PeakTV era, streamers and cablers have upped the game, sometimes for better and occasionally for... less-better. Meaning, it is time to take stock of this summer's Winners, Losers, and those that landed somewhere in between.

With more than 100 series and seasons premiering this summer, the annual mixed bag was veritably overflowing with "off-season" fare. There were shiny new gems to be found, like Hulu's The Bear, Prime Video's The Summer I Turned Pretty and HBO Max's new Little Liars, and some big swings that whiffed right out of the gate.

You had hugely anticipated launches, including Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings prequels, the first Stranger Things season in three years and Better Call Saul's farewell run, as well as the return of some summertime reality-TV staples.

And beyond the simple rollout of premieres and finales, executive decisions were made that were, at times, well, batty.

Review our list of Summer TV Winners & Losers (and a handful of Draws), recognizing that not every show merits a participation trophy, and then weigh in with your own, unique, valid opinions!

The comic book series entered Season 3 with very high viewer expectations (Herogasm! Soldier Boy's introduction!), and it lived up to them, delivering plenty of buzzy, watercooler moments and stellar performances all around.

Adapting a long-popular video game franchise seemed like a no-brainsss!er. But Netflix's take mustered a mere 26% freshness rating amongst Rotten Tomatoes users (or, half as good as Paramount+'s Halo adaptation), charted for only two weeks on Nielsen's ranking of streaming originals, and in turn was cancelled after just one season.

HBO's House of the Dragon (set almost 200 years before the first episode of Game of Thrones) and Prime Video's The Rings of Power (set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books) both faced epic expectations (and at-times racist grumbling about casting choices) heading into their long-in-the-coming, much-ballyhooed premieres. And yet both thus far have delivered, earning solid premiere grades from TVLine readers ("A-" and "B+," respectively) and setting viewership records for their respective outlets.

Between Corlys Velaryon's tragic dreads and young Laena's poorly fitted George Washington ringlets, we expect more from a show with a $200 million budget. The ratings? Impressive. Those wigs? Dracarys.

The Season 5 victor of RuPaul's Drag Race cemented their legacy by returning for the first-ever all-winners edition of All Stars, making it seem less like a competition than a showcase and finally being named Queen of All Queens. (Watch video above.)

After nearly three years off the air, SYTYCD regrettably returned as a shell of its former self, with questionable decisions made both in front of the camera (only studio audience members getting a chance to vote for the dancers) and behind it (the mysterious and icky controversy that got Matthew Morrison booted as a judge). No disrespect to Cat Deeley, though, who remains one of the best hosts in the biz.

Whereas one streaming outlet decided to outright shelve an IP-driven movie with a diverse, female lead, Hulu went all-in on its Predator prequel starring Amber Midthunder. The result was a critical hit (93% Fresh from Rotten Tomatoes critics), beaucoup kudos for Midthunder, clamoring for a follow-up, and record-setting viewership for Hulu.

Woof, where to start...? A nearly complete Batgirl movie bound for HBO Max?  Shelved, possibly to be destroyed. A live-action Wonder Twins movie for HBO Max? "Shape of... a cancelled project!" J.J. Abrams' $200 million sci-fi drama for HBO? Snuffed. Dozens of series that were quietly existing on HBO Max? Disappeared. More than a half-dozen animated projects, including Bruce Timm's highly anticipated Batman Caped Crusader? Left to scramble for new homes. Brian Stelter's Reliable Sources on CNN? Silenced. At best, parent company Warner Bros. Discovery can be characterized as ruthlessly pragmatic, as boss man David Zaslav labors to winnow billions in debt.

Did Netflix's genre-bending smash save the best for next to last? Quite possibly, considering that the series' super-sized penultimate season not only broke streaming records but dazzled critics as finicky as TVLine's.

Ms. Marvel was a sheer delight, delivering a teen hero's origin story while also sharing with viewers the richness of Muslim customs. And She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has ably served up the MCU's first live-action comedy series. But both series launches have had loom over them the dark cloud that is Marvel's alleged overworking of its visual effects houses, effectively tainting our enjoyment of these ambitious endeavors.

Plated by Hulu with little fanfare and served up as an eight-episode binge that could easily have been missed, this dramedy from FX gripped you from go, yanking you into The Beef's manic kitchen and sating your appetite for winning performances from Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and others. We are licking our lips in anticipation of Season 2.

Pro: Season 2 of the globe-trotting action-adventure series (which previously aired on CBS, wayyyy back in 2019) has been worth the wait.

Khan: Paramount+ makes finding the series every Sunday a needlessly maddening treasure hunt.

Full disclosure, this entry may have been included just to make that world-class Pro/Khan joke.

The series finale of TNT's summertime staple let the leading men rip into the Pope/J showdown that had been six seasons in the making — and it was miraculously worth the wait. (Watch video above.)

AMC's third Walking Dead spinoff sounded like so much fun. Guest stars! Standalone episodes! Varying tones! But without continuing stories in which viewers can invest, or even new themes to explore, the show has felt like a series of pit stops on a road to nowhere.

AMC's Breaking Bad prequel went out in style with an absolutely superb final stretch of episodes — just in time for Emmy voters to give it some long overdue recognition! — and capped its run with an all-timer of a series finale. (Bonus: It gave comedy icon Carol Burnett her best role in years as steely-spined senior Marion.)

Despite fielding fare populated by familiar faces (Renee Elise Goldsberry and Busy Phillips! Cristin Milioti and William Jackson Harper!), NBC Universal's two-year old streaming service still struggles to deliver a major hit that breaks through the clutter and becomes a part of the pop culture conversation. But on the positive side, starting this fall it will replace Hulu as the exclusive next-day streaming home for NBC series, meaning it is guaranteed some new sign-ups (for just $1.99/month through September) by those wishing to stay current on #OneChicago, the Law and Orders and more.

If you can get past the antics of permanent celebrity player/exec producer Jimmy Fallon, NBC's Keke Palmer-hosted revival has been a perfectly lively hour of guessing-game entertainment, while its numbers have been rock solid (nearly 5 million weekly viewers with DVR playback) and unarguably stand out among a rerun-heavy summer for the networks.

At first, we were transfixed by Nathan Fielder's bizarre social experiment for HBO, which helped real people prepare for pivotal life moments using elaborately staged simulations. But then the season finale, which found poor child actor Remy in tears because he couldn't separate the simulations from reality, left us feeling a bit icky about the whole endeavor. (We're gluttons for emotional punishment, so we'll definitely be back for Season 2.)

The Hulu hit in Season 2 built upon its winning formula with even more great guest stars and a more expansive murder mystery that managed to keep us guessing about Bunny Folger's killer until the very end. (And kudos to the production for managing to keep Season 3's A-list murder victim under wraps until the finale had dropped.)

Following the conscious uncoupling of Showtime's Desus & Mero, and the unceremonious axing of TBS' Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, the late-night landscape is down to just four non-"white male" hosts — Amber Ruffin, Trevor Noah, Charlamagne Tha God and Ziwe. And all of 'em are currently awaiting renewal decisions.

Following a move from Fox to Hulu, one very long pandemic delay and at least one pushed premiere date, the Seth MacFarlane-captained space adventure series returned with a bang, making the most of its extended running times and delivering powerful stories bolstered by terrific performance. Now, where is that Season 4 renewal...?

After a reliable, 57-year run on the NBC broadcast network, the iconic soap opera will be a Peacock exclusive as of Sept. 12, meaning its faithful viewers will be asked (though not forced) to pony up for (and in some cases, learn to navigate) a new streaming service, if they wish to keep visiting Salem, USA every day. (The good-ish news? Peacock is running a $1.99/month special, if you sign up this September.)

Following Ravenswood and The Perfectionists, HBO Max's Original Sin is technically the third attempt at a Pretty Little Liars offshoot — and the third time was definitely the charm. A love letter to the horror genre, the thriller's 10-episode first season spun a satisfying, spine-tingling tale that had us hooked from the jump.

There were some likable houseguests this year... but the season's pre-jury ugliness (including heaps of microaggressions thrown Taylor's way) has put a stain on the players' otherwise decent strategy and scheming.

Prime Video's charmingly lowkey, WB-esque drama was social media catnip: It was based on a popular YA book series, featured a divisive love triangle and a bevy of Taylor Swift songs, and even had Lizzo documenting her binge-watch on TikTok.

Want scoop on any of the above shows? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt's Inside Line.