15 Most Unwatchable Shows of All Time, Ranked

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Watching TV shows requires a certain level of commitment. For many viewers, starting a series means that they have to stick with it till the end, no matter how rough it gets. But in all honesty, not every show deserves that kind of loyalty.

From lazy writing to over-the-top performances and questionable plots, some shows earn a spot in pop culture history because of how bad they are. To spare you from the torture, though, here are the most unwatchable shows of all time.

15 'The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer' (1998)

Desmond speaks to Mary Todd in The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer

Not many shows in TV history have managed to cause an uproar before premiering, but The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer did that and so much more. The sitcom was set during the American Civil War and followed Desmond Pfeiffer (Chi McBride), a Black English nobleman forced to flee Britain (Dann Florek), who ends up working as President Abraham Lincoln’s valet in the White House. The series was meant to be a biting satire that would mock the political scandals of its time through a historical lens.

However, it ended up as a jumbled mess of juvenile sexual humor, shock value, and downright disrespectful caricatures. The show positioned Desmond as the smartest person in the room who was surrounded by incompetent, drunk political figures. Abraham Lincoln was written as a sexually obsessed man, while characters including Mary Todd Lincoln (Christine Estabrook) and Ulysses S. Grant (Kelly Connell) were reduced to tasteless stereotypes. The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer’s lack of self-awareness was its downfall. The show doubled down on its crude gags instead of actually exploring its premise in a meaningful way.

14 'Joey' (2004–2006)

Matt LeBlanc and Andrea Anders as Joey Tribbiani and Alexis "Alex" Garrett, standing next to each other and smiling in Joey

Joey is the perfect example of how spinoffs aren’t always the best idea. There’s no denying that Joey (Matt LeBlanc) was one of the most beloved characters on Friends. Naturally, NBC thought it would be a good idea to continue his story after the events of the original sitcom and have Joey move to Hollywood to finally pursue his passion for acting. The concept wasn’t bad at all. However, Joey was a gamble that assumed audiences would tune in for the character alone, when in reality, most fans loved Joey as part of the iconic Friends ensemble. When that whole dynamic was removed, things just weren’t the same.

Now, if the spinoff had actually focused on Joey’s growth into a more mature version of himself, maybe it would have worked. However, he was written to be completely stagnant with the same jokes about food and failed auditions. The supporting cast, including Jennifer Coolidge, Andrea Anders, Drea de Matteo, and more, delivered good performances but failed to fill the void left by the original Friends lineup. No matter what the spinoff did, it was always living in the shadow of its predecessor instead of feeling like a fresh continuation.

13 'Under the Dome' (2013–2015)

Rachelle Lefevre's Julia looking ahead in Under the Dome

Under the Dome was a Stephen King adaptation that could have changed the game for sci-fi TV. The show is set in a quiet American town that is suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an indestructible, transparent barrier. Under the Dome Season 1 wasn’t really bad and set the premise up pretty well as the residents of the town worried about their survival as their food and water depleted and power structures inside the dome began to shift. However, all of a sudden, the show had no idea what to do with that concept.

Under the Dome started to lose its magic heading into Season 2 when key storylines were abandoned, characters started behaving inconsistently, and the central mystery of the dome grew increasingly convoluted. As the show went on, it just kept expanding on the story and introduced everything from aliens to hive-mind conspiracies without ever fully explaining any of it. This piling on of new ideas while the old ones remained unresolved turned the show into a mess that no one wanted to keep following. Ultimately, Under the Dome is the perfect example of a show that should have ended way earlier than it did, because the longer it went on, the more it lost its plot.

12 'Viva Laughlin' (2007)

Nicky Fontana (Hugh Jackman) singing on a stage, surrounded by women in Viva Laughlin.

Viva Laughlin, featuring Hugh Jackman, was so bad that it had to be canceled after just two episodes. This show was a strange hybrid of a murder mystery and a bright musical, two genres that clashed with each other in the worst possible way. The premise follows Lloyd Owen as Ripley Holden, a man trying to open his dream casino, who becomes a prime suspect in his former business partner’s murder. As interesting as the story sounds, the execution was an absolute disaster.

Viva Laughlin’s use of musical numbers is obviously the most baffling creative choice that went into the show. In the middle of this intense mystery that we’re following, characters break into song and dance to express their emotions, which completely breaks the flow of the narrative. These musical interruptions make it impossible for the audience to take the plot seriously because the whole thing feels like a fever dream that just never ends. Even Jackman’s involvement couldn’t save Viva Laughlin from becoming the laughing stock of its time. The fact that CBS wasted no time pulling the plug on it just cements the show’s embarrassing legacy.

11 'CSI: Miami' (2002–2012)

CSI: Miami was meant to be the flashy new counterpart to CBS’s hit series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The spinoff took the formula of the procedural drama, which takes place in Las Vegas, and applies it to the backdrop of South Florida. CSI: Miami starred David Caruso as Lieutenant Horatio Caine, with Emily Procter, Adam Rodriguez, and Khandi Alexander among others in prominent roles. In theory, the show really had everything going for it. The CSI brand was already successful, and Florida’s neon lights, glass condos, and gorgeous coastline definitely made for a visual treat. That was exactly the problem, though, because it felt like the creators thought that would be enough. The spinoff was full of flat, one-dimensional characters, and the horrible acting combined with the bland dialogue made everything ten times worse.

Caruso’s character has actually gone down in history for his never-ending one-liners, and not in a good way. The actor took Caine’s smugness to a level where the entire show felt like a parody of the CSI franchise. Not to mention that it completely let go of everything that made the original show so genuinely compelling. The storylines in CSI: Miami often started strong, but wandered off into dangerously clichéd territory with abrupt resolution and outlandish twists. The pacing completely missed the mark, and that automatically brought the stakes down to a point where it was difficult to sit through an entire episode. Despite that, though, the show was a hit with the audiences in the mainstream and managed to span 10 seasons. However, longevity and popularity don’t always equal quality.

10 'Cop Rock' (1990)

The cast of Cop Rock stand outside a building on steps and look at the camera.

Cop Rock is best defined as a Disney-esque take on the police procedural genre, because the idea of combining something so gritty with Broadway-style song and dance doesn’t feel like something an adult would want to watch. The short-lived ABC series, created by Steven Bochco and William M. Finkelstein, followed the Los Angeles Police Department as they tackled murder cases, drug busts, and other big crimes, only to break out in musical numbers in between all of that. The cast featured Anne Bobby, Ronny Cox, and James McDaniel, but they couldn’t even salvage the absolute mess that Cop Rock was.

You have to wonder who thought that a bunch of cops belting out ballads about justice and harmony was a good idea. However, the most bizarre part of the show was when the bad guys stopped mid-crime and started singing about it all. There’s no denying that some of the songs in the show were catchy, but it was extremely hard to get invested in the story, given the tonal clash of the overall narrative and the music. Even if one treats the show as a musical first, the acting is way too hammy, and the pacing is just too abrupt. All in all, Cop Rock was a disastrous concept that just didn’t work. It’s no surprise that the show was pulled after just 11 episodes.

9 'My Mother the Car' (1965–1966)

Dave standing in front of a red car holding flowers next to it in My Mother the Car.

My Mother the Car is one of the strangest sitcoms to have ever premiered on NBC. The show follows attorney Dave Crabtree (Jerry Van Dyke), who discovers that his deceased mother has been reincarnated as a 1928 Porter touring car. As if that premise wasn’t whacky enough, the show decided to bring in Captain Manzini (Avery Schreiber), an unintentionally cartoonish villain who wants to steal the car. Now, one might say that the show was meant to be ridiculous and satirical. However, it felt more like a gimmick sitcom than anything else.

You have to remember that the TV in the ‘60s was already oversaturated with talking animals, witches, Martians, and genies. However, where those shows really leaned into their surreal stories with clever writing and memorable characters, My Mother the Car felt like it was trying to stretch out the same joke over 30 episodes. By the final episode, it felt like the show barely had any plot left to work with. Overall, My Mother the Car really suffered from the lack of good writing and fleshed-out character arcs, which could have elevated the story beyond its initial absurdity, which definitely helped grab eyeballs in the beginning.

8 'Batwoman' (2019–2022)

Ruby Rose as Kate Kane aka Batwoman looking intently in CW's Batwoman

Batwoman really had the potential to be a major success for The CW. The show was part of the network’s Arrowverse and promised to bring a new kind of diversity to the world of superheroes. Ruby Rose starred as Kate Kane, Bruce Wayne’s cousin, who steps in to protect Gotham after Batman disappears. The premise was engaging right off the bat, but the show struggled to retain momentum and started leaning more toward melodrama than a superhero series. Instead of diving deeper into Gotham’s criminal underbelly, Batwoman was all about repetitive family drama and focused more on Kate’s complicated relationship with her twin sister Alice (Rachel Skarsten).

Not to mention all the time the show spent on Kate’s romantic entanglements, which were great for character development, but often came at the expense of eating into the actual story that people were tuning in for. The worst point of the show came when Rose suddenly exited the show after the first season. The writers then decided not to recast Kate Kane and introduced Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie), a brand-new character who just became the new Batwoman. There’s no denying that Leslie delivered an incredible performance, but the way Kate’s ongoing storylines were just abandoned felt a little too abrupt. Safe to say the show could never really find its footing after that, and is now remembered as one of the Arrowverse’s biggest missed opportunities.

7 'That '80s Show' (2002)

After the massive success of That ‘70s Show, Fox decided it would be a good idea to replicate the format and create a show set in the ‘80s. That ‘80s Show came from many of the same writers and producers of the original show, but it was never meant to be a direct spin-off. The series started fresh with brand-new characters against the backdrop of San Diego in 1984. The show followed struggling musician Corey (Glenn Howerton), along with his friends and family, in the Reagan era.

The premise was actually interesting and held a lot of potential. However, the cast of That ‘80s Show just didn’t share the same effortless chemistry as the That ’70s Show ensemble did. The writing can be held responsible for the show’s failure since the jokes leaned almost entirely on ’80s references, to the point where it felt like the show was just trying to make fun of the decade that it was set in, rather than actually focusing on the characters. The whole thing was a clichéd mess, and Fox actually canceled the series after only 13 episodes since it completely failed to find an audience.

6 'Walker, Texas Ranger' (1993–2001)

Chuck Norris as Cordell Walker stands beside a building on 'Walker, Texas Ranger'

Walker, Texas Ranger, starred the iconic Chuck Norris as Cordell Walker, a Texas Ranger who did not play by the rules. The show was almost completely episodic, where Walker and his partner, James "Jimmy" Trivette (Clarence Gilyard), would face off against a new villain every week. At the same time, though, the show also had larger character and plot arcs that would unfold over the course of entire seasons. In theory, Walker, Texas Ranger was supposed to be a show that portrayed Western values and old-fashioned morality. The show did run for nine seasons, so it definitely found its audience, but that doesn’t mean it was good, too.

The biggest problem with Walker, Texas Ranger was how formulaic everything felt. Every episode followed the same structure, with one-dimensional villains committing crimes and Walker saving the day. That’s not even the worst part, though, because the show also reduced Texans to borderline-offensive stereotypes who wore cowboy hats round the clock and spent their days at the rodeo. Not to mention the characters were either impossibly good or cartoonishly evil, with no grey areas at all. This lack of real conflict, along with the show’s bland dialogue, makes it absolutely unwatchable after the first couple of episodes.

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