Worst TV Finales

Years of loyalty, repaid in a single evening.

Entries
10
Category
TV
Updated
  1. A laptop glowing on an unmade bed in a Brooklyn loft, a silver headband and a tiara beside it.

    10. Gossip Girl

    Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage · 2012

    "New York, I Love You XOXO" reveals Dan Humphrey was Gossip Girl, including the posts about himself and his own family. The A.V. Club gave it an F. Then he marries Serena, whom he spent six years publicly tormenting. Romance.

  2. A futuristic holographic grid room, empty except for a single wrench left on the glowing floor.

    09. Star Trek: Enterprise

    Rick Berman and Brannon Braga · 2005

    "These Are the Voyages..." turns the Enterprise crew's farewell into a holodeck program Riker runs during an old Next Generation episode, then kills Trip for not much reason. Jolene Blalock called it appalling. She had four seasons of evidence.

  3. A grand piano smashed flat on a beach house deck, splinters and ivory keys scattered across the boards.

    08. Two and a Half Men

    Chuck Lorre · 2015

    "Of Course He's Dead" spends an hour on Charlie Sheen's character being alive, then drops a piano on a body double. Sheen declined the cameo. Chuck Lorre appears, says "Winning," and gets a piano too. The grudge outlasted the show.

  4. A glowing blue electric haze filling an empty small-town bar, a half-finished beer on the counter.

    07. Quantum Leap

    Donald P. Bellisario · 1993

    "Mirror Image" puts Sam in a strange bar, has him choose to keep leaping, then ends on a title card saying he never returned home. Written before NBC decided whether to renew. The card spelled Beckett wrong, which is the most final thing about it.

  5. A typewriter on a messy kitchen table with a stack of manuscript pages and a crumpled lottery ticket.

    06. Roseanne

    Roseanne Barr · 1997

    "Into That Good Night" reveals the lottery-winning ninth season was something Roseanne wrote, and Dan actually died of his heart attack. The 2018 revival undid it, which is the only time a reboot has been used as an apology.

  6. A wooden church pew in white light, a dropped airline boarding pass on the seat, ocean waves visible through a stained glass window.

    05. Lost

    Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse · 2010

    "The End" reveals the flash-sideways was a waiting room the characters built to find each other after they died. The island was real, the writers keep explaining, to people who still believe everyone was dead the whole time. The church scene did not help.

  7. A row of four tin cups on a jail cell bench, a box of cereal on the floor outside the bars.

    04. Seinfeld

    Larry David · 1998

    76 million people watched the four leads get convicted under a Good Samaritan law in Latham, Massachusetts, after a parade of past guest stars testifies against them. A clip show with a jail sentence. Larry David has no regrets, which tracks.

  8. A small fishing boat swamped by a hurricane at sea, and beside it a lumberjack's plaid shirt hanging on a cabin hook.

    03. Dexter

    Scott Buck · 2013

    "Remember the Monsters?" has Dexter unplug his sister, dump her at sea, steer into a hurricane and resurface as a bearded Oregon lumberjack. Michael C. Hall called the ending mystifying and came back for a do-over. The do-over is below.

  9. A blue French horn hanging on a brick apartment wall, a yellow umbrella leaning beneath it in the rain-streaked window light.

    02. How I Met Your Mother

    Carter Bays and Craig Thomas · 2014

    Nine seasons to meet the mother, then "Last Forever" kills her off and sends Ted back to Robin with the blue French horn. The kids' reaction was filmed in 2006, so the ending was locked before most of the show existed. Commitment, just not to the audience.

  10. A huge iron chair made of swords half-melted into a puddle of molten metal on a stone floor, a single plastic water bottle standing beside it.

    01. Game of Thrones

    David Benioff and D. B. Weiss · 2019

    "The Iron Throne" was HBO's most-watched telecast ever, and it ended with Bran elected king. A petition to remake season 8 with competent writers passed a million signatures before it even aired. Eight seasons of plotting, settled by a show of hands.

Honorable mentions

  • A diner booth with a bowl of onion rings and a tabletop jukebox, the scene cut off by a hard black edge.

    The Sopranos

    David Chase · 2007

    "Made in America" cut to black mid-Journey, and a nation assumed its cable had died. Now it is regularly called the best finale ever made. The lesson is that a finale can be redeemed in about a decade, if it was any good to begin with.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A hunting rifle leaning against a snowy pine tree, a single spent shell casing in fresh snow.

    Dexter: New Blood

    Clyde Phillips · 2022

    The revival existed to fix the lumberjack ending, and "Sins of the Father" did it by having Dexter's son shoot him in the snow. Final, until Dexter: Resurrection brought him back in 2025. Two finales, zero endings.

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