20 TV Shows Canceled on Huge Cliffhangers: ‘Angel,’ ‘Prodigal Son,’ ‘NCIS: Hawai’i’ & More
Closure is such a scarcity in the cutthroat television industry. TV networks often cast off their lowest performers rather than outlaying any more expense to wrap up the shows’ loose threads. And before the news of their shows’ cancellation, TV showrunners often end their seasons with cliffhangers to keep viewers wanting more — and, in some cases, to try to strong-arm the networks into a renewal.
Those opposing forces mean fans of low-rated TV shows have to expect that they may never see their favorite small-screen stories to their narrative ends. Click through the gallery above for 10 series that ended on a suspenseful note — including a rare few that got to continue their stories years later.
Angel (The WB)
Just after Angel (David Boreanaz), Gunn (J. August Richards), Spike (James Marsters), and Illyria (Amy Acker) take down the Circle of the Black Thorn, a Senior Partners-issued army of demons confronts them in a rainy alley in the Season 5 finale. Angel swings his sword and… well, that’s all fans got until the story continued in comic book form.
The Event (NBC)
In the Season 1 finale (and series finale) of this serialized drama, our heroes just barely stop an alien virus from running rampant around the globe. But then the aliens’ homeworld teleports into Earth’s orbit — and First Lady Christina Martinez (Lisa Vidal) reveals herself to be an alien sleeper agent.
Hannibal (NBC)
After three seasons of being under the spell of Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), criminal profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) throws both himself and the titular cannibal over a cliff in what ended up being the last episode. (So, less a cliffhanger than a cliff-dropper?)
My So-Called Life (ABC)
Fans never got a resolution for the love triangle between Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto), Angela Chase (Claire Danes), and Brian Krakow (Devon Gummersall) in this teen drama after Claire discovers that Brian wrote Jordan’s apology letter in the Season 1 finale.
Off the Map (ABC)
In a rare Shondaland miss, this jungle-set medical drama was axed after its first season finale, in which Lily (Caroline Dhavernas) finds love interest Mateo (Nicholas Rodriguez) bleeding out from a gunshot wound as his family’s coca crop burns.
Pitch (Fox)
In a curveball for this baseball drama, the first (and only) season ended with star pitcher Ginny Baker (Kylie Bunbury) overexerting himself and injuring her elbow, putting her future with the MLB into jeopardy.
Pushing Daisies (ABC)
This fantastical and dark comedy — another series from Hannibal mastermind Bryan Fuller — got the “touch of death” after two seasons, just as Ned (Lee Pace) and Chuck (Anna Friel) decided to reveal Chuck’s resurrected status to her beloved, grieving aunts.
Sense8 (Netflix)
Fans of this globe-trotting series were up in arms after Netflix canceled it after a Season 2 cliffhanger involving the Whispers (Terrence Mann) kidnapping Wolfgang (Max Riemelt) and the other sensates — i.e. strangers linked psychically and emotionally — teaming up to rescue him. Happily, Netflix eventually ordered a two-part finale to provide a proper ending.
Southland (TNT)
This police drama ended after five seasons with a cop-on-cop shooting — after John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz), still traumatized by his kidnapping, got into a fight with his neighbors and is shot by a responding officer who sees a gun in his hand. Even more tragically, fans never got to find out whether he survived.
Veronica Mars (Hulu)
Veronica Mars has an avid following; when the show was cancelled, fans crowdfunded a movie to be made years later and a new original season of the show premiered in 2019 on Hulu. That loyal fanbase is not without good reason, as it’s hard not to fall in love with Kristen Bell‘s Veronica Mars, a smart and strong young woman who get things done. She’s a student/detective who helps her father with his cases while also trying to solve the murder of her best friend. If you’re into mysteries and crime shows but with a teen twist, you’ll quickly understand its appeal.
Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix)
The Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant comedy ended with Olyphant’s Joel presumably being transformed into a zombie like wife Sheila (Barrymore). Sheila bit him thinking it was the only way to save his life, and the final moment showed him opening his supposed zombie eyes for the first time. But that cliffhanger question will never be answered.
Prodigal Son (Fox)
Malcolm (Tom Payne) stabbed his serial killer father Martin (Michael Sheen) in Season 2’s final moments, but his fate was left up in the air.
Shadow and Bone (Netflix)
The fantasy-action series with a passionate fanbase ended its second season with a tee-off not only to Season 3 but also a Six of Crows spinoff series. Both shows have since been canceled, leaving the major book changes they made in the Season 2 finale without followup. The season ended with with Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) using Shadow Summoner powers against a last-minute new foe and her love, Mal (Archie Renaux), leaving her behind. Neither of these things happen in the book on which the show is based, so fans will never know where the series would’ve taken these creative liberties next.
A League of Their Own (Prime Video)
This cancellation came with extra sting, as the show was canceled, renewed for a four-episode second season, and then canceled again, leaving fans of this excellent reimagining of the 1990s Penny Marshall film heartbroken. The finale’s cliffhanger was big: Carson’s (Abbi Jacobson) husband saw her kissing lover Greta (D’Arcy Carden) in a moment that both outed Carson and revealed her affair simultaneously. The double cancellation canceled out hopes of finding out what would happen next.
The Great (Hulu)
The Great was shockingly canceled after three seasons at Hulu in 2023, leaving the riotous period comedy on a massive question following the shocking death of Nicholas Hoult‘s Peter. The series had only just begun showing Catherine’s (Elle Fanning) recuperation following her complicated but beloved husband’s watery death and left her off on an unhinged and unfinished note.
How I Met Your Father (Hulu)
The How I Met Your Mother spinoff didn’t run long enough to make good on the story promised in its title. The identity of the father, aka Sophie’s (Hilary Duff) future baby daddy, was never revealed because of the cancellation, but the Season 2 ending did reveal that the father wasn’t Charlie (Tom Ainsley).
Quantum Leap (NBC)
Throughout the two seasons of the reboot, Ben (Raymond Lee) was doing all of the time traveling by jumping into the bodies of other people with the help of his Quantum Leap accelerator. The Season 2 finale of the adventure series set it up so that physicist Ben and his fiancée, Addison (Caitlin Bassett), could do two-person leaps in Season 3, but that won’t come to pass.
Not Dead Yet (ABC)
The Season 2 finale’s ending was the definition of a cliffhanger. It showed Gina Rodriguez‘s Nell, a print journalist on the obituary beat who’s visited by the ghosts of the people she writes about, communing with newspaper owner Duncan (Brad Garrett) as he slipped in and out of death following a medical emergency. The show’s final moment showed Duncan remembering what he experienced with Nell in the semi-afterlife, setting the show up to finally explain its supernatural lore. Sadly, we’ll never get those answers, but Rodriguez teased what may have happened following the finale to TV Insider.
So Help Me Todd (CBS)
The second (and final) season ended with Todd (Skylar Astin) discovering that Merritt Folding (Joe Pantoliano) was framing his mother, Margaret (Marcia Gay Harden). Series creator Scott Prendergast planned five more seasons after this cliffhanger that will never come to pass.
NCIS: Hawai'i (CBS)
You can’t get more of a cliffhanger than this: the NCIS spinoff ended with Vanessa Lachey‘s Jane being told by former mentor-turned fugitive Maggie (Julie White), “You’re probably going to need a drink for what’s coming next.” What was obviously supposed to be a setup for Season 4 became the last line of the entire series.
From TV Guide Magazine
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