The Biggest Flops in Television History

Some of these shows for the networks and streaming companies cost more to produce than a blockbuster film.

The Biggest Flops in Television History

Several hundred television and streaming shows are produced each year. Most of them are supported with modest budgets, and when they fail to catch an audience, they are canceled with little fanfare.

But then there are the big shows. The shows networks pour millions upon millions of dollars into, hoping for the next "Stranger Things" or "Game of Thrones." And sometimes these shows get more attention for their spectacular failures in real life than their on-screen stories.

These shows, from both television and streaming, are the most expensive flops to date. Whether it’s because of runaway budgets, terrible ratings or behind-the-scenes troubles (or all three), these shows were not worth the cost.

The Star Wars Holiday Special

Year: 1978

Number of episodes: 1

Unadjusted cost: $1 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $3.94 million

Bottom Line: The Star Wars Holiday Special

One of the most infamous television events in entertainment history, "The Star Wars Holiday Special=" was a mind-numbingly terrible and bizarre 97-minute experience.

The variety show special cost $1 million to produce — an 11th of the $11 million "Star Wars" budget — and never aired again. For years, it was just a legend. It wasn’t until the 1990s that bootleg VHS recording surfaced, and later, fans uploaded the thing in full on YouTube.

George Lucas once said, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it." It’s every bit as awful as you may have heard.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Year: 2007

Number of episodes: 1

Unadjusted cost: $7.4 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $9.14 million

Bottom Line: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Following the success of the 2005 "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" blockbuster starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, ABC commissioned a television adaptation of the film.

The studio paid out $7.4 million for a pilot — which was apparently so bad, it never even aired.

For those interested, a bootleg of the unaired pilot can be found on YouTube.

The Chevy Chase Show

Year: 1993

Number of episodes: 29

Unadjusted cost: $5 million+ (our estimate)

Inflation-adjusted cost: $9 million+

Bottom Line: The Chevy Chase Show

"The Chevy Chase" show was a notorious late-night television disaster. Fox signed the notoriously ill-tempered Chevy Chase for $3 million, then poured another $1 million into renovating the then-named Chevy Chase Theater to get it all ready for Chase’s late-night debut.

When Chase came on air, he was noticeably nervous, fumbling and awkward. The jokes didn’t land, and viewers changed the channel. The show averaged fewer than three million viewers and lasted only six weeks before Fox canned it.

We’re giving the cost of this show an estimated $10 million in 1993 dollars, and that’s a conservative estimate. Theater renovations and Chase’s contract alone cost Fox $4 million before the show even aired. According to the Los Angeles Times, talk shows like "Late Show With David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show" cost $1.5 million-$2.5 million a week in 2010. While costs were certainly less in the early 1990s, the final toll of Chase’s failed show was likely more than the conservative $5 million we’ve given it.

"This company [Fox] was losing money hand over fist," an unnamed source told Entertainment Weekly after the show was canceled in 1993. "The affiliates were losing a lot too, and we have to be true to their needs."

Knight Rider

Years: 2008-09

Number of episodes: 17, plus a backdoor pilot

Unadjusted cost: N/A

Bottom Line: Knight Rider

In 2008, NBC attempted to revitalize the 1982 "Knight Rider" series with a reboot.

First, the company released a poorly reviewed 80-minute made-for-TV movie. Then, it produced 17 unpopular, poorly received "Knight Rider" episodes.

Budget numbers are hidden somewhere in NBC’s shame files, although the show is rumored to have had a substantial budget — Val Kilmer was hired to voice KITT, and the show featured numerous stunts.

Viva Laughlin

Year: 2007

Number of episodes: 2

Unadjusted cost: Over $6.8 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: Over $8.4 million

Bottom Line: Viva Laughlin

"Viva Laughlin" was a musical drama co-starring Hugh Jackman that was so bad, CBS canceled the show after just two episodes.

A New York Times reviewer called it the "worst new show of the season" and pondered "is it the worst show in the history of television?"

And we may never know how much "Viva Laughlin" really cost. The one-hour pilot cost $6.8 million, but CBS had greenlit the show for 13 episodes. The show was in the middle of shooting its ninth episode before CBS cut the cord, according to The Hollywood Reporter, meaning it cost more than just its premiere.

Here’s a clip of Jackman singing along to "Sympathy for the Devil."

The I-Land

Year: 2019

Number of episodes: 7

Unadjusted cost: $14 million

Bottom Line: The I-Land

"The I-Land" is a Netflix miniseries with Kate Bosworth about a group of people who wake up on an island without any memory of who they are or how they got there. Within 20 minutes of the show, the cast is happily swimming to upbeat music before a fantastically terrible shark attack. It’s so bad, it’s good. Here’s what critics had to say:

"'The I-Land' looks cheap, and that's before you get to later episodes shot in a meekly decorated indoor facility in which apparently nobody tested audio levels because the seventh episode — a finale that leaves enough cliffhangers to make Netflix's designating the show as a 'limited series' ring false — sounds like it was recorded in a dented tuna fish can. … It's one of the worst shows I've ever seen and, in that, one of the most fascinating." —Hollywood Reporter

"A bafflingly horrible sci-fi show, the kind of project that leaves your jaw on the floor, not unlike the first time you saw Tommy Wiseau's 'The Room.'" —RogerEbert.com

"I guess mystery box isn't an apt description for this indisputable disaster, as mysteries come with some intrigue to see them solved and boxes are actually useful." —TV Guide

This show somehow cost $2 million per episode.

Troy: Fall of a City

Year: 2018

Number of episodes: 8

Unadjusted cost: $19.5 million

Bottom Line: Troy: Fall of a City

"Troy: Fall of a City" was a British-American miniseries developed by BBC One and Netflix. It was an epic production, with massive sets and elaborate props — the production team built a giant wooden Trojan horse for the invasion scene.

It cost $19.5 million to produce, and while it received decent critical reviews, audiences hated it. The show attracted only 3.2 million viewers at its peak (the first episode), which dwindled to 1.6 million by its fourth.

It holds a 24 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 3.8 rating on IMDB.

The Playboy Club

Year: 2011

Number of episodes: 7 (4 unaired)

Unadjusted cost: $14 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $16 million

Bottom Line: The Playboy Club

"The Playboy Club" was a highly anticipated NBC crime drama set in 1961. Viewership declined from 5 million to 3.4 million, and critical reviews ranged from average to negative.

NBC pulled the show after just three episodes, although the show’s production company continued filming with the hopes to shop the series to another network. Production wrapped on episode seven, but the unaired episodes never found a home and remain unaired.

NBC heavily marketed the show before its lackluster premiere. It partnered with Bloomingdales, dressing up one of the clothing chain’s Chicago storefronts in specially designed displays and offering a $5,000 shopping spree and other prizes for random shoppers. There was also a retro-style "Playboy" magazine featuring series star Laura Benanti on the cover.

With historical costumes and set designs, the show is speculated to have cost around $2 million per episode, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Churchill’s People

Years: 1974-75

Number of episodes: 26

Unadjusted cost: N/A

Bottom Line: Churchill’s People

"Churchill’s People" is a forgotten turkey from the mid-1970s that ran on U.K. television. The show was, according to critics and viewing numbers, awful.

"Churchill’s People" was a series of 26 individual plays about certain events and periods in British history. The sets were cheap, and the scripts were bad. Winston Churchill’s grandson asked that the show be renamed. The BBC swiftly moved the show into a different time slot not long after its premiere, although it aired for 26 episodes.

"Churchill’s People" caused early tension in the BBC, too. Upper-level brass "regarded the series as a dauntingly expensive project," according to writer Williams J. Greaves. It’s unclear how much the show cost, but it didn’t seem to be cheap. The only hard numbers we could find: The BBC bought the rights for £4,000, or $$5,221, in 1974 (about £46,000, or $60,043, today).

The Briefcase

Year: 2015

Number of episodes: 6

Unadjusted cost: N/A

Bottom Line: The Briefcase

"The Briefcase" might go down as the worst reality show in history. If you missed it — and you probably did, since it only ran for six episodes — here’s the gist.

Two families, selected because of their dire financial hardships, are given a briefcase with $101,000 ($1,000 is "free" spending money). Each family is subsequently told that they can keep the money or gift any or all of the $100,000 to the other family after hearing their life story. Neither family knows that the other also has a briefcase.

If that sounds cruel and exploitative, you’re not alone. Critics lambasted the show, as did viewing audiences. Nearly 66,000 people signed a Change.org petition to close the show. CBS caved to the criticism after its first season and shut the books on it for good.

Eldorado

Years: 1992-93

Number of episodes: 156

Unadjusted cost: £10 million ($13.06 million)

Inflation-adjusted cost: £20.4 million ($26.72 million)

Bottom Line: Eldorado

By today’s standards, "Eldorado" would be a dirt-cheap fumble. But for the BBC in the early 1990s, spending £10 million ($13.045 million) on a television program was a big investment.

"Eldorado" was an open-ended soap opera about expat Brits living in Spain. The studio hyped the program with high-profile TV spots. It was touted as the first Eurosoap, a show that could be shown all over Europe.

Expectations were high and the production was rushed. The studio spent £2 million ($2.6 million) creating an entire village in Spain, but it wasn’t ready for television. The acoustics were off, causing echoing and sound problems.

The show itself was terrible, with non-actors and actors cast. Some cast members spoke in different languages and were subtitled when they spoke — something that might be OK today, but not back then. And it ran five days a week.

According to The Guardian, "Eldorado" "is synonymous with extravagant fiasco [at the BBC]. As in, be careful, it could all go Eldorado; or we might have an Eldorado on our hands. The BBC hasn’t commissioned an open-ended soap since."

Osbournes Reloaded

Year: 2009

Number of episodes: 6 (5 unaired)

Unadjusted cost: N/A

Bottom Line: Osbournes Reloaded

"Osbournes Reloaded" was a variety show featuring the Osbourne family. Ozzy and his family had made millions with their super-successful MTV reality show, "The Osbournes," in the early 2000s, and in 2009, they were looking for a comeback.

The show was a complete wipeout and was canceled after its first episode. It was so bad that 14 percent of Fox affiliates said they wouldn’t air any other "Osbournes Reloaded" shows after the first episode aired. The remaining five episodes were thrown into a vault somewhere (or a garbage bin) and remain unaired in any form.

It’s unknown how much "Osbournes Reloaded" cost Fox, but it had to have been expensive. At their peak, each of the four Osbournes were $5 million per episode for "The Osbournes." Hiring them for a new show could not have been cheap.

John from Cincinnati

Year: 2007

Number of episodes: 10

Unadjusted cost: $20 million (our estimate)

Inflation-adjusted cost: $24.8 million

Bottom Line: John from Cincinnati

Details about the budget of "John from Cincinnati" are almost nonexistent, but we can glean its expense through a few interviews with HBO execs and its place within HBO at the time of its debut.

"John from Cincinnati" was a much-hyped creation, and HBO had a lot of faith in the strange, metaphysical surfing series. HBO aired the premiere right after the season finale of "The Sopranos" and subsequently replaced "The Sopranos" with "John from Cincinnati" in the prime-time Sunday timeslot. HBO was looking for its next huge hit.

"'John' is the one we were excited about," Carolyn Strauss, HBO’s then-president of entertainment, told The Daily Press. In another article published in Outside Online, which notes that no one would talk specifics about the show’s budget, Strauss said the show was “pricey.”

We know that "Carnivale" cost $3.5 million per episode in 2003. In comparison, "John from Cincinnati' didn’t require elaborate sets and costumes. HBO only gave "John from Cincinnati" 10 episodes (following the premiere, episodes averaged just 1.2 million viewers). With the amount of hype and faith by HBO, we’re estimating that "John from Cincinnati" cost at least $2 million an episode, the same amount of money HBO spent on "The Sopranos" during its first season in 1999.

You're in the Picture

Year: 1961

Number of episodes: 2

Unadjusted cost: Unknown

Inflation-adjusted cost: N/A

Bottom Line: You're in the Picture

There are no costs related to this one, but "You’re in the Picture" hosted by Jackie Gleason was such a bomb, the show’s second episode was an apology for the first episode.

Here’s the premise: A celebrity sticks their head through a hole in a board and tries to guess what the picture was (think of those wooden cutouts on the beach and at amusement parks) as they asked Gleason yes and no questions. And it aired on the night of JFK’s inauguration.

The show was so bad that the very next week, CBS had Gleason apologize. Gleason came out, sat in a chair, smoked cigarettes, sipped booze from a coffee cup and absolutely skewered "You’re in the Picture" for half an hour (a portion of that can be seen here). "It laid, without a doubt, the biggest bomb that I have ever seen. ... This would make the H-bomb look like a two-inch salute."

CBS had filmed a third episode that they now could never run, and Kellogg’s pulled its sponsorship after Gleason’s apology because he kept talking about how he was drinking alcohol, not coffee. Since the network had to run something in its now-hollow time slot, they gave Gleason a brief, eight-episode talk show.

The Fugitive

Year: 2000

Number of episodes: 22

Unadjusted cost: $16 million (estimated)

Inflation-adjusted cost: $23.84 million

Bottom Line: The Fugitive

The finale from the 1967 "Fugitive" series is one of the most viewed of all time, beating out the finale of "Seinfeld" by nearly 2 million people and the "Friends" finale by 25 million. CBS attempted to gather at least some of the popularity from the 1967 show with its 2000 "The Fugitive" reboot. They didn’t.

Despite an amazing two-part pilot episode, the show only lasted for one 22-episode season before CBS pulled the plug. And those two pilot episodes cost $6 million, or $3 million each. According to the Post-Gazette, the series would "revolve around location shooting, an unusual and potentially expensive and time-consuming practice."

Actual costs haven’t been revealed, but they can be estimated. Pilot episodes are the most expensive for a show’s first season. "Lost" had a pilot episode that cost between $10 million and $14 million, with each subsequent episode at around $2.5 million for the first season.

If subsequent episodes of "The Fugitive" cost $500,000 — approximately one-sixth the cost of one of its $3 million pilot episodes — then the show cost around $16 million. That’s a low estimate.

Supertrain

Year: 1979

Number of episodes: 9

Unadjusted cost: $10 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $35.3 million

Bottom Line: Supertrain

"Supertrain" was a train wreck of a television show about people living aboard a colossal, fictional train that had all the amenities of a cruise ship. It was basically "The Love Boat" on rails, only without the humor, wit or charm.

The true cost of "Supertrain" can only be found in NBC’s dusty ledgers, but we can glean its expenses from its infamous production costs. According to a TV Guide from 1979, NBC paid $10 million, much of which went to three huge train sets in differing sizes.

The most expensive was the full scale, 64-feet-long, 26-foot-wide train set. Another, 1.5-inch scale train and its tracks were used for middle-distance shots. And then there was the smallest, 3/4-inch scale set, which included over 3,000 feet of tracks along with "acres of miniature towns and landscapes." At some point, one of those models crashed, adding even more money to production costs.

The show premiered with a two-hour pilot, and then eight episodes aired before it was canceled. In 2018, someone on Imgur claimed to have found one of the models — a 30-foot long train with about 50 feet of track — rusting away in a barn. Here’s the "Supertrain" intro.

Cop Rock

Year: 1990

Number of episodes: 11

Unadjusted cost: $13.2 million-$22 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $26 million-$43 million

Bottom Line: Cop Rock

"Cop Rock" was a show about singing cops. Seriously — "Cop Rock" was a musical drama focusing on the Los Angeles Police Department, whose members sang and pranced their way around the precinct, snatching up criminals and struggling with issues like homelessness and racism through song. Episode titles included "A Three-Corpse Meal," "No Noose is Good Noose" and "Cop-a-Feeliac."

The show received its funding only because "Hill Street Blues" and "L.A. Law" creator Steven Bochco was at the helm. The show cost $1.2 million or $2 million per episode and was, unsurprisingly, canceled after the first season.

But enough people remembered this bizarre piece of pop culture, and the complete series can now be found on DVD.

The Event

Year: 2010

Number of episodes: 22

Unadjusted cost: $20 million (conservative estimate)

Inflation-adjusted cost: $23.5 million

Bottom Line: The Event

"The Event" was a sci-fi show about aliens living among us and government conspiracies. It was heavily marketed by NBC. In fact, the only numbers available are the $10 million marketing budget as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Yet "The Event" was continually referred to as a high-budget television show and appears to have been NBC’s biggest budget new show of that year. It’s difficult to calculate. Doubling the cost of marketing (a rule of thumb used for calculating the break-even point for movies) pegs this show’s budget at $20 million, although it was likely much more.

"The Event" enjoyed high ratings for its pilot episode, but ratings plummeted, and NBC canceled it after one season.

Father of the Pride

Year: 2004

Number of episodes: 15

Unadjusted cost: $30 million-$37.5 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $40.7 million-$50.9 million

Bottom Line: Father of the Pride

"Father of the Pride" was an expensive, all-CGI sitcom from DreamWorks Animation about a family of lions, with the film’s main character working as the star attraction of a Siegfried and Roy show.

The show featured an all-star cast, including John Goodman, Orlando Jones and Cheryl Hines, with additional guest characters voiced by Andy Richter, John Dimaggio, Danny DeVito, Lisa Kudrow, Kelsey Grammer and Eddie Murphy (who makes a special appearance as Donkey from "Shrek").

"Father of the Pride" was more like "The Simpsons" than a standard children’s show, but it enjoyed none of that show’s success. The show cost between $2 million and 2.5 million per episode, making it the most expensive first-year animated television show.

And its debut had unlucky timing. The show premiered in August, and in early October, a tiger mauled Roy Horn on stage in Las Vegas during one of the duo’s shows. Whether that hurt their ratings or not is unclear, but the show was so unpopular that NBC closed it by the end of the year, and only aired 12 of the series’ 15 episodes.

Joey

Years: 2004-06

Number of episodes: 46 (eight unaired)

Unadjusted cost: $30 million+

Inflation-adjusted cost: $41 million+

Bottom Line: Joey

It’s difficult to gauge how much "Joey" cost, but it wasn’t a cheap show. Matt LeBlanc was paid a reported $15 million per season for two seasons, which breaks down to about $652,000 an episode. And that’s just for LeBlanc. The true cost of "Joey" is probably closer to $40 million or $50 million.

NBC clearly didn’t recoup much. Eight episodes never even aired because NBC pulled the plug early after dismal ratings. Not that LeBlanc cares.

"I made a f-----g s---load of money, so call it a failure all you want," LeBlanc told The Guardian.

Utopia

Year: 2014

Number of episodes: 12

Unadjusted cost: $50 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $54 million

Bottom Line: Utopia

Another show from Fox, "Utopia" was an ambitious reality TV series that involved 15 contestants living in an isolated compound where they would be recorded 24 hours a day via 130 robotic cameras for one year.

The show only broadcast once a week, but viewers could log in to Fox’s live feed of "Utopia" to see contestants whenever they wanted — for the price of $4.99 a month (Fox never disclosed how many people signed up).

The show completely failed to garner or keep viewers' interest, and Fox canceled the show after just 12 episodes. Even worse, the show cost $50 million all-in, making it one of the biggest television show flops of all time.

Kings

Year: 2009

Number of episodes: 13

Unadjusted cost: $54 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $64.5 million

Bottom Line: Kings

"Kings" was an NBC show that retold the story of King David in a modern-day setting.

The show premiered in March 2009 to terrible ratings for its prime-time slot, drawing in about 6 million viewers — less than "Celebrity Apprentice," which aired afterward.

Rumored to have cost $10 million for the two-part opener and $4 million for each of the 11 subsequent episodes, NBC cut out the show from its lineup after the first season. Its last episode drew only 1.8 million viewers.

Terra Nova

Year: 2011

Number of episodes: 13

Unadjusted cost: $58 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $66 million

Bottom Line: Terra Nova

"Terra Nova" was about a colony of people who warped back 85 million years to escape a dystopian future. The show had a huge budget, dinosaurs, big sets and Steven Spielberg as an executive producer. It sounded like a recipe for success.

The show started strong, peaking at 9.5 million viewers during its two-hour premiere, and received positive reviews. But the series waned in popularity and writing quality when it reached the midseason mark.

Ultimately, the show may have just been way too expensive and difficult to continue. The show was filmed in Australia, but other production staff were based in Los Angeles, and the 17-hour time difference created some communication difficulties (as did flash flooding).

Over 250 sets were built, and each episode required at least six weeks to add the CGI dinosaurs. An initial production delay cost $660,000, and the two-hour pilot cost $14 million to produce. Each subsequent episode cost $4 million.

Fox canned "Terra Nova" after one season, then tried to sell it elsewhere, but there were no takers.

The Bionic Woman

Year: 2007

Number of episodes: 8

Unadjusted cost: $58.4 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $72.26 million

What happened? “The Bionic Woman” was an NBC series with a pilot that cost around $7.4 million and, if the Daily Mail is accurate, had a per-episode budget of up to $6 million per episode along with a $15 million marketing blitz. Using this big-budget reboot of the original series from 1976 wound up costing NBC around $58.4 million. The writers strike of 2007 halted production and the show never resurfaced with new episodes, presumably because NBC decided the cost to continue building their “Bionic Woman” would be too much.

Bottom Line: The Bionic Woman

"The Bionic Woman" was an NBC series with a pilot that cost around $7.4 million and, if the Daily Mail is accurate, had a per-episode budget of up to $6 million per episode along with a $15 million marketing blitz.

Using this big-budget reboot of the original series from 1976 wound up costing NBC around $58.4 million.

The writers strike of 2007 halted production, and the show never resurfaced with new episodes, presumably because NBC decided the cost to continue building their "Bionic Woman" would be too much.

Camelot

Year: 2011

Number of episodes: 10

Unadjusted cost: $70 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $80 million

Bottom Line: Camelot

"Camelot" was a big-budget production that aired on Starz during the same year that "Game of Thrones" first aired on HBO. Like "Game of Thrones," "Camelot" was a fantasy series that required tons of props, costumes, set pieces and special effects.

But whereas "Game of Thrones" captivated and held viewership, "Camelot" fizzled out. The show received mixed reviews and never became the hit show that Starz needed for a $7 million-per-episode title.

Citing "production challenges," the channel decided to scrap King Arthur and his court after the first season.

Flashforward

Year: 2009

Number of episodes: 22

Unadjusted cost: Over $70 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: Over $84 million

Bottom Line: Flashforward

"Flashforward" was a one-season ABC show wherein nearly everyone on earth falls unconscious for two minutes and sees six months into the future. The show premiered in the fall of 2009 and, thanks to hype by ABC, premiered to nearly 12.5 million viewers. But viewership dropped fast, with only 5 million people tuning in to the 14th episode. The show averaged 8.5 million viewers for the entire season.

"Flashforward” has been repeatedly called a big-budget show, but the actual numbers have never been revealed. However, the show’s writer, David Goyer, in an interview with The Wrap, gave some insight into what the show actually cost.

"If you take a movie like 'Blade' where we grossed about $70 million and you divide that by the $10 cost of a movie ticket, then roughly about 7 million people saw that film. We’re going to have to have a lot more than 7 million viewers for 'FlashForward' to be a hit."

Goyer went on to say that while the show didn’t have "Dark Knight" money — a movie with a $185 million budget — ABC had been "very good about opening up the piggy bank." We’re pegging the budget at $70 million, minimum.

Good Girls Revolt

Year: 2016

Number of episodes: 10

Unadjusted cost: $81 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $86.8 million

Bottom Line: Good Girls Revolt

"When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes," Jeff Bezos once said. Amazon is certainly not afraid to spend big bucks on a potential hit, but it completely missed the mark with the 1969 newsroom drama "Good Girls Revolt."

According to internal documents obtained by Reuters in 2017, “Good Girls Revolt” cost a staggering $81 million to make and market — over $8 million an episode.

The show garnered only 52,000 first streams worldwide, which breaks down to a per-new-customer cost of $1,560. It was canceled within two months.

Megyn Kelly Today

Year: 2017-18

Number of episodes: 282

Unadjusted cost: $100 million

Bottom Line: Megyn Kelly Today

This one’s unique. After Megyn Kelly left Fox News, NBC offered her an absurdly overpaid, three-year, $69 million contract along with her own morning show. The network also shelled out about $10 million in set redesigns, and in total, Kelly’s "Today" show cost $30 million more than its predecessor, "Today’s Take," according to The Wall Street Journal.

The show — but most importantly, Kelly’s signing — was a disaster. Kelly’s show drew significantly lower ratings than "Today’s Take" and averaged an 11 percent viewership decline over the course of 30 weeks. The final straw came when Kelly made controversial statements defending some very questionable costumes on air. NBC canceled the show shortly thereafter.

"Megyn Kelly Today" only lasted only 11 months, but Kelly profited. She stuck out her contract and walked from NBC with her entire $69 million in early 2019.

The XFL

Year: 2001

Number of episodes: 13 games

Unadjusted cost: $70 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $101.47 million

Bottom Line: The XFL

Professional wrestling mogul and billionaire Vince McMahon believed that he could develop a new kind of TV-friendly football for bloodthirsty Americans, one where rules like fair catches were deemed for weaklings, where scantily clad cheerleaders would get an abundance of zoomed-in camera time.

Cheerleaders were encouraged to date the players, and the players were encouraged to showcase their personality by putting nicknames on their jerseys (the most famous was "He Hate Me"). Commentators and announcers were encouraged to stir up drama with coaches. It was McMahon’s version of crash TV, only this time with football.

And, of course, it failed. The games themselves were considered to have subpar football, and McMahon’s pushing for on-screen skits and antics had viewers questioning whether the entire show was a work.

But McMahon is not a man easily deterred. In 2018, he announced that the XFL will live again — this time with family-friendly content for viewers and rules that considered concussions for the players. The new XFL premieres in 2020, after the NFL football season.

Battlestar Galactica

Year: 1978

Number of episodes: 21

Unadjusted cost: $27 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $106 million

Bottom Line: Battlestar Galactica

The original "Battlestar Galactica" had a budget of galactic proportions. The three-hour pilot cost $7 million, and each of the next 20 episodes cost about $1 million each.

The show initially gained an enormous viewership, but ratings rapidly declined, until ABC opted not to renew the series for a second season.

Its $1 million-per-episode budget was the highest of any television show at the time.

Vinyl

Year: 2016

Number of episodes: 10

Unadjusted cost: $100 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $106.7 million

Bottom Line: Vinyl

"Vinyl" was a period drama set in the 1970s focusing on a New York music executive and had Martin Scorsese at the helm (with some input from Mick Jagger). It sure sounded like it would be a success, but HBO signed, sealed and delivered the pink slip for "Vinyl" after the first season. So what happened?

Quite simply, the series just wasn’t that good, and nobody cared to tune in. Its two-hour debut, which cost $30 million, attracted only 764,000 viewers, which was one of the smallest debut shows ever for a recent HBO show. And Scorsese only did the pilot. The rest was left to "Boardwalk Empire" creator Terence Winter, who left the show after season one due to creative differences.

"It was something that I realized, in order to make it right ... I think I would have had to direct every episode and be there for the three to four years,” Scorsese said.

The Tick

Years: 2016-19

Number of episodes: 22

Unadjusted cost: $110 million

Bottom Line: The Tick

"The Tick" was a critically praised show made for Amazon Prime Video that had a runaway budget. The strange thing is, you wouldn’t know to look at it.

"The Tick" is estimated to have cost $5 million an episode, even though the entire show appeared low-budget. Which was confusing. The show’s low-buck look added to its charm, but it paradoxically came at a high cost. It didn’t help that the show’s episodes were only 22 to 28 minutes apiece, which breaks down to $178,571 per minute on its lengthiest episodes.

Why did it cost so much? Take this with a grain of salt, but someone on Reddit who claims to have worked on the show said it took a whole team of visual effects artists working in post-production to remove every visible seam on the Tick’s suit — and that this was just an example of one of the many costs that went into the production. Additionally, "The Tick" was shot on location in New York City, which is never cheap.

Despite the show’s loyal fan following, Amazon couldn’t see the benefit of keeping such an expensive show running. It axed the big blue superhero in June 2019 after two seasons. Creator Ben Edlund tried to shop his beloved show to other services, but found no takers.

Carnivale

Years: 2003-05

Number of episodes: 24

Unadjusted cost: $84 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $117 million

Bottom Line: Carnivale

We’re not saying "Carnivale" was a bad show. It wasn’t. But we can't ignore its rapid viewership decline after a huge pilot episode.

"Carnivale" started stronger than any HBO series up to that point, with a then record-breaking 5.3 million viewers tuning in to see the first episode. Critical reviews were largely positive, but as the first season slowly stretched on, it became more divisive. Things went downhill, fast.

"We felt doomed from episode three on, because the numbers were not coming up. The numbers were going down," show creator Daniel Knauf told the AV Club. "[W]e felt doomed every day."

It also didn’t help that "Carnivale" cost $3.5 million per episode. The show ended without a proper ending.

The Get Down

Year: 2016

Number of episodes: 11

Unadjusted cost: $120 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $128 million

Bottom Line: The Get Down

"The Get Down" was a big-budget musical drama by Baz Lurhmann about hip-hop culture in the 1970s with teenage main characters.

The show, which was made for Netflix, looked amazing, and the music was top-notch, but there weren’t enough viewers to warrant its insane budget, which ballooned to $120 million. For comparison, Lurhmann’s "The Great Gatsby" had a budget of $105 million.

Plus, the show was plagued by behind-the-scenes production troubles, with some show writers coining it "The Shut Down," according to Variety. The publication also noted that the show only took in a fifth of the audience that watched the fourth season of "Orange Is the New Black."

Hemlock Grove

Year: 2013-15

Number of episodes: 33

Unadjusted cost: $132 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $143.8 million

Bottom Line: Hemlock Grove

The second series that Netflix ever made (the first being "House of Cards") is one of the streaming giant’s biggest flops. "Hemlock Grove" was a horror series about the supernatural creatures and regular denizens who live in a Pennsylvania town.

Despite initial reviews calling it "a lurching combination of muted delivery and crazy happenings," "sometimes downright boring" and "Netflix’s first dud," Netflix went ahead and ordered an additional two seasons.

Episodes were estimated to have a budget of around $4 million each, which proved to be a mistake. Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos later told The Telegraph that "'Hemlock Grove' is an example that just ... didn’t connect with the audience that we thought it would."

The show’s third and final season holds 33 percent critical and 47 percent audience ratings at Rotten Tomatoes.

Sense8

Year: 2015-18

Number of episodes: 24

Unadjusted cost: $171 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $180.5 million

Bottom Line: Sense8

"Sense8" had a very loyal fan following and received critical acclaim, but the show was just way, way too expensive. Season one had an approximate budget of $4.5 million an episode, totaling $54 million in 2015.

By season two, that budget ballooned to $9 million an episode — a price tag that rivaled "Game of Thrones" — and cost $99 million for 11 episodes. Netflix then canceled the show, but fans raised hell online, saying that the series deserved an actual ending.

In 2018, Netflix released a 151-minute finale to the series, which could reasonably be believed to have cost $18 million, or the cost of two episodes.

Marco Polo

Years: 2014-16

Number of episodes: 21

Unadjusted cost: $200 million

Inflation-adjusted cost: $216 million

Bottom Line: Marco Polo

Netflix went all-in on one of its biggest titles ever with "Marco Polo," with a budget of $9 million per episode. It was an investment that produced reviews such as "the most gorgeous thing you’ll ever fall asleep to" from Cinema Blend and "a sloppy, clattering mess" from Grantland.

The show was sort of like "Game of Thrones" set in the Mongol Empire, but it failed to catch a substantial audience.

Surprisingly, Netflix renewed the show for a second season and ended up costing the streaming giant a $200 million loss in 2016. That’s on par with "John Carter," which was the biggest box-office bomb, ever.