Be prepared for sheer disgust as these offenders are the most vile of television programming foisted onto viewers. Bad showrunners, horrid dialogue and vile personalities who do not belong in the spotlight (or in our living rooms) assaulted viewers in the 21st century and deserve to be discarded in the fireplace. Catch up on the prior 45 awful entries HERE, and pop an antacid as this list is pretty vile...
21st-25th: Shows That Made Viewers Sick
5. State of Affairs, NBC (2014-15)
NBC sat plum in 1st place this season, yet could not catch a break on the scripted front. The same goes for Heigl, whose abrasive personality and remarks burned bridges with industry heavyweights Judd Apatow and Shonda Rhimes in the prior decade. After scorching the earth, Heigl had trouble locating her next hit and stumbled onto State of Affairs as CIA Analyst Charleston Tucker. She had the backing of strong costars Alfre Woodard and David Harbour, but the premise was so dull and formula-based viewers could care less. Another dynamic emerged from bored viewers as the series became an unintentional comedy due to the absurd plot twists. Had Charleston emerged beating costars screeching "No... Wire... Hangers..., EVER!" in ode to fellow unintentional comedy Mommie Dearest, the series may have retooled and located engaged viewers. But by the end, no one cared and writers missed their cue to hook them as the only episodes that caught positive reception were at the very end.
4. The Anna Nicole Smith Show, E! (2002-03)
David Letter cracked on The Late Show "TV Guide named The Jerry Springer Show the worst show of all time. Is that really fair? Anna Nicole's show hadn't debuted yet." That about sums up this offensive play for publicity the title star made with this reality TV show. The Reality TV genre has oft been accused of manufacturing and falsely scripting drama, and The Anna Nicole Smith Show was a glaring example. Bumpkin 2-dimensional relatives showing up for money, a feud with an interior decorator and offensive imagery ran rampant on this show. Speaking of decor, most celebrities in this genre work to stage their homes beautifully if filming. Smith indeed had a nice sized home, but the place looked like a sparsely filled, disheveled refugee camp including having dildos on display in the living room. One episode even made a play on TLC's popular Trading Spaces which Smith recruited two kind neighbors to decorate a room. The neighbors gave her a tasteful office, she returned the favor by creating a sex dungeon
Fellow E! star Howard Stern gained ratings bumps roasting the show, remarking "I feel bad for her son" as his cohost Robin Quivers one upped and said "I feel bad for the dog!" Stern's observations were spot-on as her teenage son, Daniel Smith, looked painfully forced to participate in this tire fire. During the series, Anna Nicole Smith managed to drop 69 pounds which she felt would be her ticket for viewers. But by now folks were tired of breathing tire fumes and also tired of her drug-addled malaise. E! did viewers a solid and cut the prescription on this atrocious series.
3. Super Fun Night, ABC (2013-14)
How this show landed in ABC's plum timeslot following Modern Family on Wednesdays is the primary factor why it landed high on this list. More insulting is the gross misuse of international comedian Rebel Wilson, even forcing her to do away with her beautiful Australian accent to make the dialogue more awkward. The premise was flimsy, the cast forgettable and Wilson's trademark humor could not penetrate the poorly constructed scripts. The criminal move on ABC's part was it dragged down Wednesdays while two worthy sitcoms, The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife, languished on a not-yet-reestablished Tuesday night comedy block. The Goldbergs landed as a bubble show as its ratings dipped as low as 1.3 in 2014, and sadly the brilliant Trophy Wife (which updated the family format) dropped to an abysmal 0.6 and got the ax. Both shows deserved to shine on Wednesday and were eclipsed by this clunker.
2. Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, FOX (2000)
If someone dare claimed this show was feminism at its finest, they'd have a line of women lined up hurdling rocks and beer bottles, with said women getting a standing ovation. A show is worthy of this hatred not only as the title was a knockoff of ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but also for poisoning what was one of FOX's most promising seasons which gave us Malcolm in the Middle and the gone too soon Action. The premise? 50 humble ladies line up to humiliate themselves for a narcissistic groom, who was later exposed for having an ex take out a restraining order on him. We need not mention these folks' names as this is a best-forgotten show. The irony was it debuted months before Survivor paved the way for reality TV to become the craze of the 2000's, as well as it is a miracle ABC managed to get The Bachelor off the ground to success after the scathing headlines this show attracted for dating shows.
1. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, TLC (2012-14)
Adam Levine of Maroon 5/The Voice described this show as "the decay of Western society," which paraphrased all four painful seasons. June Shannon and Alanna Thompson were farmed out from TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras to create this series, which lowered the bar on poor white trash. Feeding children gallons of Mountain Dew, lewd, unsightly behavior and unpleasant images to boot, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is seen as the fading tail end of the 2000's reality TV craze. And incidentally a contributing factor for why viewers turned their back on the genre in favor of scripted in the 2010's. The death knell for the show arrived when June Shannon began a relationship with a convicted sex offender, effectively ending the show and getting this eyesore of viewing off of our screens.
Dare to contest these shows or have others to offer up as deserving a roast? Sound off in the comments below.
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