As this is an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Times where the protagonist doesn't get together with whomever they've been pursuing in Live-Action TV series.
- Throughout the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., there is considerable Ship Tease between Ward and Skye. Then she learns that he's The Mole and rejects him. Her second love interest, Lincoln, performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save the world.
- Alex Rider (2020): A bit of a recurring theme for Alex. In Season 1, he's interested in Ayisha, a girl at his school, but Duplicate!Alex says something horrible/creepy to her, completely ruining any chance he had with her. Then, in Season 2, Sabina ends up thinking that he's pretending to be a spy in order to get close to her: while she's proven wrong, and they share an Almost Kiss, she tells him he can't be around her for a while as her father's still recovering from his injuries. There's a bit of Ship Tease with Kyra too, but it never goes beyond that.
- A.N.T. Farm: Chyna showed signs of this a la Ranka Lee at the near end of the episode MeANT To Be?, which implied that she wished she wanted to get a chance of fully loving Fletcher. More worse considering it's the 2nd to last episode, but luckily averted in the finale where Fletcher and Olive (her friend) broke up as well as Fletcher stays in New York, but even then, Chyna still never gets a chance to love Fletcher.
- Lee "Apollo" Adama on the new Battlestar Galactica is practically the patron saint of this trope. He blows it with at least four women over the course of the show: Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, his Star-Crossed Lover, who marries another man, dies suddenly, comes back, then disappears again leaving him standing all alone in the middle of a field and that's literally the last that's seen of him in the series. Anastasia Dualla, who he sniped away from the show's Dogged Nice Guy Billy Keikeya. She married him, divorced him, then killed herself. Gianne, his ex-fiance, who he ran out on when she was pregnant with his child no less. Shevon, a prostitute he frequents for all of one episode and Replacement Goldfish for Gianne, who pushes him away because, well, she's a prostitute.
- In The Brittas Empire, Gordon Brittas ultimately loses Laura, who he had considerable sexual tension with, to her estranged husband, Michael T. Farrell III.
- Dawson's Creek ends with Joey choosing Pacey over Dawson.
- Degrassi: The Next Generation has JT's Abhorrent Admirer Liberty have a crush him for a long time. When they do finally get together, they end up breaking up and he died before they could get back together (shortly after revealing to his best friend he was still in love with her, and this happened on her birthday).
- Doctor Who:
- The Doctor occasionally does this, although mostly in the Revival. He didn't get together with Rose due to a combination of Cannot Spit It Out and her getting stuck in an alternate universe. Even if he does succeed in romance, it's probably not going to last, because of his near-immortality.
- They do get a somewhat happy ending at the end of Series 4. Due to a complicated series of events wherein the Doctor undergoes a partial regeneration which he aborts by channelling into his spare hand, the hand later grows into a Half-Human clone of the Doctor after absorbing some of Donna's DNA. The Doctor decides to leave his doppelganger with Rose in the alternate universe, knowing that he can grow old with her and give her a life that he never could.
- Back in the Classic Who days, Sarah Jane was something of an Implied Love Interest for the Fourth Doctor. Despite plenty of UST, nothing happened whatsoever and he eventually abandoned her several hundred miles away from where she was actually from and never spoke about her again. In a Tenth Doctor episode, the Doctor finally confirms that his Fourth incarnation had been in love with her, but he'd chosen not to pursue his feelings because of the Mayfly–December Romance factor and because he's bad at handling goodbyes. He then finally tells her with his new face, "I Love You, Sarah Jane", before leaving her again. Even more of a Tear Jerker after the Real Life passing of Elisabeth Sladen from cancer in 2011.
- Flux starts with Dan and Diane's budding romance which gets sidelined by the series' big Story Arc. In the end, she rejects his offer for another date after all she's been through.
- November and Paul, Alpha and Echo, Topher and Bennett, and Echo and Paul, all from Dollhouse.
- iCarly: Carly Shay doesn't get the guy at the end of "iOMG", a season finale cliffhanger. By the end of the real finale, Sam doesn't end up with Freddie either, but Carly does get the guy right before she leaves.
- Played for laughs with Simon Cooper in The Inbetweeners. He spends the course of the entire show trying to win her over, usually blowing it in hilarious ways. He does get to kiss her in the final episode of series 2, but she goes back to her boyfriend.
- Kamen Rider Double hinted in early episodes that Shotaro would eventually get together with Akiko, only for her to end up with Terui instead.
- Maddigan's Quest made it clear from the beginning that this would be how the Unresolved Sexual Tension between Garland and Timon, since whether they won or lost, Timon would have to return to the future.
- Lancelot from Merlin (2008). In this version, Arthur/Guinevere is not a political marriage, but a real love connection. Also Merlin and Freya. Guinevere doesn't get the guy, with Arthur dying at the end.
- In the Japanese drama Naka nai to Kimeta Hi, the protagonist loses her love interest when a rival successfully seduces him and ends up marrying him. It is then suggested that she may end up with a senior at work who has sympathy for her and supports her in her career - but that doesn't happen either.
- Night Court - though Harry and Christine gave it an honest shot.
- Brian Kinney at the end of Queer as Folk (US). Despite having declared his love for Justin and even proposing marriage, which was what Justin wanted even though it went against everything playboy Brian believed in, the couple split up so that Justin could pursue an art career in NYC. Word of God says this was not a breakup.
- Allan-a-Dale from Robin Hood was given two possible love interests and lost them both to other characters. And then they killed him off.
- Schitt's Creek: In Season 6, Ted is offered a permanent position in the Galapagos Islands and Alexis's PR career starts to take off, eventually prompting a move to New York. After a heartfelt and heartbreaking talk, they realize that, despite loving each other deeply, their lives are taking them in different directions and they break up.
- Happens several times in Skins:
- Tony and Michelle end up going their separate ways because of different universities.
- Generation 1 ends inconclusively whether Sid reunited with Cassie in the US. "Skins Pure" reveals that they did not get together again.
- Franky ultimately rejects both Levan brothers, which isn't so bad given how unlikable she became in the sixth series.
- Smallville - It should be extremely obvious to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Superman lore that Clark and Lana do not end up together. Now if only someone informed the writers...
- Super Sentai has a few examples:
- Hikari Sentai Maskman: Takeru does not end up with Iyal because she is now the queen of Tube and is forbidden to have a relationship with a human. The hint being Iyal saying to Takeru to "Never look back" was a sign that she meant "Forget about me, you still have your friends waiting for you."
- Mirai Sentai Timeranger: Tatsuya and Yuuri cannot be together because she has to go back to the year 3000. Domon has to go too, meaning that he cannot be with Honami - this is played for Tear Jerker effect when he returns for Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
- Engine Sentai Go-onger showed that Sosuke and Miu had feelings for each other, but ultimately nothing comes of it and they return to their respective lives.
- GekiRed, HurricaneRed and GoseiRed all have movie-only love interests that don't re-appear for the TV series, thus they do not get the girl.
- Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: Yayoi was shown to have a huge crush on Daigo from her introduction, and was determined to win him over. Despite the mild Ship Tease between Yayoi and Daigo that followed, including weathering the visit of pop star Mikoto, who Daigo was shown to be very close to and protective of, it was Amy who ended up with Daigo, a romance that was suddenly dropped on viewers' heads during the last three episodes. Yayoi, who declared early on that she would not lose to Amy, seemed to just suddenly quit pursuing Daigo and was apparently okay with letting Daigo and Amy be together.
- Throughout Ted Lasso, Keeley had intermittently dated Jamie and Roy. In the Grand Finale, "So Long, Farewell", while the three are at Keeley's house after the men got into an offscreen Bar Brawl over which of them she would choose, they tell Keeley that they've made up their minds to leave the decision to her. In the next scene, she's shut both of them out of her house.
- Early on in Victorious, the show seemed to be setting up a relationship between Tori and Beck. When Beck broke up with his girlfriend, Jade, there were several Ship Teasing moments between him and Tori. However, he eventually gets back together with Jade by the end of the series. It should be noted that the show ended unexpectedly, and many plot lines were ended prematurely.
- Jack in Wild Boys. Despite sharing a smoldering look in the finale, Mary ends up staying with Mick, and Jack rides off with Dan.
- The Wonder Years ends with a closing epilogue revealing that, after six seasons, Kevin and Winnie part ways and he ends up marrying someone else.
