History AudienceAlienatingEnding / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The 13th Doctor's run was divisive overall, but even many fans who otherwise liked the previous episodes turned against it when "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren The Timeless Children]]" aired, because it [[spoiler:reveals the Doctor is ''not'' an ordinary Time Lord but a mysterious immortal who the Time Lords experimented on to get their immortality from]]. This reveal, while enjoyed by some, also infuriated enormous numbers of fans, with entire video essays on [=YouTube=] dedicated to arguing why the reveal doesn't work. [[spoiler:Common complaints are that it is a massive {{retcon}} to a decades-lasting franchise that strips the Doctor of their status as TheUnchosenOne, contradicts canon and creates many plot holes, turns the Time Lords into frauds, undermined the CharacterDevelopment of the first Doctor, and generally comes off as disrespectful to the franchise and its history.]]

* ''Series/SheHulkAttorneyAtLaw'': Several viewers who were otherwise enjoying the show felt turned off by the series' ultimate resolution in "Whose Show Is This?". The finale in question has [[spoiler: Jen use her MediumAwareness to escape Creator/DisneyPlus and breaks into Creator/MarvelStudios forcing the writers to change the ending of her show. Many felt Jen having her HappyEnding delivered on a silver platter, instead of having to work for it undermined all of the drama and character building that occurred throughout the show.]]

* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': In the SeriesFinale, Malcolm gets offered a lucrative job that would allow him to skip college and become rich, but Lois and his family force him to pass up the job because in Lois's words, "Malcolm needs to actually crawl and scrape" to actually be a good person. [[BrokenBase Audiences are divided as to whether]] [[JerkassHasAPoint Lois was actually right]] or if she was once more being a ControlFreak who refuses to accept responsibility for her lot in life.

* ''Series/SheHulkAttorneyAtLaw: Several viewers who were otherwise enjoying the show felt turned off by it's resolution in the final episode in which [[spoiler: Jen escapes Creator/DisneyPlus and breaks into Creator/MarvelStudios forcing the writers to change the ending of her show, essentially delivering her a HappyEnding on a silver platter, instead of having to work for it in a conventional sense.]]

* ''Series/{{Caprica}}'': The writers were at least given timeafter the series' cancellation to write an epilogue to wrap the show up, but the entire thing is just one huge sequence of WhatCouldHaveBeen.

* The final episodes of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' are widely disliked for abruptly turning Daenerys Targaryen into an unhinged and merciless tyrant, and retroactively framing her series-wide character arc into a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain plot--which most people viewed as [[AssPull coming out of left field]] with no real set-up. Relatedly, fans generally found the conclusion to the series-wide struggle over the Iron Throne (i.e. Westeros transitions to an elective monarchy, and Bran gets ''voted'' king because he has "the best story") to be deeply unsatisfactory, and largely out-of-step with the themes of the show. While the later seasons are generally agreed to have suffered from [[SeasonalRot a general decline in quality]], the ultimate ending is particularly singled out for criticism, with many fans and critics feeling that it permanently tainted the show's legacy--resulting in ''Game of Thrones'' largely falling off the cultural radar after it ended, despite being one of the biggest phenomenons of the 2010s.

* The Season 5 SeriesFauxnale of ''Series/Lucifer2016'' ended on a high note with a war between angels and demons that concludes with Lucifer defeating his GreaterScopeVillain Michael and becoming God, in fact Netflix was so impressed by how the creators handled the final episode they decided to greenlight another season at the last minute, leading to a 10-minutes epilogue to be discarded so the creators could have material for a PostScriptSeason. Sadly, the resulting Season 6 was full of controversial choices that make the series lost the crowd the last 2 seasons managed to win back. Starting with focusing the season arc on a whole new character, Rory, Lucifer and Chloe's daughter from the future, a concept many fans found ludicrous and too out there instead of the teased aftermath of Lucifer becoming God which becomes an AbortedArc as Lucifer spends 8 out of the 10 episodes finding excuses and things getting in the way before deciding he doesn't wanna do it. Other controversial decisions include: Amenadiel becoming God after 5 seasons of learning to see Earth as his new home, Linda getting NoEnding and seeing her life's work being destroyed, Ella discovering with no explanation about the Celestials and a underwhelming final villain but what really pissed off fans was the StarCrossedLovers BittersweetEnding where Lucifer becomes a Hell therapist and has to abandon Chloe for the rest of her life which many fans regarded as a pointless CruelTwistEnding that contradicted the themes of the series and made the last 2 seasons pointless (given Season 4 already ended with a StarCrossedLovers BittersweetEnding that most fans thought it made more sense.)

* ''{{Series/ForeverKnight}}'' ended with the main characters seeming to both die. Nick accidentally drained Natalie and didn’t want to make her a vampire. Nick instead asks [=LaCroix=] to stake him and the last thing we see is him lifting the stake up to do it. How the series ends tend to overshadow everything else if this ever gets brought up in conversation.

* ''Series/SheHulkAttorneyAtLaw'' is a fairly typical [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] show, albeit with some meta-humor thrown in, but then [[GainaxEnding it just goes completely off-the rails]] in the final episode, “Whose Show is This?” Everything is finally coming together, as the BigBad drinks some Hulk serum and Abomination rages out. Bruce even shows up to help his cousin. Then all of a sudden... it stops. Jen suddenly exits out of Creator/DisneyPlus and travels to Marvel Studios. She meets “[[Creator/KevinFeige K.E.V.I.N]],” an A.I. who writes the scripts. After a quick talk, Jen goes back to her show... where all of her problems are solved via DeusExMachina... Yeah... ''She-Hulk'' was already considered one of the more mediocre entries in the MCU, but this ending really solidified that.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': At the end of the series, the ''Galactica'' finally discovers Earth, which turns out to be prehistoric. To prevent another RobotWar from occurring, the human refugees suddenly become Luddites and destroy all of their advanced technology so they can live out their days in poverty and as far away from each other as possible. It's noted in the DistantFinale that the little girl that Adama wasted numerous lives to rescue from the Cylons, Hera Agathon, died young and in childbirth, and that all the events of the series were caused by an inscrutable and omnipotent God who may orchestrate another RobotWar anyway. This ending ''massively'' pissed off fans, since the entire show turned out to be AllForNothing.

* ''Series/TheSopranos'' is particularly controversial [[spoiler:with its abrupt smash cut to black]]. This ''may'' depict [[spoiler: Tony's death]], but it's left very ambiguous and up to the viewer's interpretation.

* ''{{Series/ForeverKnight}}'' ended with the main characters seeming to both die. Nick accidentally drained Natalie and didn’t want to make her a vampire. Nick instead asks [=LaCroix=] to stake him and the last thing we see is him lifting the stake up to do it.

** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': The series finale, "These Are The Voyages...", is infamously loathed by Trek fans due to the fact that's essentially a ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode featuring the ''Enterprise'' cast, showing Riker and Troi watching a holographic recreation of the show during the events of the TNG episode "The Pegasus", despite the fact that both Creator/JonathanFrakes and Creator/MarinaSirtis had noticeably aged since TNG's original time. Notably, producer Manny Coto stated that he personally considered this episode to be a coda rather than the true finale of the series, with he and fellow series producer Mike Sussman considering "Demons" and "Terra Prime" that precede this installment to be the actual finale. It didn't help that series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who penned the episode originally described "These Are The Voyages..." as "a valentine to all the ''Star Trek'' shows" [[CreatorBacklash before going back on that sentiment years later]].

* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' attempted to save the show by coming up with the biggest twist they could think of, only for it not to save the show and ultimately drive fans of the show insane. The most resolution was when the creator decided to release [[https://twitter.com/Josh_Friedman/status/976318614444716032 pitch documents]] that showed what would happen in following seasons if things weren't LeftHanging.

* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' : Not the series itself but the movie of the series, due to two much loved characters dying.

* ''Series/TheXFiles''. Even attempts at TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised didn't go so well (the series ends with the protagonists "waiting" for a future cataclysm; the second movie was an unrelated plot that preceded this disaster; the supposed third movie to finally give closure languished in DevelopmentHell; and while there was an UnCanceled tenth\eleventh season miniseries, it started off [[{{Retcon}} retconning]] most of the built-up series mythology [[spoiler:and itself ended on a GainaxEnding cliffhanger)]].

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The series finale, "Endgame", is quite controversial as it has Janeway use a device to wipe out the Borg Queen and most of the Borg collective despite characters like Picard, Hugh, and Seven of Nine proving it's possible for Borgs to regain the humanity. It would take until the release of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', nearly 20 years later, to confirm that Janeway hadn't committed complete genocide on their race. Furthermore, the series ends right when the Voyager reaches Earth. No epilogue, no reunions with their loved ones, no parting of the ways, no WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue, nothing. Seven years of trying to return home, and the most the viewers get in finding out what's next for the cast is the [[StrangledByTheRedString sudden romantic pairing of Chakotay and Seven of Nine]] getting dropped on them. Old viewers are likely to warn new ones not to get invested in pairings like Janeway/Chakotay and Doctor/Seven for that reason, which is ultimately fixed with ''Star Trek: Picard'' pairing Seven with Raffi Musiker instead.

* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': Season 8 ends JD's story (our protagonist and narrator for the entire series) on a high note and was [[SeriesFauxnale intended to be a series finale.]] Season 9, however, revamps much of the cast (Turk and Cox are still regulars, others are relegated to guest stars), changes the setting, and has a different focus (med school). Series Creator Creator/BillLawrence initially wanted to rename the show [[SpinOff to make it clear that this was a new beginning,]] but this was [[ExecutiveMeddling nixed by the network.]] Even fans who were accepting of the new direction and characters felt turned off by the fact Season 9 had NoEnding with all the new arcs set up receiving no conclusion as a result of cancellation. This has caused many fans (even those who liked Season 9) to recommend newcomers stop at Season 8.

* The 1980s hit the Classic series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' very hard. There are lots of wonderful times to be had in the decade, including a couple of mini-golden-ages, but it eventually peters out with a little speech from the Doctor in a field after malicious ExecutiveMeddling and [[NoBudget increasingly minuscule budgets]] finally choked the show to death. If you're not the kind of person who gets off on watching a hugely popular show be slowly derailed and destroyed over the course of a decade, binge-watching the entirety of '80s ''Who'' is not going to feel good.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Season 8 is widely considered one of the worst of the show, if not ''the'' worst, and a demoralizing conclusion to something so beloved at the start of its run. Fans and critics attacked nearly every aspect of the show: plot holes, pointless twists, idiotic battle strategies, unsatisfying conclusions, and irrational decisions all around. Only the costumes, sets, music and special effects maintained their quality, and the only people who had a good word to say about the final season were those primarily there for the spectacle rather than the plot or characters. Even then the quality of filming seemed to suffer, such as the infamous incident where a modern coffee cup was left on a table during one of the scenes (the show is set in a medieval world), or the water bottle left behind a chair. And while the early seasons' twists and betrayals made sense, the showrunners themselves admitted that for later seasons they chose to write merely what was shocking or unexpected, regardless of whether it made sense. Beth Elderkin at i09 noted that [[https://io9.gizmodo.com/open-channel-remember-when-game-of-thrones-was-a-thing-1843548667 "It's kind of amazing how one of the biggest shows of the 21st century is now just something that happened"]]. All that being said, it’s a bit of a miracle that the {{prequel}} series, ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', managed to be the success it was.

* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': Season 8 ends JD's story (our protagonist and narrator for the entire series) on a high note and was [[SeriesFauxnale intended to be a series finale.]] Season 9, however, revamps much of the cast (Turk and Cox are still regulars, others are relegated to guest stars), changes the setting, and has a different focus (med school). Series Creator Creator/BillLawrence initially wanted to rename the show [[SpinOff to make it clear that this was a new beginning,]] but this was [[ExecutiveMeddling nixed by the network.]]

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The series finale, "Endgame", is quite controversial as it has Janeway use a device to wipe out the Borg Queen and most of the Borg collective despite characters like Picard, Hugh, and Seven of Nine proving it's possible for Borgs to regain the humanity. It would take until the release of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', nearly 20 years later, to confirm that Janeway hadn't committed complete genocide on their race. Furthermore, the series ends right when the Voyager reaches Earth. No epilogue, no reunions with their loved ones, no parting of the ways, no WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue, nothing. Seven years of trying to return home, and the most the viewers get in finding out what's next for the cast is the [[StrangledByTheRedString sudden romantic pairing of Chakotay and Seven of Nine]] getting dropped on them. Old viewers are likely to warn new ones not to get invested in pairings like Janeway/Chakotay and Doctor/Seven for that reason.

* The Series/{{Arrowverse}}'s 2017 {{crossover}}, ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'' was mostly well-received, and was on track to being better than last year's own well-received crossover, ''Invasion!''. Then the ending happened: the infamous double wedding, where Felicity Smoak interrupts Barry Allen and Iris West just as they're about to seal their wedding vows, so she can selfishly and haphazardly tack on her own wedding to Oliver Queen. And this is after [[RomanticPlotTumor spending almost the entire crossover]] bitching about how she ''doesn't want to marry Oliver''. This ending pleased absolutely no one except the writers and the hardest of hardcore Olicity shippers; everyone else hated it to the point that it killed whatever was left of Olicity's [[ShippingBedDeath dwindling popularity]] and [[NeverLiveItDown cemented]] Felicity as the biggest {{Scrappy}} in the ''entire'' Arrowverse. For many, it was the moment they gave up on ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' for good.

{{Audience Alienating Ending}}s in LiveActionTV.
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* ''Series/TheXFiles''. Even attempts at TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised didn't go so well (the series ends with the protagonists "waiting" for a future cataclysm; the second movie was an unrelated plot that preceded this disaster; the supposed third movie to finally give closure languished in DevelopmentHell; and while there was an UnCanceled tenth\eleventh season miniseries, it started off [[{{Retcon}} retconning]] most of the built-up series mythology [[spoiler: and itself ended on a GainaxEnding cliffhanger)]].

* ''Series/SheHulkAttorneyAtLaw'' is a fairly typical [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] show, albeit with some meta-humor thrown in, but then [[GainaxEnding it just goes completely off-the rails]] in the final episode, “Whose Show is This?” Everything is finally coming together, as the BigBad drinks some Hulk serum and Abomination rages out. Bruce even shows up to help his cousin. Then all of a sudden… it stops. Jen suddenly exits out of Creator/DisneyPlus and travels to Marvel Studios. She meets “[[Creator/KevinFeige K.E.V.I.N]],” an A.I. who writes the scripts. After a quick talk, Jen goes back to her show… where all of her problems are solved via DeusExMachina… yeah… ''She-Hulk'' was already considered one of the more mediocre entries in the MCU, but this ending really solidified that.