History ScrewedByTheNetwork / Fox

* The earliest example of Fox screwing over a program is, ironically, their '''first''' program ever. ''The Late Show'' was Fox's attempt to compete with ''Series/TheTonightShow Starring Johnny Carson'' on Creator/{{NBC}}, and was first broadcast on the network's premiere night, on October 9, 1986, with Creator/JoanRivers[[note]]Who had bailed ''The Tonight Show'' after being disillusioned over not being named Carson's replacement despite being regular guest host by that point[[/note]] as host. Unfortunately, despite starting off modestly in the ratings, ratings took a catastrophic downfall, fueled in part many of the Fox affiliates rejecting the show's content and refusing to carry it. In addition, behind-the-scenes drama between Fox executives and Rivers led to the latter's termination. Fox scrambled to find a replacement for Rivers, hiring Buck Henry, Arsenio Hall, and Ross Shafer as temporary fill-ins, but none of the hosts could improve the show's ratings, and Fox canceled the show before they could find a permanent host replacement. It's been said that the experience FOX had with ''The Late Show'' "cursed" them into trying to get successful late-night programs on the network, as their later attempts at establishing late-night talk shows (''The Chevy Chase Show'', ''Talkshow with Spike Feresten'', and ''The Wanda Sykes Show'') all failed to last at least more than three seasons[[note]]Only ''Talkshow'' managed to get that record; contractual friction between Fox and Feresten led to him getting replaced by Wanda Sykes after the third season[[/note]]. After ''The Wanda Sykes Show'' failed to make it past a season, Fox gave up entirely on late-night shows until 2016, when the network debuted ''Party Over Here'' in an ill-fated attempt to directly compete with ''Saturday Night Live'' (some affiliates preempted the first minutes so as to not compete with the first minutes of ''SNL''). Not too surprisingly, the show never made it past a season.

* ''WesternAnimation/BlessTheHarts'' premiered to conincide with the return of Fox's Animation Domination block in the fall of 2019. It had gotten renewed for a second season, but during Feburary 2021, it was moved from its original timeslot of 8:30 to 7:30 to accomidate the new animated series, ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatNorth''. Also not helping matters is that it would get constantly preempted by NASCAR races, especially when said races were held up due to a rain delay.[[note]]In fact, on February 14, 2021, Fox's annual coverage of NASCAR's Daytona 500 had suffered a ''very'' lengthy rain delay that would push it into Animation Domination's timeslot, forcing the Valentine's Day-theme episodes to air on the following week.[[/note]] These factors, combined with low ratings, led to the Harts' cancellation in the spring, with its remaining episodes getting burned off until mid-June 2021.

** This treatment actually flipped after ''Cleveland'''s post-''Family Guy'' run, when it was sent to the 7:30 slot in fall 2011 so the network could try out new shows in the post-''Simpsons'' slot, while ''American Dad!'' was moved back behind ''Family Guy''. It also got full plot synopses and guest star promotion reinstated - at the cost of the same for ''The Cleveland Show''. With ratings eroding rapidly for ''The Cleveland Show'' and every other Animation Domination show (including ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'') already renewed for 2013-14, and a new show looming over the horizon [[note]]initially, a remake of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' created by Creator/SethMacFarlane, but that missed it's 2013 released schedule and was eventually scrapped due to creator differences between [=MacFarlane=] and Creator/WarnerBrosAnimation and the higher-ups at Fox being indifferent to the script. Instead, it turned out be producer Mark Hentamann and [=MacFarlane=]'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Bordertown}}''[[/note]], ''The Cleveland Show'' was cancelled in 2013.

* Any live-action comedies (such as ''Series/{{Mulaney}}'', ''Series/TheWarAtHome'', ''Series/SonsOfTucson'' ''Series/{{Rel}}'', ''Series/{{Making History|2017}}'', etc.) that aired on Sunday nights, which is supposed to be called "Animation Domination" otherwise. Only ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth'' and ''Series/TheWarAtHome'' managed to last longer than a season, but even then, both shows were victims of cancellation in Spring 2018 and Spring 2007, respectively. By the time ''Rel'' flopped, Fox seemed to realize this, so they greenlit three new animated shows slated for the night, with ''WesternAnimation/BlessTheHarts'' being the first one to air.

* ''Series/ProdigalSon''. As the first scripted program from Fox after its post-Disney merger restructuring, it managed to bring in modest ratings, enough that Fox, despite cutting the first season down two episodes thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, renewed it for a second season. However, two factors ended up working against it. First, the second season ended up premiering mid-season due to the prolonged production shutdown, causing its episode order to be slimmed down further to 13. Second, Fox decided to bump the series the next night on Tuesdays in favor of an ''Series/AmericasMostWanted'' revival. It just so happened that the same Tuesday night timeslot was also occupied by rival dramas ''Series/ThisIsUs'' and ''Series/{{FBI}}'', [[CurbStompBattle neither of which gave]] ''Prodigal Son'' breathing space in the ratings. Fox soon saw the writing on the wall, and canceled it the week of its penultimate episode.

* ''Series/{{Drive}}''[='s=] first three episodes were aired over two nights; the fourth aired a week later, and then it was canceled, giving all of four episodes and nine days. This after the initial 13-episode order was split in half, so even if it hadn't been canceled it would've run for a month followed by a three-month hiatus. This proves once again that Creator/TimMinear (who also produced both ''Wonderfalls'' and ''Firefly'') and {{Creator/Fox}} go together like peanut butter and nitroglycerin. Minear is reportedly now two shows into a six-show deal with Fox.

* ''Series/ProdigalSon''. As the first scripted program from Fox after its post-Disney restructuring, it managed to bring in modest ratings, enough that Fox, despite cutting the first season down two episodes thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, renewed it for a second season. However, two factors ended up working against it. First, the second season ended up premiering mid-season due to the prolonged production shutdown, causing its episode order to be slimmed down further to 13. Second, Fox decided to bump the series the next night on Tuesdays in favor of an ''Series/AmericasMostWanted'' revival. It just so happened that the same Tuesday night timeslot was also occupied by rival dramas ''Series/ThisIsUs'' and ''Series/{{FBI}}'', [[CurbStompBattle neither of which gave]] ''Prodigal Son'' breathing space in the ratings. Fox soon saw the writing on the wall, and canceled it the week of its penultimate episode.

* ''Series/ProdigalSon'', being the first scripted program from Fox after its post-Disney restructuring, managed to bring in modest ratings, enough that Fox, despite cutting the first season down two episodes thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, renewed it for a second season. However, two factors ended up working against it. First, the second season ended up premiering mid-season due to the prolonged production shutdown, causing its episode order to be slimmed down further to 13. Second, Fox decided to bump the series the next night on Tuesdays in favor of an ''Series/AmericasMostWanted'' revival. It just so happened that the same Tuesday night timeslot was also occupied by rival dramas ''Series/ThisIsUs'' and ''Series/{{FBI}}'', which gave ''Prodigal Son'' no breathing space in the ratings. Fox soon saw the writing on the wall, and canceled it the week of its penultimate episode.

Ever since the network went on the air in 1986, Fox has gained a reputation of canceling and/or screwing over an extensive number of television programs for whatever reason, regardless of whether or not the show is well-received by critics and audiences. Depending on who you ask, the cause of this is either A) the network having a strong preference of in-house productions (at least, until they sold their production houses to Creator/{{Disney}}), or B) so they can headline shows considered by network executives to be worthy of broadcast and a lengthy longevity. As a result, the number of Fox programs getting screwed over by network politics is '''''horrendous'''''.

** Fox's decision drew an outpouring of grief on social media, even with {{Big Name Fan}}s such as Creator/MarkHamill and Creator/LinManuelMiranda. The show's cancellation was the #1 trending topic on Twitter the night Fox announced it. Two days later, Creator/{{NBC}} came in and announced that they were picking up ''Brooklyn'' for a 13-episode (later expanded to 18) sixth season, which is ironic considered NBC's parent company [=NBCUniversal=] produced the show.

** Said shakeup also coincided with ''Series/LethalWeapon'' and ''Series/{{Empire}}'' getting the axe, but were for reasons beyond that. Both shows underwent major [[TroubledProduction behind-the-scenes strife]] before their cancellation, with ''Lethal Weapon'' seeing both its lead stars walking out (though for different reasons; Clayne Crawford was fired over bad behavior on set, while [[Creator/TheWayansFamily Damon Wayans]] chose to leave during the third season due to personal reasons) and thus without any clear replacement for either star. ''Empire'', meanwhile, was in its fifth season by the time crucial co-star Jussie Smollett found himself in legal trouble with the Chicago Police Department over allegations that he had faked a hate crime, resulting in his character being PutOnABus. Between his legal problems, collapsing ratings and his colleagues on set publicly supporting him, Fox was caught between a rock and a hard place and chose to wind down the series for its sixth season as the debacle was affecting its long-term viability.

** This treatment actually flipped after ''Cleveland'''s post-''Family Guy'' run, when it was sent to the 7:30 slot in fall 2011 so the network could try out new shows in the post-''Simpsons'' slot, while ''American Dad!'' was moved back behind ''Family Guy''. It also got full plot synopses and guest star promotion reinstated - at the cost of the same for ''The Cleveland Show''. With ratings eroding rapidly for ''The Cleveland Show'' and every other Animation Domination show (including ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'') already renewed for 2013-14, and a new show looming over the horizon [[note]]initially, a remake of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' created by Creator/SethMacFarlane, but that missed it's 2013 released schedule and was eventually scrapped due to creator differences between [=MacFarlane=] and Creator/WarnerBrosAnimation and the hire-ups at Fox being indifferent to the script. Instead, it turned out be producer Mark Hentamann and [=MacFarlane=]'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Bordertown}}''[[/note]], ''The Cleveland Show'' was cancelled in 2013.

* ''WesternAnimation/SitDownShutUp'' (The U.S. version). The show initially received a ton of promotion and had a nice cozy timeslot sandwiched between Fox's hard-hitter cartoons, ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Despite this, the show constantly received poor ratings, got largely negative reviews, was relocated to Fox's graveyard hour (the very timeslot that killed ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'') and even had an episode removed from airing on Sunday due to dubious content ("Math Lab"). The show itself was eventually pulled from Sundays and was canceled by the network. However, Fox later burned-off the rest of the series on Saturdays at 12:00 AM (replacing reruns of ''Series/MADtv'' after that show ended due to low ratings and budget cuts) and continued to rerun there until Spring when Creator/ComedyCentral picked up the rights to the show, but Comedy Central aired all but two episodes (the pilot and "High School Confidential"). Between November 2014 and February 2015, Creator/AdultSwim's Sunday night line-up aired the show right in the same timeslot that used to belong to ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''.

Examples regarding Creator/FoxKids shows can be found [[ScrewedByTheNetwork/FoxKids here]]. Examples from former sibling unit Creator/FXNetworks are found [[ScrewedByTheNetwork/DisneyNetworks here]].

Examples regarding Creator/FoxKids shows can be found [[ScrewedByTheNetwork/FoxKids here]].

* In an example of an affiliate screwing over another network's children's block, UPN owned-and-operated station WUPA was not kind to Fox children's block [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4KidsTV]] during that block's run on the station[[note]]Atlanta's Fox station WAGA-TV declined to carry the block along with its predecessor block Creator/FoxKids when it picked up the Fox affiliation in 1994, meaning Fox had to sell the block to ''three'' different stations (former Fox-affiliate-and-later-WB-affiliate WATL, independent station WHOT-TV (now Univision O&O WUVG) and WUPA) to ensure the crucial market had access to the block. Even then, Fox Kids wasn't available at all in Atlanta during the block's final eight months since WHOT was sold to Univision[[/note]]. The station aired the block on Sunday mornings instead of Saturdays with barely any promotion, and often, WUPA would air '''infomercials''' in between [=4KidsTV=] programs. Then, in 2004, WUPA elected to drop the block entirely due to low ratings, not airing any non-edutainment children's programming for two years until it affiliated with Creator/TheCW and took the Creator/KidsWB block with it. Since WAGA-TV nor any other station in the Atlanta market picked up the block (including WATL, who later affiliated with Fox-owned Creator/MyNetworkTV), [=4KidsTV=] was unavailable in the Atlanta market for the next four years of its run, with its only presence being through cable video-on-demand systems beginning in 2006. The whole debacle was one of many issues regarding affiliate coverage that played a major factor in the cancellation of [=4KidsTV=] in 2008.

* The earliest example of Fox screwing over a program is, ironically, their '''first''' program ever. ''The Late Show'' was Fox's attempt to compete with ''Series/TheTonightShow Starring Johnny Carson'' on Creator/{{NBC}}, and was first broadcast on the network's premiere night, on October 9, 1986, with Creator/JoanRivers[[note]]Who had bailed ''The Tonight Show'' after being disillusioned over not being named Carson's replacement despite being regular guest host by that point[[/note]] as host. Unfortunately, despite starting off modestly in the ratings, ratings took a catastrophic downfall, fueled in part many of the Fox affiliates rejecting the show's content and refusing to carry it. In addition, behind-the-scenes drama between Fox executives and Rivers led to the latter's termination. Fox scrambled to find a replacement for Rivers, hiring Buck Henry, Arsenio Hall, and Ross Shafer as temporary fill-ins, but none of the hosts could improve the show's ratings, and Fox canceled the show before they could find a permanent host replacement. It's been said that the experience FOX had with ''The Late Show'' "cursed" them into trying to get successful late-night programs on the network, as their later attempts at establishing late-night talk shows (''The Chevy Chase Show'', ''Talkshow with Spike Feresten'', and ''The Wanda Sykes Show'') all failed to last at least more than three seasons[[note]]Only ''Talkshow'' managed to get that record; contractual friction between Fox and Feresten led to him getting replaced by Wanda Sykes after the third season[[/note]]. After ''The Wanda Sykes Show'' failed to make it past a season, Fox gave up entirely on late-night shows until 2016, when the network debuted ''Party Over Here'', but was aired at the same timeslot with ''Saturday Night Live'' (some affiliates preempted the first minutes so as to not compete with the first minutes of ''SNL''), but canned it after a season.

Ever since the network went on the air in 1986, Fox has gained a reputation of canceling and/or screwing over an extensive number of television programs for whatever reason, regardless of whether or not the show is well-recieved by critics and audiences. Depending on who you ask, the cause of this is either A) the network having a strong preference of in-house productions (at least, until they sold their production houses to Creator/{{Disney}}), or B) so they can headline shows considered by network executives to be worthy of broadcast and a lengthy longevity. As a result, the number of Fox programs getting screwed over by network politics is '''''horrendous'''''.

[[folder: Fox Animation]]
* In an example of an affiliate screwing over another network's children's block, UPN owned-and-operated station WUPA was not kind to Fox children's block [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4KidsTV]] during that block's run on the station[[note]]Atlanta's Fox station WAGA-TV declined to carry the block along with its predecessor block Creator/FoxKids when it picked up the Fox affiliation in 1994, meaning Fox had to sell the block to ''three'' different stations (former Fox-affiliate-and-later-WB-affiliate WATL, independent station WHOT-TV (now Univision O&O WUVG) and WUPA) to ensure the crucial market had access to the block. Even then, Fox Kids wasn't available at all in Atlanta during the block's final eight months since WHOT was sold to Univision[[/note]]. The station aired the block on Sunday mornings instead of Saturdays with barely any promotion, and often, WUPA would air '''infomercials''' in between [=4KidsTV=] programs. Then, in 2004, WUPA elected to drop the block entirely due to low ratings, not airing any non-edutainment children's programming for two years until it affiliated with Creator/TheCW and took the Creator/KidsWB block with it. Since WAGA-TV nor any other station in the Atlanta market picked up the block (including WATL, who later affiliated with Fox-owned Creator/MyNetworkTV), [=4KidsTV=] was unavailable in the Atlanta market for the next four years of its run, with its only presence being through cable video on-demand systems beginning in 2006. The whole debacle was one of many issues regarding affiliate coverage that played a major factor in the cancellation of [=4KidsTV=] in 2008.
** At least two other markets where Fox Kids wasn't on their Fox station didn't carry the [=4KidsTV=] block ''at all''. In Birmingham, Alabama, the Fox Kids block was dropped from former WB affiliate WTTO (who was the station's original Fox affiliate, now a CW affiliate) in 2000, and Greensboro, North Carolina ended up losing the Fox Kids block in 2002 when WTWB-TV (who carried the block in lieu of WGHP; it's now CW affiliate WCWG) dropped the block after the weekday block was canceled. As a result, [=4KidsTV=] wasn't picked up in either market as no stations in the markets were interested in it (granted, both markets are barely within the Top 50, so they wouldn't have given [=4KidsTV=] a viewership boost; it was the loss of Atlanta coverage that mattered). Much like Atlanta's case, the block was only available in those markets through video on-demand services.
* ''WesternAnimation/AllenGregory'' was doomed from the start thanks to Fox only commissioning seven episodes and reduced the budget for the pilot episode. Not only did the network have no faith in the show, they basically had it as filler in between the bigger shows like ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Combined with extremely negative reviews, it got canned after seven episodes and both the network and it's production company Creator/BentoBoxEntertainment shifted focus to the more successful ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has got to be one of the few examples that has also [[UnCanceled come back with a vengeance]] [[note]] next to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', which premiered around the same time as ''Futurama'' and suffered a similar fate of getting canceled by Fox and revived thanks to the power of cable TV[[/note]]. After four seasons of being pre-empted by sports programming and inconsistent airing dates, which were often changed due to increasingly poor viewer ratings (itself because of the continually-inconvenient timeslots) and little publicity from the network, Fox just decided to cease production of the show after the episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" in 2003. Rumor has it that Fox didn't even tell the cast or crew which episode would be their last. The show was then constantly rerun for the next four years on Creator/AdultSwim, which gave it enough reason for the crew members to create four made-for-DVD movies. After what seemed like an eternity in TV limbo, ''Futurama'' returned to TV, with Creator/ComedyCentral as its new home. After two seasons, Comedy Central pulled the plug on the show, but even after the last episode's ending ([[spoiler:in which Fry and Leela get married]]), Matt Groening says he's going to once again find a new home for the show, before he began focus to the Creator/{{Netflix}} series ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' was one of the longest running series second only to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', but was hardly promoted during the later years of its run. Advertisements for the "Animation Domination" block it was on would come on, and the other shows on the block (''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', and others) would have the plots for the upcoming episodes announced, but ''King of the Hill'' would barely get a side mention. Fox even did try to cancel it, but fan protest had them hold onto it for a few more years.
** From season 3 onward ''King of the Hill'' was routinely screwed over. Initially the show occupied an 8:30 timeslot between ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' at the height of the popularity of both shows. Not surprisingly, it garnered huge ratings. For season three however, it went to Tuesday nights against Creator/{{ABC}}'s ''Series/HomeImprovement'' - viewership plummeted. Fox then moved it to Sunday at 7:30, where it was constantly pre-empted by sports. Only in its penultimate season did the show return to 8:30. That's not mentioning the cancellation merry-go-round of the last three and four seasons.

* Any live-action comedies (such as ''Series/{{Mulaney}}'', ''Series/TheWarAtHome'', ''Series/SonsOfTucson'' ''Series/{{Rel}}'', ''Series/{{Making History|2017}}'', etc.) that aired on Sunday nights, which is supposed to be called "Animation Domination" otherwise. Only ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth'' and ''Series/TheWarAtHome'' managed to last longer than a season, but even then, both shows were victims of cancellation in Spring 2018 and and Spring 2007 respectively. By the time ''Rel'' flopped, Fox seemed to realize this, so they greenlit three new animated shows slated for the night, with ''WesternAnimation/BlessTheHarts'' being the first one to air.
* ''Series/AlmostHuman'' began in the fall of 2013 already slightly screwed by having its premiere date pushed back two weeks. After a strong Sunday night premiere the series slowly began to slip but it maintained a huge fanbase. After a season of episodes being aired out of order, causing continuity problems with viewers, Fox cancelled the series for good after just one season in April 2014.

** Fox's decision drew an outpouring of grief on social media, even with [[BigNameFan Big Name Fans]] such as Creator/MarkHamill and Creator/LinManuelMiranda. The show's cancellation was the #1 trending topic on Twitter the night Fox announced it. Two days later, Creator/{{NBC}} came in and announced that they were picking up ''Brooklyn'' for a 13-episode (later expanded to 18) sixth season, which is ironic considered NBC's parent company [=NBCUniversal=] produced the show.

** From the looks of things, ''Touch'' may not be that much of a golden child after all. Fox had originally planned to ship it to Fridays at 8:00 PM starting in late October for Season 2, but then announced a "TBA Midseason" return date, likely due to ''The Mob Doctor'' being DOA. Said "TBA Midseason" was later clarified to "Fridays at ''9''" starting February 1, meaning the show would spend ''eight months'' off the air and ''still'' be stuck in a FridayNightDeathSlot. Turns out they delayed the return of ''Touch'' for a full week so they could air a rerun of ''The Following'' instead. No matter, as the second season was a critical and ratings dud when it finally did air.

* ''Series/TheGoodGuys'' was a comedy on Fox featuring the uptight but ambitious Detective Jack Baily and the relic of the 1980s, Detective Dan Stark. It featured colorful characters, plenty of action, a great sense of humor, a low budget, and rather good reviews. However it was given the FridayNightDeathSlot at the end of Summer 2010 and was cancelled later in the year.

** Fox did the same thing to ''The Ortegas'' a year later. NBC had already screwed over the show (after beating out Fox in a major bidding war for it) by pushing it back to midseason, so the creators decided to approach Fox with the show and they were promised a Fall premiere date...but in the end FOX gave them nothing as the show was cancelled weeks before its premiere. Unlike ''The Grubbs'', Fox didn't have the excuse of bad reviews to fall back on.

* The earliest example of Fox screwing over a program is, ironically, their '''first''' program ever. ''The Late Show'' was Fox's attempt to compete with ''Series/TheTonightShow Starring Johnny Carson'' on Creator/{{NBC}}, and was first broadcast on the network's premiere night, on October 9, 1986, with Creator/JoanRivers[[note]]Who had bailed ''The Tonight Show'' after being disillusioned over not being named Carson's replacement despite being regular guest host by that point[[/note]] as host. Unfortunately, despite starting off modestly in the ratings, ratings took a catastrophic downfall, fueled in part many of the Fox affiliates rejecting the show's content and refusing to carry it. In addition, behind-the-scenes drama between Fox executives and Rivers led to the latter's termination. Fox scrambled to find a replacement for Rivers, hiring Buck Henry, Arsenio Hall and Ross Shafer as temporary fill-ins, but none of the hosts could improve the show's ratings, and Fox canceled the show before they could find a permanent host replacement. It's been said that the experience FOX had with ''The Late Show'' "cursed" them into trying to get successful late-night programs on the network, as their later attempts at establishing late-night talk shows (''The Chevy Chase Show'', ''Talkshow with Spike Feresten'', and ''The Wanda Sykes Show'') all failed to last at least more than three seasons[[note]]Only ''Talkshow'' managed to get that record; contractual friction between Fox and Feresten led to him getting replaced by Wanda Sykes after the third season[[/note]]. After ''The Wanda Sykes Show'' failed to make it past a season, Fox gave up entirely on late-night shows until 2016, when the network debuted ''Party Over Here'', but was aired at the same timeslot with ''Saturday Night Live'' (some affiliates preempted the first minutes so as to not compete with the first minutes of ''SNL''), but canned it after a season.
* ''Lawless'' is quite possibly the most egregious example of all, with Fox cancelling the show after only one episode. According to star Brian Bosworth, Rupert Murdoch spent 15 million on the show and six episodes were already shot at its time of cancellation. Then the show got put in as a mid-season replacement on a [[FridayNightDeathSlot Friday Night]], then the week before it was aired it got changed to Saturday night at a different time, but by that point it was too late to change the media listings, so people tuned it at the [[FromBadToWorse wrong time]], causing the premiere to get incredibly low ratings as a result. The show was also hurt by studio politics, as Fox had a new president coming in who didn't want to use a show the previous guy had greenlit.

** First, there was the censors wanting to re-titled an episode called "A Period Piece" (which focused on Peg, Kelly, and Marcy getting their periods simultaneously while Al, Bud, and Steve go fishing) into "The Camping Show", even though the show titles for "Married...With Children" were not shown onscreen (and not known at all until "Married...With Children" fan websites and cable guide summaries sprung up in the 1990s).

* ''[[Series/MinorityReport2015 Minority Report]]'', the sequel series to [[Film/MinorityReport the film of the same title]], was placed opposite NBC's ''Series/TheVoice'', ABC's ''Series/DancingWithTheStars'' and CBS's ''Series/{{Scorpion}}'' on Monday nights, hurting its ratings. Once the low ratings started coming in, Fox cut its first season episode order from thirteen episodes to ten, and persistent viewership loss prompted its cancellation.
* ''Series/NewAmsterdam'' was screwed over before it even made it to air. The network decided last-minute to scrap the show, even after they produced eight episodes and started to promote it. The only reason it made it to air was because the Writers' Guild strike of 2007-08 made producers desperate to find anything they could air that wasn't scripted (or was written, but currently not in production).

* ''Series/{{Titus}}'' was simply shot down, no questions asked, at mid-season because of the show's twisted humor (culminating in a two-part episode about Titus and his friends being accused of hijacking a plane and a MissingEpisode where wild teen Amy gets in trouble for beating up a boy who sexually harasses her, then accuses his father of molesting her when she was a child[[note]]which turns out to be true, after Dave finds a poem she wrote in her notebook about the man's rose tattoo on his penis[[/note]]). Its replacement? ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pitts The Pitts]]'', one of the biggest failures Fox has ever aired (at the time), running five episodes before the timeslot was canned and forgotten (save for a quick, cheap mention on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'''s first episode back from its 2002 cancellation).

* ''Series/{{Touch}}'' is an arguable one. Despite the first season being highly advertised, the second was shown with [[InvisibleAdvertising little advertising]], and suffered from a 3-week hiatus (along with poorer ratings than the first season) before showing the final episodes. What didn't help is it being finished with a CliffHanger.

* ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'' was canceled after four weeks, one of the quickest deaths Fox has ever managed to give a show. But that was only the ''last'' of a number of choices on the part of the network that led to the show's demise: first, the show was developed at the same time as CBS' ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'', to which at first glance it may seem strikingly similar in theme. Supposedly fearing it would draw too many comparisons, they held off the premiere for an entire ''year'', which backfired and led some to think it was a deliberate copy (as opposed to a coincidence), especially as ''Joan'' had proven successful and ''was still on the air''. Worse, it started airing 8:00 PM on a Friday, which had the dual misfortune of not only being the same time as ''Joan'' aired on CBS, but of also being the infamous FridayNightDeathSlot, whose name tends to be especially apt for non-family friendly fare... which of course, describes ''Wonderfalls''. In a sort of CoupDeGrace, Fox finally moved the show after its third week to Thursday, where it would ostensibly get better ratings...which they did this ''without telling anyone'', so it kind of defeated the purpose. Fox also ran promos for the fifth episode, only to pull the series before it aired. Making matters worse for fans, there was uncertainty for months as to whether the series would be allowed a DVD release, but thankfully this was resolved.

** Said shakeup also coincided with ''Series/LethalWeapon'' and ''Series/{{Empire}}'' getting the axe, but were for reasons beyond that. Both shows underwent major [[TroubledProduction behind-the-scenes strife]] before their cancellation, with ''Lethal Weapon'' seeing both its lead stars walking out (though for different reasons; Clayne Crawford was fired over bad behavior on set, while [[Creator/TheWayansFamily Damon Wayans]] chose to leave during the third season due to personal reasons) and thus without any clear replacement for either star. ''Empire'', meanwhile, was in its fifth season by the time crucial co-star Jussie Smollett found himself in legal trouble with the Chicago Police Department over allegations he faked a hate crime, resulting in his character being PutOnABus. Between his legal problems, collapsing ratings and his colleagues on set publicly supporting him, Fox was caught between a rock and a hard place and chose to wind down the series for its sixth season as the debacle was affecting its long-term viability.

[[folder: FOX Animation]]
* In an example of an affiliate screwing over another network's children's block, UPN owned-and-operated station WUPA was not kind to FOX children's block [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4KidsTV]] during that block's run on the station[[note]]Atlanta's FOX station WAGA-TV declined to carry the block along with its predecessor block Creator/FoxKids when it picked up the FOX affiliation in 1994, meaning FOX had to sell the block to ''three'' different stations (former FOX-affiliate-and-later-WB-affiliate WATL, independent station WHOT-TV (now Univision O&O WUVG) and WUPA) to ensure the crucial market had access to the block. Even then, Fox Kids wasn't available at all in Atlanta during the block's final eight months since WHOT was sold to Univision[[/note]]. The station aired the block on Sunday mornings instead of Saturdays with barely any promotion, and often, WUPA would air '''infomercials''' in between [=4KidsTV=] programs. Then, in 2004, WUPA elected to drop the block entirely due to low ratings, not airing any non-edutainment children's programming for two years until it affiliated with Creator/TheCW and took the Creator/KidsWB block with it. Since WAGA-TV nor any other station in the Atlanta market picked up the block (including WATL, who later affiliated with FOX-owned Creator/MyNetworkTV), [=4KidsTV=] was unavailable in the Atlanta market for the next four years of its run, with its only presence being through cable video on-demand systems beginning in 2006. The whole debacle was one of many issues regarding affiliate coverage that played a major factor in the cancellation of [=4KidsTV=] in 2008.
** At least two other markets where Fox Kids wasn't on their FOX station didn't carry the [=4KidsTV=] block ''at all''. In Birmingham, Alabama, the Fox Kids block was dropped from former WB affiliate WTTO (who was the station's original Fox affiliate, now a CW affiliate) in 2000, and Greensboro, North Carolina ended up losing the Fox Kids block in 2002 when WTWB-TV (who carried the block in lieu of WGHP; it's now CW affiliate WCWG) dropped the block after the weekday block was canceled. As a result, [=4KidsTV=] wasn't picked up in either market as no stations in the markets were interested in it (granted, both markets are barely within the Top 50, so they wouldn't have given [=4KidsTV=] a viewership boost; it was the loss of Atlanta coverage that mattered). Much like Atlanta's case, the block was only available in those markets through video on-demand services.

** This treatment actually flipped after ''Cleveland'''s post-''Family Guy'' run, when it was sent to the 7:30 slot in fall 2011 so the network could try out new shows in the post-''Simpsons'' slot, while ''American Dad!'' was moved back behind ''Family Guy''. It also got full plot synopses and guest star promotion reinstated - at the cost of the same for ''The Cleveland Show''. With ratings eroding rapidly for ''The Cleveland Show'' and every other Animation Domination show (including ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'') already renewed for 2013-14, and a new show looming over the horizon [[note]]initially, a remake of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' created by Creator/SethMacFarlane, but nothing has come of that since 2011. Instead, it turned out be producer Mark Hentamann and [=MacFarlane=]'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Bordertown}}''[[/note]], ''The Cleveland Show'' was cancelled in 2013.

** Just before the end of 2014, it moved back to its 9:30 slot following the failure of ''Series/{{Mulaney}}''. Three months later, it shifted to 7:30 again following the debut of ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth''. ''Bob's Burgers'' is an interesting and somewhat unique example of this trope, as it's usually preempted during football season, but the problem only lasts until the end of the calendar year. The premiere of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bordertown}}'' in Winter 2016 assured that Bob remains at the 7:30 PM slot for the distant future. When Fox announced the 2018-19 schedule, they finally put it back to 8:30, before being put in the 9:00 slot for the 2019-20 season.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' wasn't treated great by ABC, but Fox was '''''way''''' worse. Despite pulling in respectable ratings and a very positive reception, the show got cancelled by Fox (not officially, [[UpToEleven in order to ensure that it couldn't be revived by other networks]]) all because the then-president of Fox hated it (preferring another show that itself got cancelled after a single season).
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' was constantly being moved in its early seasons, and was eventually cancelled -- '''twice'''. No other show had ever been brought back on the same network after being cancelled twice. A cult fan following developed through Creator/AdultSwim's reruns and the combination of ratings and phenomenal [=DVD=] sales convinced the Fox executives to revive the show. Now it's AdoredByTheNetwork as much as ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/AmericanIdol''.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has got to be one of the few examples that has also [[UnCanceled come back with a vengeance]] [[note]] next to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', which premiered around the same time as ''Futurama'' and suffered a similar fate of getting canceled by Fox and revived thanks to the power of cable TV[[/note]]. After four seasons of being pre-empted by sports and inconsistent airing dates, which were often changed due to increasingly poor viewer ratings (itself because of the continually-inconvenient timeslots) and little publicity from the network, Fox just decided to cease production of the show after the episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" in 2003. Rumor has it that Fox didn't even tell the cast or crew which episode would be their last. The show was then constantly rerun for the next four years on Creator/AdultSwim, which gave it enough reason for the crew members to create four made-for-DVD movies. After what seemed like an eternity in TV limbo, ''Futurama'' returned to TV, with Creator/ComedyCentral as its new home. After two seasons, Comedy Central pulled the plug on the show, but even after the last episode's ending ([[spoiler:in which Fry and Leela get married]]), Matt Groening says he's going to once again find a new home for the show.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' was one of the longest running series second only to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', but was hardly promoted during the later years of its run. Advertisements for the "Animation Domination" block it was on would come on, and the other shows on the block (''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', and others) would have the plots for the upcoming episodes announced, but ''King of the Hill'' would barely get a side mention. FOX even did try to cancel it, but fan protest had them hold onto it for a few more years.
** From season 3 onward ''King of the Hill'' was routinely screwed over. Initially the show occupied an 8:30 timeslot between ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' at the height of the popularity of both shows. Not surprisingly, it garnered huge ratings. For season three however, it went to Tuesday nights against Creator/{{ABC}}'s ''Series/HomeImprovement'' - viewership plummeted. FOX then moved it to Sunday at 7:30, where it was constantly pre-empted by sports. Only in its penultimate season did the show return to 8:30. That's not mentioning the cancellation merry-go-round of the last three and four seasons.

* ''WesternAnimation/SitDownShutUp'' (The U.S. version). The show received a ton of promotion and had a nice cozy timeslot sandwiched between Fox's hard-hitter cartoons, ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Despite this, the show received poor ratings, got largely negative reviews, was relocated to Fox's graveyard hour (the very timeslot that killed ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'') and even had an episode removed from airing on Sunday due to dubious content ("Math Lab"). The show itself was eventually pulled from Sundays and announced canceled. However, the rest of the series was allowed to air on Saturdays at 12:00 AM (replacing reruns of ''Series/MADtv'' after that show ended due to low ratings and budget cuts) and continued to rerun there until Spring when Creator/ComedyCentral picked up the rights to the show, but Comedy Central aired all but two episodes (the pilot and "High School Confidential"). As of November 2014, Cartoon Network's Creator/AdultSwim Sunday night line-up is airing the show right in the same timeslot that used to belong to ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' (though ''KOTH'' now comes on at 8:30pm and 9:00pm).

[[folder: FOX Live-Action]]

** Fox's decision drew an outpouring of grief on social media, even with [[BigNameFan Big Name Fans]] such as Creator/MarkHamill and Creator/LinManuelMiranda. The show's cancellation was the #1 trending topic on Twitter the night Fox announced it. Later that month, Creator/{{NBC}} came in and announced that they were picking up ''Brooklyn'' for a 13-episode (later expanded to 18) sixth season.
** The day after they announced its cancellation, Fox picked up ''Series/LastManStanding'' from ABC, leading to speculations that ''Brooklyn'' and others were cancelled because the network is now trying to court a [[AudienceShift conservative audience]] (the ones that support sister network Fox News) to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize off]] of ABC's ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' revival. The president of Fox admitted that this [[IKnewIt was the case]].

* ''Lone Star'' was pulled by Fox after only ''two'' episodes were aired, making it one of the most preemptive cancellations ever devised. Fox pit the series against ''Series/DancingWithTheStars'', ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' and ''Series/MikeAndMolly'', all three of which crushed any chance of ''Lone Star'' finding an acceptable audience. The four other episodes that were produced remain unaired to this day.

** First, there was the censors wanting to retitle an episode called "A Period Piece" (which focused on Peg, Kelly, and Marcy getting their periods simultaneously while Al, Bud, and Steve go fishing) into "The Camping Show", even though the show titles for "Married...With Children" were not shown onscreen (and not known at all until "Married...With Children" fan websites and cable guide summaries sprung up in the 1990s).
** Then, there was the whole Terry Rakolta incident, which caused an episode that wasn't even that raunchy, but still had heavy sexual references ("I'll See You in Court") to be barred from viewing until FX aired the episode a decade later and the episode was released on DVD.
** Perhaps the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} of all was how the series ended. You know that last episode where Kelly [[spoiler:almost gets married to the man who held her family hostage]]? Well, despite looking like the perfect plot for the final episode of a dysfunctional family sitcom, it wasn't scheduled to be that way. After FOX spent all of Season 11 moving ''Married... with Children'' to different timeslots (and made worse by the fact that ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/InLivingColor'', amongst other Fox shows, were gaining in popularity), the show suffered in the ratings so much that FOX decided to shut the show down after its 11th season. According to the ''E! True Hollywood Story'' about ''Married... with Children'', the actors had a lot of different ideas for what the last episode should have been. Ed O'Neill thought that the Bundys should win the lottery right before a tornado ripped through the neighborhood and killed them. Christina Applegate built on this, saying that the Bundy house should have then landed on Marcy, a la ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz''. Ted [=McGinley=] suggested the Bundys and Marcy dying or getting hurt in some horrible fashion and Jefferson ending up relaxing on the beach with bikini-clad babes all around him. The kicker to that is the fact that some of the actors didn't know the show ''was'' cancelled until they heard the news on a radio broadcast! In fact, Ed O'Neill only found out when he was on vacation and a couple staying in the same hotel expressed their sadness at hearing about the show's demise. He promptly bought them a bottle of champagne and has said that it was good that he learned of the show's end that way rather than from a studio exec.

* In an example of an affiliate screwing over another network's children's block, UPN owned-and-operated station WUPA was not kind to FOX children's block [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4KidsTV]] during that block's run on the station[[note]]Atlanta's FOX station WAGA-TV declined to carry the block along with its predecessor block Creator/FoxKids when it picked up the FOX affiliation in 1994, meaning FOX had to sell the block to ''three'' different stations (former FOX-affiliate-and-later-WB-affiliate WATL, independent station WHOT-TV (now Univision O&O WUVG) and WUPA) to ensure the crucial market had access to the block[[/note]]. The station aired the block on Sunday mornings instead of Saturdays with barely any promotion, and often, WUPA would air '''infomercials''' in between [=4KidsTV=] programs. When UPN decided to merge with The WB to form The CW, WUPA elected to carry the Creator/KidsWB block upon that network's launch, dropping [=4KidsTV=] entirely. Since WAGA-TV nor any other station in the Atlanta market picked up the block (including WATL, who later affiliated with FOX-owned Creator/MyNetworkTV), [=4KidsTV=] was unavailable in the Atlanta market for the final two years of its run, with its only prescene being through cable video on-demand systems. The whole debacle was one of many issues regarding affiliate coverage that played a major factor in the cancellation of [=4KidsTV=] in 2008.

Ever since the network went on the air in 1986, Fox has gained a reputation of canceling and/or screwing over an extensive number of television programs for whatever reason, regardless of whether or not the show is well-recieved by critics and audiences. Depending on who you ask, the cause of this is either A) the network having a strong preference of in-house productions (at least, until they sold their production houses to Creator/{{Disney}}), or B) so they can headline shows considered by network executives to be worthy of broadcast and a lengthy longevity. As a result, the number of Fox programs getting screwed over by network politics is '''''horrendous''''':

* Around 2019, 20th Television decided to stop syndicating ''American Dad'', ''The Cleveland Show'', and ''King of the Hill'' on free-to-air local TV stations for unknown reasons. While the former two shows were lucky as the they are frequently shown on reruns on TBS/Adult Swim and Comedy Central respectively, it was ''King of the Hill'' that was screwed the hardest as no other cable networks are showing reruns of the show after Comedy Central screwed the show over after acquiring the show from Adult Swim in 2018 alongside ''The Cleveland Show'' and dropped all reruns of the show a year later.

Ever since the network went on the air in 1986, Fox has gained a reputation of canceling and/or screwing over an extensive number of television programs for whatever reason, regardless of whether or not the show is well-recieved by critics and audiences. Depending on who you ask, the cause of this is either A) the network having a strong preference of in-house productions, or B) so they can headline shows considered by network executives to be worthy of broadcast and a lengthy longevity. As a result, the number of Fox programs getting screwed over by network politics is '''''horrendous''''':

Ever since the dawn of the 21st century, Fox has gained a reputation of canceling and/or screwing over an extensive number of television programs for whatever reason, regardless if the show is good or not to critics and audiences. Depending on who you ask, it is either A) part of an ongoing company-wide effort to assume more control over its property, or B) so they can headline shows considered by network executives to be worthy of broadcast and a lengthy longevity. As a result, the number of Fox programs getting screwed over by network politics are '''''huge''''':

* ''WesternAnimation/AllenGregory'' was doomed from the start thanks to Fox only commissioning seven episodes and reduced the budget for the pilot episode. Not only did the network have no faith in the show, they basically had it as filler in between the bigger shows like ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. As a result, the show had a very bizarre art style and character design with even stranger plotlines while the show itself got canned after seven episodes.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has got to be one of the few examples that has also [[UnCanceled come back with a vengeance]] [[note]] next to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', which premiered around the same time as ''Futurama'' and suffered a similar fate of getting canceled by FOX and revived thanks to the power of cable TV[[/note]]. After four seasons of being pre-empted by sports and inconsistent airing dates, which were often changed due to increasingly poor viewer ratings (itself because of the continually-inconvenient timeslots) and little publicity from the network, FOX just decided to cease production of the show after the episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" in 2003. Rumor has it that FOX didn't even tell the cast or crew which episode would be their last. The show was then constantly rerun for the next four years on Creator/AdultSwim, which gave it enough reason for the crew members to create four made-for-DVD movies. After what seemed like an eternity in TV limbo, ''Futurama'' returned to TV, with Creator/ComedyCentral as its new home. After two seasons, Comedy Central pulled the plug on the show, but even after the last episode's ending ([[spoiler:in which Fry and Leela get married]]), Matt Groening says he's going to once again find a new home for the show.

* ''WesternAnimation/NapoleonDynamite'' got cancelled abruptly after only six episodes despite pulling in higher ratings then ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers''. This was due to its production company, ''Bento Box'', wanted to focus more on the latter show.
* ''WesternAnimation/SitDownShutUp'' (The U.S. version). The show received a ton of promotion and had a nice cozy timeslot sandwiched between Fox's hardhitter cartoons, ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Despite this, the show received poor ratings, got largely negative reviews, was relocated to Fox's graveyard hour (the very timeslot that killed ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'') and even had an episode removed from airing on Sunday due to dubious content ("Math Lab"). The show itself was eventually pulled from Sundays and announced canceled. However, the rest of the series was allowed to air on Saturdays at 12:00 AM (replacing reruns of ''Series/MADtv'' after that show ended due to low ratings and budget cuts) and continued to rerun there until Spring when Creator/ComedyCentral picked up the rights to the show, but Comedy Central aired all but two episodes (the pilot and "High School Confidential"). As of November 2014, Cartoon Network's Creator/AdultSwim Sunday night line-up is airing the show right in the same timeslot that used to belong to ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' (though ''KOTH'' now comes on at 8:30pm and 9:00pm).

[[/folder]]