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So... Work—>Jump the Shark—>Growing the Beard. We have the components, but not the full cycle.
Edited by EkuranHmmm. I looked at the Screwed by the Network page and all the similar tropes only refer to shows that were good at the time they got canceled, not afterwards.
It seems to me that a "Lame Duck Series" or whatever could be tropable if we could find examples — since the show is doomed anyway, the writers might as well do what they want, and since there's nothing to lose, they may take risks they wouldn't otherwise and end up turning out some impressive material.
You saw something like that during the end of the Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien debacle where Conan was (ostensibly) using up as much money as possible before leaving the network.
Edited by Chariset

Is there a trope for when, after a show has just sucked, lost a large amount of viewers and gets cancelled, it starts getting... tolerable? Because I think SGU is becoming whatever the hell trope this is.