Long-Running TV Series That People Need To Stop Watching

Grey's Anatomy is basically a soap opera. In the first 14 seasons, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) has discovered not one, but two secret sisters, she conceived her third child with McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) while he was on his deathbed (and those kids are hardly ever seen), plus McDreamy died. The guy who was essentially the number two character dies in Season 11, along with a whole lot of other fan favorites. There have been over 20 deaths of characters who were at least somewhat integral to the show, so chances are your favorite character isn't even part of the series anymore. 

By the time The Walking Dead put its eighth season in the ground, long-time fans were running away. The Season 8 premiere pulled the lowest ratings for a premiere since Season 3. To make matters worse, Season 3 actually saw an increase in ratings, as its premiere had more viewers than the previous two seasons' premieres. Generally, when shows start spawning other shows (Fear the Walking Dead in this case), it's a pretty good indication that the main event has gone on long enough. 

In 2018, Homeland began its seventh season, yet it's been dead in the water for some time. Ever since Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) survived longer than he should have (beyond the first season), the show has given viewers nothing but diminishing returns. 

 Robert Rorke of the New York Post ravaged the third season of the show, saying "Seldom in the history of cable TV has a series imploded as quickly as Showtime's Homeland... The show, in the middle of its third season, is now impossible to take seriously." Whether it was Season 1 or Season 3 where things went bad, the show is at least four seasons past its prime. 

NCIS is not only is it basically identical to its two spin-offs, it's virtually indistinguishable from the overcrowded genre of crime procedurals. The show's ratings aren't really trending downward (it peaked in season 10, but it's stayed relatively steady since), but that's because its audience replenishes itself.

While the show regularly loses viewers to mortality, there are always plenty of new AARP members to take their place. Since the story has little continuity, NCIS is virtually immortal, like many of the genre's shows. Just because something can live forever doesn't mean it should.

At the end of Season 1, The Middle had run its course. Despite this, the series continued, and enjoys heavy syndication. Its viewership is declining, with Season eight marking its lowest average audience numbers yet, but still it persists. Patricia Heaton plays the overworked mother Frankie, who's basically just a nicer version of Debra from Everybody Loves Raymond. The real kicker, though, is her husband Mike (Neil Flynn). The actor was absolutely adored by Scrubs fans for his hilarious performance as the Janitor, yet in the next sitcom he chose to work on, he is supremely boring. While coastal fans gave up years ago, Middle America still loves the show, so it may limp along forever.

IMDB's synopsis of the episode "Pig Moon Rising" reads, "Mitchell [Jesse Tyler Ferguson] accidentally knocks over an urn containing the ashes of Cam's [Eric Stonestreet] beloved pet pig, Lilly; Cam tries to catch Mitchell in a lie." Quick, what season is that? If you said one or two, you'd be forgiven. It's actually Season 8, but Modern Family's comedy-of-errors format causes a lot of episodes bleed together. It's a formula that grows stale rather quickly, yet it's still being employed over a decade later.

In pretty much every episode of this show, there's a scene in which two people have separate problems that they discuss with one another, without actually mentioning the subject. This leads each to believe that they were discussing their own personal issue, which only compounds the problems. They didn't invent this brand of humor, and while they really did utilize it successfully for a time, the gags had an expiration date from the get-go.