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*** It is worth noting that the 8th game in the X series is generally considered playable, or even fun.
*** ''Command Mission'' as well.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'', after a [[Mind Screw]] of a third season (which ''still'' proved to be entertaining and well-written), had the abysmal fourth season, which tried (and failed) to top the [[Mandatory Twist Ending|Mandatory Twist Endings]]s of the previous season, and supposedly explain away the loose ends from the first season without actually doing so. The fact that they made the main villain a secondary character's [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] with a [[Instrumentality|ridiculous agenda]] didn't help matters any.
** Season 4's main failing seems to have been the case of it being rushed for the sake of a new series installment, not the fact that it wasn't properly planned-out to begin with. It managed to wrap up things quite nicely in regards to what would happen to the main characters (by making them search for their own paths and identities, without having to rely on Judai at every turn) and the [[Big Bad]]'s ploy was not all that different to the conclusion reached by [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|a well-known show]] who got nowhere near the amount of flak that GX did for the very same plot-point.
** Season 2 is the worst. Transitioning from a (mostly) light-hearted first season into the very dark next two, this season is a weird in-between, poorly balancing an overarching plot of an evil destructive cult, and silly filler duels between kabuki fans and curry lovers.
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*** By the time the anime reached the Fullbringer arc, it became more and more obvious that both the animators and the voice actors were putting less and less effort into it, ultimately culminating in the anime being unceremoniously swept aside to make room for [[Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth|a Naruto spinoff]].
* If things can be divided by [[Story Arc|story arcs]] for this, ''[[Otogi Zoshi]]'' noticeably suffers in its second arc. The pacing is poor compared to the first, the artwork (generally quite nice to look at for the first half) has a considerable quality drop, plot points don't link as clearly to the conclusion, and much of it slips into predictable mystery of the week stuff. If the page for ''Otogi Zoshi'' itself is to be believed, [[Executive Meddling]] in the form of a tight schedule, tight budget, and the presence of 14 directors is very likely to blame.
* Want to know a good way to introduce Seasonal Rot? [[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya|Make eight versions of essentially the same episode with the only differences being the characters outfits and the numbers mentioned in the exposition in a fourteen episode season.]] Especially when [[Adaptation Decay|the original novel didn't do this]], they simply told the story once, period. Like anyone sane and non-[[Troll|trollingtroll]]ing would do.
* The filler arcs of ''[[Naruto]]'' very often have fans pulling the [[Ruined FOREVER]] alarm.
** In particular, the massive block of over 100 filler episodes that made up the space between Naruto and [[Time Skip|Naruto:Shippuden]] is not well regarded. Besides the unGodly length of time, the episodes themselves simply tended to be lower quality or have [[Idiot Plot|Idiot Plots.]]
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* While the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-books]] have had their share of up and down periods, it could be said that the former flagship title Uncanny X-Men experienced a decline in quality starting with 1998's "Hunt for Xavier" arc, from which it did not recover fully until the end of Chris Claremont's third run on the title in 2007, when Ed Brubaker took over the book.
** Another common view is that the franchise became a directionless mire of unresolved storylines, inconsistent characterization, tangled family trees, alternate universes and angst shortly after the end of Claremont's first run. 1998 did indeed mark the beginning of a severe creative decline that exacerbated these issues and alienated both dedicated and new readers. Either Joss Whedon or Grant Morrison is said to have heralded a brief return to the quality and relevance of the mutants' heyday.
** There was also a more recent period of rot that just ended in 2011, though fans are divided on when it ''started''. Some place the beginning as far back as 2005 and ''[[House of M]]'', the aftermath of which left mutants a [[Dying Race]] and the "struggle for survival" aspect of the comic being played up repeatedly and [[Anvilicious|Anviliciously]]ly. Others are more generous and say the rot didn't kick in until 2009, with [[Matt Fraction]]'s run (often considered the second-worst in the book's history) and the "Utopia" storyline. Thankfully, things seem to be getting back on track; the return of the Xavier Institute, gone since 2008, has been particularly praised.
* Depending on who you ask, the seasonal rot for the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series started either after issue 50 (the appropriately-titled "Endgame" arc), or after the Bem/Xorda arc . Exactly how long the Seasonal Rot lasted (or indeed, if it ever did end) also depends on who you ask.
* This seems to be happening with the "second season" of ''[[Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane]]'', since the writer ''and'' the artist both left and [[The Other Darrin|they subsequently hired new people]]. The writing and art style shift is... jarring, to say the least.
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* ''The Shelters of Stone'', book five in Jean M Auel's ''[[Earth's Children]]'' series. Boring repeats of the same kind of issues the characters have faced in the past, Ayla and Jondalar become Mary Sue characters 100%, no real drama or storyline to carry through the book, retconning... Basically a boring read about two Mary Sue characters who have the same discussions with people as they've had for two books already. The fact that it was published more than a decade after book four might have had something to do with Auel losing her style.
** ''The Land of the Painted Caves'', last installment of the series, manages to be even worse than ''Shelters''.
*** Specifically, ''Land of the Painted Caves'' had the same conversations repeated almost word for word about six times throughout the novel -- everynovel—every time Ayla met someone new, the same conversation went on about how she acquired Wolf. ''Plains of Passage'', with the whole story being one long journey and a six page sex scene every five pages, got pretty boring, too.
* In James Patterson's ''[[Maximum Ride]]'', the first three books (Subtitled ''The Angel Experiment'', ''School's Out Forever'', and ''Saving The World And Other Extreme Sports'') Were all well, engaging action-y novels, if increasingly showing the fact that the author doesn't so much [[Xanatos Roulette|have a plan]] as more that he's [[Kudzu Plot|making it all up]] [[Indy Ploy|as he goes along]]. The fourth book (''The Final Warning'') is a 200-something page [[Author Filibuster]] on [[Green Aesop|why global warming is bad.]]
** Books five and six (''[[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming|Max]]'' and ''[[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming|Fang]]'') aren't any better, descending into the [[Romantic Plot Tumor|teen relationship wangstfest that would not die.]]
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** Series three is also a good pick. Few shows can survive the loss of their three most developed characters without taking a nosedive, and series 3 demonstrated why; Brian and Kurt were great background characters, but in no way were they capable of leading a series, and as a result the writing took massive drop in quality.
* ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'': Despite the stereotype, this series' first season had fairly good balance of drama and farce, but the subsequent seasons lost it with Season 2 becoming primarily ridiculous while Season 3 was both embarrassingly cheap and ridiculous.
** To elaborate: The first season, even when being an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the Superhero genre, was more of a [[Deconstructive Parody]] where [[Anyone Can Die]], the villains were [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] and the [[Big-Budget Beef-Up]] could afford [[Visual Effects of Awesome]] that were seen in [[Batman: The Movie]]. The second season exaggerates the parody and becomes an [[Indecisive Parody]], the villains suffered [[Flanderization]], [[Everybody Lives]] and the budget is lower, giving place to [[Bottle Episode|Bottle Episodes]]s that break the rule of [[Show, Don't Tell]], there were [[Special Effects Failure|bad special effects]] and [[Stock Footage Failure|Stock Footage Failures]]s. The third season was the worst: the [[Flanderization]] is at its fullest, creating a [[Stealth Parody]] or a [[Parody Failure]], there were almost [[No Budget]], an episode with [[Invisible Monsters|Invisible Villains]] and not even the inclusion of Batgirl as [[Ms. Fanservice]] could save the ratings.
* The Los Angeles season of ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|The Apprentice]]''. It would have probably been fine if the location was the ''only'' thing that changed, but in the face of steadily declining ratings, the show added a number of gimmicks. Viewers saw former viceroys Carolyn and George replaced by Trump's children (Granted, Carolyn had quit the show to focus on her own career and George had pretty much become [[The Ghost]] in the previous season due to his other work, but the replacement choices stunk of nepotism to many viewers.) The show's focus shifting toward boardroom and interpersonal drama at the expense of the task (which generally got no more than ''ten minutes'' of screentime per episode), the week's losers having to live in tents, the winning Project Manager staying PM until a loss, said PM getting to sit in on boardroom elimination discussions, an entire team getting immunity for a week and as a result the losing team being split into two groups that had to compete against each other, and the final challenge pitting two teams of two instead of just two finalists. This resulted in a winner that ''never served as Project Manager''. This led to poor ratings and a near-cancellation — Three "celebrity" editions and dropping the aforementioned gimmicks seem to have kept the show afloat for now; the tenth season returned to regular folks, but ratings were even more dismal than the L.A. season, so the eleventh season will feature another batch of celebrities.
** With the UK incarnation of the show, the second season is generally agreed as the worst, with the very competent candidates in the previous series replaced by a bunch of complete morons (with the obvious exception of Ruth Badger). Depending on who you ask, the third season was either when things got back on track, or the year when the show went all icky and "mainstream" on viewers.
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** The first half of Season 3 was arguably worse. The writers heard the complaints that Season 2 was too slowly paced, and lacking twists. Their answer? A [[Random Events Plot]] and one [[Aborted Arc]] after another. Fans could no longer say it was predictable or slowly paced, but the result was even worse. The show mostly returned to form with the second half of its third season and the fourth and final season, though fans argue by how much.
* ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'': The season five time jump aborts numerous storylines such as Bree and Orson being new parents while the relationship between Mike and Susan once again got haphazardly changed in order to drag out the "Will they or won't they" drama.
* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'': Just about [[Unpleasable Fanbase|any season depending on who you ask]] (with the popular answer being that the show hasn't been good since the original cast was on it in the 1970s), but the sixth season (1980-1981) stands out as uniquely awful. The entire cast and writing staff left in 1980, but [[Executive Meddling|the network insisted]] that the show continue along anyway; new producer Jean Doumanian knew ''nothing'' about comedy (on a special about ''SNL'''s history in the 1980s, [[Gilbert Gottfried]], a cast member around that time, went on record in saying that Jean Doumanian was so clueless about comedy that she would root for Margaret Dumont in a [[Marx Brothers]] film), having been previously in charge of booking musical guests. As a result, the musical guests were fantastic, but the rest of the show was barely watchable (including Weekend Update, which Lorne Michaels invented as a way for viewers to at least find one funny moment in an episode that they didn't like because of the host or if the writing was a little flat that week). More to the point, Doumanian passed up a lot of potentially talented would-be cast members ([[Jim Carrey]] being one of them), misunderstood a lot of obvious punchlines, thought that [[Refuge in Vulgarity]] was what made the sketches funny (as opposed to [[Refuge in Audacity]]) -- which became the show's downfall when Charles Rocket said, "I wanna know who the fuck did it" at the end of the Charlene Tilton episode, and focused more on humorless character pieces (some of which were intentionally not funny, like the one from the Karen Black/Cheap Trick episode in which [[Gilbert Gottfried]] played a stroke victim laid up in the hospital while everyone around him -- excepthim—except his true friend, Rachel [Denny Dillon] -- mocked him). Finally NBC stepped in and fired everyone except Joe Piscopo and some kid named [[Eddie Murphy]] that was hired mid-season and was showing a lot of promise...
** Season 11 (1985-1986) counts as [[Seasonal Rot]] and an [[Old Shame]], in the eyes of NBC, Al Franken, and ''Simpsons'' writer George Meyer. One would think that a season in which one of the original producers (Lorne Michaels) returns to try and rebuild the show to its former glory would be welcomed with open arms by fans, right? Not really. The writing was okay (a little weird for its time, but critics didn't complain about the writing), but the cast was filled with semi-famous people who may have given good performances, but really didn't gel into that ensemble cast that ''SNL'' had in its early days. This, coupled with the mediocre premiere hosted by [[Madonna]] and the fact that critics and fans alike were getting sick of ''SNL'' and you had all the ingredients needed for Brandon Tartikoff to plan ''SNL'''s cancellation (though, unlike season six, season 11's "Weekend Update" was somewhat enjoyable, thanks to the hiring of Dennis Miller, whose [[Deadpan Snarker|snarky delivery]] brought back memories of Chevy Chase as the show's very first Weekend Update anchor). (Un)Fortunately, this didn't happen, as Lorne Michaels fired most of his season 11 cast (leaving behind Jon Lovitz, Nora Dunn, and Dennis Miller) and hired a new crew of up-and-coming cast members (Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Kevin Nealon, and Victoria Jackson). Those who weren't ''completely'' turned off by ''SNL'' in its 11th season [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|rejoiced]].
** The 20th season (1994-1995) also stands out as particularly bad. Between Phil Hartman's departure, the popularity of the O.J. Simpson murder trial (which ''SNL'' repeatedly wrote sketches about during this time -- whentime—when it didn't write sketches laden with [[Ho Yay]] or [[Overly Long Gag|Overly Long Gags]]s disguised as sketches with some semblance of a plot), and cast and crew tensions backstage (particularly with [[Janeane Garofalo]], who hated the juvenile humor of the show and left mid-season), it's really not hard to see why some critics and fans have compared season 20 with season 6 in terms of sheer unwatchability (though, like season 11, Weekend Update was considered a bright spot in an otherwise messy season -- thisseason—this time, with Norm MacDonald as the anchor, though even Weekend Update suffered from being weak and repetitive just like the rest of season 20).
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'':
** Season 3: [[Executive Meddling]] led to [[Creator's Pet|Bela]] and Ruby, the audience was always [[Anvilicious|Anviliciously]]ly reminded that Dean only had one year to live, and the season premiere ("The Magnificent Seven") was too bright and shiny. Season 4 has been a grittier improvement, but Genevieve Cortese is generally reviled in her portrayal of Ruby throughout the fanbase, and many fans really miss Katie Cassidy. Fans that weren't nearly so loud when she was actually onscreen. Season 3 was also weakened by the Writer's Strike, which cut it down from 22 episodes to 16 - thus making the storylines of the last 4 episodes rushed and abandoning great ideas, like the return of Ellen Harvelle (it was pushed back to Season 5). It had good ideas with Bela and Ruby, but over-focusing on the two - over the brothers - led to fan derision and may have contributed to Bela being killed off.
** Season 4 and Season 5, with their considerable retooling of the [[Myth Arc]], heavy use of Christian mythology, and larger cast, are looked upon more favorably by newer fans, and generally less so by older ones. This turned out in favor of the newer fans, as Season 4 boosted the show's sagging ratings enough to ensure there would be a Season 5.
** And now Season 6, with its "return to form" approach, may have pleased some older fans with its drastically pared-down cast and concentration on the Winchester brothers' newest trust issues, but [[It's the Same, Now It Sucks|turned off newer fans]]. The ratings ''aspire'' to be Season 3. To a good number of the fanbase, the meta episode "The French Mistake", where the Winchesters somehow stumble into the actual set of the show, proved that the writers were clutching at straws after abruptly abandoning the soulless-Sam plotline. It didn't help that the episode was right after a [[Mood Whiplash|far too peppy]] "monster of the week" plot (not dissimilar to those that permeated earlier, less angsty seasons) and the introduction of a new, somewhat derivative [[Big Bad]]...after ''more than half the season'' was over.
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* ''[[SeaQuest DSV|Sea Quest DSV]]'' stopped playing to its strengths in Season 2; the writers introduced a lot of weird sci-fi elements that were out of place on a submarine show. The Season 3 [[Retool]] did a lot to fix this, but it came too late to avert cancellation.
* Although still popular, ''[[Seinfeld]]'' in seasons 8 and 9 was notably different from the former ones. This is because the showrunner [[Larry David]] left the show after season 7, leaving Jerry Seinfeld as the new Executive Producer. With the remaining writing staff left to its own devices, these seasons featured faster-paced, "wackier" episodes with many references to previous episodes, and attempts at running gags. Characters also slightly de-evolved, especially George, and Kramer's stunts became ever increasing. Still, the series continued to enjoy ratings success and a tenth season was proposed, until Seinfeld declined.
** Also, the first and second seasons of ''Seinfeld'' (mind you -- theseyou—these two made about 15 episodes total) were very bland, slow and generically sitcom-y. The only thing that saved it from being cancelled was the opinion of a few execs that the scripts were funny, if not good, and that the characters showed promise. The [[Growing the Beard]] episode is accepted as season 2's "The Chinese Restaurant," where the characters do nothing but stand around in a restaurant waiting for a table for 23 minutes (in [[Real Time]], no less), a move unprecedented in TV history.
* Season 2 of ''[[Veronica Mars]]'': Not merely content to have an underwhelming [[Red Herring]]-laden season-spanning mystery, it dragged several of Season 1's plot elements down with it (most notably {{spoiler|[[Retcon|Ret Conning]] the resolution to Veronica's rape storyline}}). Not to mention having {{spoiler|Aaron Echols' hamfisted [[Karma Houdini]]-turned-[[Karmic Death]].}} Season 3 went downhill even further with the overall story arc [[Executive Meddling|reduced to several mini-arcs]] and the [[Flanderization]] of important characters. To this day, there's a [[Broken Base]] regarding seasons 2 and 3- those who liked 2 tended to hate 3, while those who hated 3 tended to like 2.
* While still probably the best adaptations out there, [[The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes]] and [[The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes]], the sixth and seventh series from the Granada ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' adaptations were marked by increasing (sometimes [[Justified Trope|justified]], othertimes... just weird) deviations from the Canon. This was mostly due to Jeremy Brett's worsening health, and the planned filming of the entire Canon was cut short by [[Author Existence Failure|Actor Existence Failure]].
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* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' had a few weak seasons, the two that get the most flack are Seven and Eight. Between completely overhauling the cast (Seven started culling out older cast memebers, Eight finished it by having only five original S1 cast left), a very weak power couple for season Eight (Peter and Mia changing into rockstar and teen model), and overall poorly handled plotlines. Adding to the fact S6 killed off a beloved character, nobody loves those two seasons. The only good to come out of those two seasons is that Season Nine has (for the most part) been solid, and those two seasons were used to hand over the main cast to the new roster.
** Season 9 ended up being this too. Most fans seem to think that [[Degrassi]] was at its weakest when trying to juggle the kids actually going to Degrassi, and the kids who've already graduated. In fact, it seems to be the conclusion that in general seasons 6-9 (sometimes this even extends to the second half of ''Season 4'') were pretty weak compared to the previous seasons, due to the aformentioned character juggling, but also the increasing production clout The N had over the series and how the series became even ''more'' overly-dramatic. Then season 10 happened. And now, it would seem that we are in the "Degrassi Renaissance".
* All fans agree ''[[MASH the Series|M* A* S* H]]'' had [[Seasonal Rot]], but depending on who you ask, it starts at season 4, 5, 6 or 8. And for some, it's seasons 1-3. Season 4 saw Henry Blake and Trapper replaced by Colonel Potter and B.J., and the series started moving from its tone firmly from comedy towards more drama. Head writer and developer Larry Gelbart left after season 4. After season five, Frank Burns was replaced with Charles Winchester, executive producer Gene Reynolds was replaced by Burt Metcalfe, and Alan Alda (who played Hawkeye) got more control over the series, with the anti-war message becoming more and more [[Anvilicious]]. Radar O'Reilly disappeared from the series in season 8, by which time the entire original writing staff had been replaced.
** Harry Morgan (who played Colonel Potter) has said in interviews that he felt the cracks were starting to show by Season 9.
* Season 5 of ''[[The A-Team]]'' had this, with the A-Team being caught and forced to work for the government (and most closely with [[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.|Robert Vaughn]]), and then with the addition of [[The Scrappy|Frankie Santana]], an annoying mechanic who added nothing but minimized B. A.'s role. Even the opening theme got messed with--theywith—they did away with the opening monologue altogether and changed the theme's sound from orchestral/electric guitars to an almost entirely synthesized remix. This unfortunately led to the series's cancellation.
* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' is a rare show that was able to survive the transition from high school to college because of the strong mother-daughter dynamic and quirky town of Stars Hollow... give or take a season or two. Then season six would introduce [[Cousin Oliver]] [[The Scrappy|April]], who was universally loathed, made Rory into a delinquent and had whole episodes where the girls didn't interact with each other, and extended the [[Will They or Won't They?]] even further after a fake-out resolution. Come the CW merger, creator Amy-Sherman Palladino and her husband were basically forced to leave the show and many fans had abandoned the show. It was clear that whoever was left in charge had no idea how to continue a successful long-running series.
* ''[[Prison Break]]'' fans either cite the third or fourth season as the show's worst. For season 3, the Sona prison turned out to be much less scary than the ultra-creepy penitentiary viewers spotted in the season 2 finale, the plot suffered from the usual Padding and brave-step-forward-two-steps-back plotting that affected the other seasons, the new plotlines regarding the Company gave them a dose of [[Villain Decay]], and {{spoiler|Sara's death}} upset the fanbase tremendously. Sure, {{spoiler|Sara}} came back in one piece for season 4, but the Mission-Impossible-meets-A-Team Retool sent the series' signature ridiculousness to levels beyond recovery. The fact that the convicts-turned-fugitives get captured by police so quickly to assemble a secret agent squad contradicts their mostly successful evasion for most of season 2. In addition, the once scary Company continues to get neutered by [[Villain Decay]], and the sideplots only get crazier and more illogical. And then there's the ending, [[Internet Backlash|which almost every Prison Break fan hated]].
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* ''[[All in The Family]]'' had ended its 8th season with [[Norman Lear]] departing as executive producer and the Stivics being [[Put on a Bus]] to California which resolved the core premise for the series and provided an emotional [[Tear Jerker]] of a finale. Unfortunately, Carroll O'Connor accepted [[Money, Dear Boy|a huge salary increase]] that led to the show limping on another year that saw the introduction of Edith's [[Cousin Oliver|young niece who was abandoned by her alcoholic father]] that the Bunker's took in. This failed to replace the tension that Archie had with Meathead in the first 8 seasons, and while there were still some funny episodes, Lear's creative guidance was sorely missed.
** After this [[CBS]] decided to [[Retool]] the show as ''[[Archie Bunker's Place]]'' which limped on for 97 more episodes that saw the series shift from [[Dom Com]] to [[Work Com]], the death of {{spoiler|Edith}} and Archie growing into a kinder, less ignorant person with an ethnically diverse social circle which effectively killed his effectiveness as an [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]].
* Season 5 of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', which came packed full of [[Flanderization]], terrible handling of a romance plotline, piling on the [[Denser and Wackier]] for an already Dense and Wacky series, far fewer of the show's signature [[Flash Forward|Flash Forwards]]s or [[Flash Back|Flash Backs]]s, and a focus on random hijinks repetitively lampooning the characters' personalities instead of the first four seasons' emphasis on Future!Ted needing to explain a lot of seemingly-random hijinks in order for the crucial elements of [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|the main plot]] to make any sense. After Barney and Robin's breakup, the characters had basically no development whatsoever for the rest of the season, which basically crippled the show's ever-present character-driven momentum. However, it never actually jumped the shark by doing anything criminally stupid, so the writers could make do with what they had by using season 6 to undo most of season 5's damage and introduce lasting change to the characters (especially Marshall and Lily's attempts to conceive), and giving season 7 a very focused, plot-driven direction with a great deal of foreshadowing, the "bride" mystery, and the Barney/Robin [[Will They or Won't They?]] arc.
* ''The Restaurant'', season 3. Clearly made on a tighter budget than the previous seasons, but what really did for it was the poor quality of the contestants and the favouritism shown toward eventual winners JJ and James.
* ''[[Happy Days]]'' is thought to have gone completely downhill in seasons 8-11 after Ron Howard left with the show's seventh season and the focus shifted firmly to Fonzie's antics and is said to have gotten worse as it dragged on with the introduction of [[The Scrappy|Chachi]], Ted McGinley and a slew of other unliked characters.
** However, the [[Trope Namer|trope naming]] [[Jump the Shark|shark jump]] occurred in the show's fifth season and a slew of other episodes with ridiculous or [[Narm|narmynarm]]y plots popped up around this time. As such, some believe of the show's 11 seasons only about 4 and a half are actually worth watching.
* For fans of ''[[Laverne and Shirley]]'' the show went downhill when the main characters [[Retool|moved to California]] after the 5th season. Even those who still liked the show after the move were put off when the final season took the series to [[Franchise Zombie]] levels by featuring Laverne... without Shirley.
* With ''[[Dexter]]'', this is generally held to have set in around season 5. Season 1 and 2 are held in very high esteem, while season 3 just divided the fans a bit. Season 4 received perhaps the most acclaim from both fans and critics of any season thus far, especially for John Lithgow's performance. Season 5 however gets a lot of flak on account of the [[The Scrappy|Lumen character]], the weak resolution of many of its plotlines, and overall dissapointment at the entire season finale. Season 6 is now also largely considered this, due to poor pacing and writing problems and severe character derailment. Sometimes within the span of two episodes, such as with Quinn and Travis.
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* ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' twice fell prey to seasonal rot. Seasons 18 and 37 are generally regarded as the weakest seasons on the show, for various reasons. Bob on some episodes looked lost and likely was bored. There were other issues with Season 18, though, YMMV. Season 37, however, was worse. It added a lot of oddball showcases, the pricing games' difficulty spiked, pricing games [[Put on a Bus|vanished without a trace]], and a couple infamous special guest appearances. (One of which likely led that episode to be put on the ''DO NOT RERUN'' list).
* ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' as well. Some fans criticize Season 14 for a large number of changes (most prominently, using only one Wheel template for the entire game as opposed to each round having its own set of dollar figures; adding several new categories, which some feel make the game too easy; and changing from a mechanical puzzle board to an electronic one). Others point to Season 26 (an increase in contrived puzzles, particularly in the form of too-specific Prize Puzzles and [[Fake Difficulty]] in the [[Bonus Round]]; less energy in the studio; general decline in contestant quality; sloppier production; and addition of a $1,000,000 cash prize in the Bonus Round).
* The decline of ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' is pinned to one of three seasons: 1997-98 (a change to a more bombastic mix of the iconic Think! music, the widely-panned "sushi bar" set which was kept until 2002, the first video clues read by celebrities, and an increase in punny category names); 2001-02 (introduction of the Clue Crew, a set of [[Lovely Assistant|Lovely Assistants]]s who present more video clues, the doubling of point values, and Alex Trebek shaving off his iconic mustache); 2003-04 (removal of the five-game cap, followed within mere months by Ken Jennings' amazing 74-game run, combined with what many viewers perceive as a gradual decline in clue quality following the death of longtime writer Steven Dorfman).
* ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]'' changed formats in the 2008-09 season, adding a timer to the questions — and stupidly, the timer counted down ''while'' host Meredith Vieira read the question instead of after she finished, thus whittling down the seconds. Any banked time was saved up for the million-dollar question, and the [[Lifelines]] changed. It changed again in the 2010-11 season to a "shuffle" format which has also been heavily criticized as straying even further from original Millionaire format.
* When ''[[The OC]]'' premiered in 2004 it became a pop culture sensation overnight. Critics praised the show for its clever dialogue, excellent writing, and interesting characters, and it was one of the highest-rated television shows in its time slot. For its second season Fox moved the show to a competitive Thursday night time slot, which ended up costing it viewers. There's also a general agreement among fans that the quality of the show declined in the second season, although it was still pretty good. Season 3 is almost universally considered to be the show's worst season due to it introducing several new characters who were disliked by fans as well as the overall tone becoming more serious and angsty, thus causing the ratings to drop even further. When Season 4 rolled around the show began to improve in quality, returning the focus to the main cast members and bringing back the comedy. Unfortunately, by that point most people had given up on ''The OC'' and it was cancelled due to low ratings.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' had this problem late in the 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons days, though it was a different sort of rot than usual. Rather than a drop in quality, it was a drop in usability; too many products came out which were not marketable to a general audience, resulting in declining sales and the eventual death of TSR. When WotC took it over, the quality went up, as did the marketability, but 3rd and 3.5 edition suffered greatly from wanting to advance the game towards where it needed to go, while simultaneously trying to avoid annoying the old fans. This resulted in a system which lacked the charm of the older editions, while simultaneously greatly magnifying the issues of [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]. It took 4th edition before WotC finally took the steps necessary to truly fix the game, resulting in a great deal of angst from certain players. Those players however, will contend that it is 4th edition which falls to seasonal rot, as while it did balance the game the balance came at a massive reduction in character building options.
* ''[[Paranoia]]'' started off as a darkly humorous award-winning game with a few awkward mechanics, which was refined into mindless fun in the highly-acclaimed Second Edition. Rot started when publisher West End Games started releasing game modules in interconnected [[Story Arc|Story Arcs]]s, especially the Great Crash and subsequent Reboot of [[The Computer Is Your Friend|Friend Computer]]. [[It Gets Worse|Things got worse]] with the release of the "5th" Edition; [[Executive Meddling]] replaced the dark humor with cheap satires of pop culture, while poor artwork, poor production values, and the near-total departure of the original writers doomed the series. After West End Games went bankrupt, the series was resurrected as ''Paranoia XP'', whereupon [[Canon Discontinuity|the (original) writers promptly declared everything from the story arcs onward as CanonDiscontinuity.]]
* [[Warhammer Fantasy]] had this in 7th edition rules set. Initially everything was fine with the Orcs and Goblins and Empire releases and while people started to cry foul during the High Elves release, the crunch was essentially accepted. Problems started to creep in with the 7th edition Vampire Counts book, which had several absurdly broken abilities and rules, and became an easy go-to army for people who wanted to win tournaments. Then Daemons of Chaos came out and everything went straight to fucking hell. Daemons were, put simply, [[Game Breaker|unstoppable.]] Even the widely accepted 2nd place army (Dark Elves, released soon after) and 3rd place Vampire Counts couldn't begin to compete with them. Every new army book that was released [[This Is Spinal Tap|ramped up their abilities to 11]] to try and compete, but nothing was working and this began to leave older armies increasingly in the dust. Eventually Games Workshop decided 'Fuck it' and after an incredibly underpowered Beastmen release, grabbed the rules set and shook it so hard that 8th edition came out. 8th edition completely revamped a lot of rules, such as how breaking, charging and magic worked, and while far from perfect, at least managed to restore a lot of the balance. Of course a lot of players [[Unpleasable Fanbase|still hate 8th Edition.]]
 
 
== Toys ==
* The 2005 "Toa Hordika" story arc of ''[[Bionicle]]'' tends to come up as the worst year in discussions, at least it's more universally disliked than some other unpopular years, such as 2009 and 2010. Even the writer himself feels it felt tacked on -- whichon—which it basically was. So much effort was put into designing the 2004 setting (Metru Nui) that the guys at [[LEGO]] wanted to do more with it, even though the story was arleady fully wrapped up in the previous year. Thus along came the second Metru Nui arc, during which the protagonists turned into hideous beasts (whose toys were also quite unspectacular and bland), the story got needlessly dark and confusing, and due to [[Executive Meddling]], the main hero had such a sudden [[Out of Character]]-moment that the writer detests his part of the story to this day. The only good things to have come out of the story were the character Roodaka ([[Fetish Fuel|who quickly became a fan-favorite]]) and the book ''Time Trap'', but only because its plot was completely unrelated to the bigger arc.
 
 
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** One more take: "Oceans Unmoving" would have been a great thing to release ''all at once'', say as a book. It drew more resentment because it came at the expense of the regular cast, and the cool concepts weren't well served by a one-day-at-a-time schedule. People forget that a ''lot'' of Sluggy stories felt overlong and tedious at the time, but read well in the archives.
* [http://www.cracked.com/article_18696_the-lifespan-every-tv-show-ever-5Bcomic5D.html Abnormality] mentions it, along with [[Franchise Zombie]] and [[Early Installment Weirdness]] tropes.
* ''[[Survivor Fan Characters]]'': Season 8 is widely considered by fans to be its worst season due to its suffering from an overabundance of [[Flat Character|Flat Characters]]s and plain unlikable characters, the shafting of [[Character Development]] for bland strategy and repetitive jokes, and a finale that came across as "Isn't this [[Boring Invincible Hero|Boring Invincible Villain]] awesome, and aren't these two guys utter tools who exist just to make her look even more awesome?" to many readers. Most fans agree that the series recovered with Season 9, however.
* [[Sabrina Online]] had the "Sabrina creates a [[Mary Sue]] webcomic" arc. It was pretty self-referential and got old pretty fast, but as of june 2012 seems to be over when Sabrina quit the comic after losing interest.
 
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** Season 3 is generally hated for [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|wasting many good plots]], like the Stella vs Chimera feud, Layla/Aisha's arranged marriage, and the possibility of seeing the girls' home worlds (we only saw a Solaria and a bit of Linphea). There's also Valtor's massive [[Badass Decay]].
** Season 4, like season 3, also started really strong, but then they started to introduce many subplots that [[Merchandise-Driven|were obviously for merchandise purposes and had nothing to do with the main plot]]. The consequence of this was that they had to rush the last part of the season in order to clear all the loose ends, resulting in the weakest season finale.
* The final three seasons of the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' show (Seasons 8, 9, and 10, also known as the "Red Sky Seasons"), which [[Retool|Retooled]]ed the show, [[Put on a Bus|removed many characters]], [[Replacement Scrappy|replaced the main villains]], and generally tried ''way'' too hard to be [[Darker and Edgier]].
** Even fewer fans liked the "Vacation in Europe" side-season, which had terrible animation, had loads of [[They Just Didn't Care]] when it came to European culture and history, and barely fit in with the series' continuity.
** While we're on ''[[Ninja Turtles]]'', Season 6 is generally considered the weak point of the 2003 series, due to being much [[Lighter and Softer]] than previous seasons, sending the Turtles to the future for no apparent reason, introducing a [[Scrappy]] supporting cast member in the form of April and Casey's [[Child Prodigy]] great-grandson, and, oh yeah, the fact that, on the order of the [[Executive Meddling|toy company executives]], the writers were forced to ''skip directly from Season 4 to Season 6'' due to the executives feeling Season 5 [[Merchandise-Driven|wouldn't sell toys as well]]. This was particularly painful because Season 5 contained ''the resolution of the show's [[Myth Arc]]''. And once Season 5 did finally come out to much acclaim, the executives' orders seemed even more nonsensical; wouldn't characters like the Acolytes, the true forms of the Foot Mystics and Ninja Tribunal, [[Big Bad|the Tengu]] and his demonic minions, and {{spoiler|the Turtles' dragon forms}} have made great toys?
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* Season Three of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' suffered from this due to [[Executive Meddling]].
* ''[[Total Drama Island]]'s'' second season, ''Total Drama Action'' was received quite poorly by its viewers, half the original fan base of TDI [[Fanon Discontinuity|don't watch it at all]]. Why? Well, for starters they removed almost ''half'' of the original cast, including [[Ensemble Darkhorse|popular characters]] (at the time) Cody and Noah, completely [[Flanderization|flanderized]] the remaining characters, kicked off most of the fan favorites (again, at the time) such as Gwen, Trent, and Bridgette early, oversaturated [[Creator's Pet|Owen]] ''again'', had Chris become such a huge [[Jerkass]] that it wasn't even funny anymore and overall, it lacked the charm that made TDI so popular.
* ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'' was [[Contested Sequel|contested as is]], but its third and final season, featuring an ungodly [[Villain Decay|villain decayed]] Vilgax as the [[Big Bad]], is considered much weaker than the first two, which both shared the Highbreed arc. [[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]], on the other hand, got the [[Seasonal Rot]] going in its ''second'' season, with tons of filler episodes, characters further acting like idiots, and a convoluted main arc plot involving the Forever Knights which, after Season 1's menacing main threat, just can't measure up. Its last episodes fortunately corrected in later episodes, as said arc turned to also involve an [[Eldritch Abomination]] and Vilgax turning back into an actually dangerous, [[Manipulative Bastard]] villain.
* Season 7 of ''[[Family Guy]]'', due to the amount of episodes [[Anvilicious|focused]] [[Writer on Board|on]] [[Author Avatar|Brian's political views]], as well as a few terrible episode premises (i.e. "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven"), massive [[Flanderization]] of the whole main cast (i.e. Peter's reckless behavior in "Baby Not on Board"), and, of course, [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|a five-minute long Conway Twitty cutaway]]. Part of the reason behind the seasonal rot can be attributed to the 2007-2008 WGA strike that plunged a lot of shows into getting canceled, going on hiatus, or suffering through seasonal rot.
* Season 4 of [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] due to the show never being the same; Stephen Hillenburg notably changed his position in the production after [[The Movie]] which was supposed to be the finale.
** It should be noted that the post-movie seasons are seen as being anywhere from watchable to actually good depending on the episode, barring season 5 and 6 and mostly anything by Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas, which most people wouldn't disagree fits here.The show has also gotten much more grotesque compared to the earlier seasons.
* Fans of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' have wildly varying opinions on which seasons were good and which ones sucked, but you will find very few supporters of Season 11.<ref>(For reference, this is the season that killed off Maude Flanders, had Barney give up drinking, made Apu and Manjula the parents of octuplets, and presented whimsically self-referential episodes like "Saddlesore Galactica", "Missionary: Impossible", and "Behind the Laughter".)</ref> It was, for lack of a better way to put it, sort of the bridge between "Old Simpsons" and "New Simpsons" -- for—for fans of the former, it was the season that killed the satirical, yet heartwarming humor of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' in favor of being a [[Lighter and Softer]] (yet still wacky and crude) ''[[Family Guy]]'' clone. For fans of the latter, it was an uncomfortable in-between season which was trying way too hard to decide whether it should go back to being the way it was in its early days or go in a new direction. To this day, it's ''still'' trying to decide.
* While ''[[Futurama]]'' is consistently good, it has an in-universe example in the form of ''Everybody Loves [[The Hypnotoad|Hypnotoad]]'', which has been going downhill since season three.<ref> according to someone immune to the mind control which is its main draw, anyway</ref>.
** Fans of ''[[Show Within a Show|All My Circuits]]'' are also split about Bender's run as Calculon's son. Younger viewers loved his [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing|glamorizing views on smoking and burglary]] while parents despised him as an [[Moral Guardians|antisocial rolemodel]].
** Futurama itself is considered by many to be going through this in seasons five and six, ever since it resumed airing new episodes on [[Comedy Central]].
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