Seasonal Rot: Difference between revisions

'''Note that examples have to be ''specific seasons''''', otherwise it just becomes "[[Jump the Shark]] but you're allowed to add examples".

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

*** It is worth noting that the 8th game in the X series is generally considered playable, or even fun.

*** ''Command Mission'' as well.

** 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.

* For some, the third season of the ''[[Slayers]]'' anime, ''Slayers TRY.'' What would've been an intriguing story was bogged down by poor characterization (the four heroes are [[Out of Focus]] and have no [[Character Development]], a stark contrast to the previous season), a convoluted plot, stale humor, and too much focus on the [[Holier Than Thou]] [[Guest Star Party Member]], the [[Big Bad]], and his mooks.

** Even Hajime Kanzaka, who created the series, admits to [[Creator Backlash|disliking the TRY arc.]]

** ''[[Digimon Adventure 02 (Anime)|Digimon Adventure 02]]'': Apart from the bucket of [[Fan Disservice]] that was the [[Distant Finale]], the series seemed to change plots as often as someone changes clothes. This is especially poignant in the small (yet important) Holy Stones arc. These world-shattering sacred rocks were never mentioned until Mummymon casually talked about it in a 10-second conversation. There was little foreshadowing, and once they were all eliminated they never came up again. Additionally, most revelations about [[The Man Behind the Man]] seemed to come out of nowhere, and [[Chiaki Konaka]]'s [[Cosmic Horror Story|Cthulhutastic]] guest-writing episode - originally intended to set up another subplot - went completely unexplained, was almost never referred to again, and comes off as a [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment]]. It generally reeks of a series where they had plenty of ideas, but perhaps had ''too'' many and were very careless and haphazard about how they applied them.

** ''[[Digimon Frontier (Anime)|Digimon Frontier]]'''s main problem was the Royal Knights mini-arc (episodes 38 - 47, more or less). Almost ten episodes of the same formula ({{spoiler|knights decide to absorb a certain area, kids try to stop them, kids are defeated, all of the kids are shown to be digital except Koichi, next episode}}). Minimal plot advancement, minimal character development, just... endless [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb-stomp]] [[Padding]]. Secondary problems include the near-complete disregarding of the basic concept of the franchise, and the strangely high amount of [[Filler]] (read: complete-waste-of-20-minutes episodes), even before the Royal Knights arc, which is particularly unusual in that ''Digimon'' is historically (and has since continued being, save the below example) pretty good at avoiding filler or at least giving it tangential relevance.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'''s fourth season, ''Sailor Moon SuperS'', is usually regarded as one of the weakest of the series even though it has some of the best animation. In addition to leaving out the highly popular [[Fan Nickname|Outer Senshi]] introduced in the previous series, it consisted of mostly comedic filler episodes and deviated from the manga's corresponding and dramatic "Dream" arc. It also didn't help that a series titled ''Sailor Moon'' spent much more time on ChibiUsa than on its main heroine. The final season, ''Stars'', wasn't much better and by this point the series ratings had plunged, though by the end of Stars they recovered. Fans are generally at least a little warmer to the season than ''[[Super S]]'', though it mostly depends on how much they like the gender-bending Sailor Starlights (which is a mix of hating new characters, and [[Unfortunate Implications|hating transgender individuals.]]) It also left out vast chunks of the manga compared to previous series, and many, many manga characters did not appear at all in the ''Stars'' anime.

** Many people also felt the ''Stars'' manga was the weakest arc, however, due to the fact that the first five chapters of the arc just kill off the main Sailor Senshi save for Sailor Moon without them even putting up a fight, there's [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] who show up for one chapter and die, and the ending actually makes very little sense and raises more questions than it answers. The biggest sin is how it quickly disposes of Mamoru within a single chapter, after the last chapter of the Dream arc had implied that he was going to be ''extremely'' important. He's killed without even getting a chance to fight back by Galaxia not one chapter later.

** While fans differ as to where it began exactly it's generally agreed that the period in between Series 3 and 6 was its peak, with the rot starting depending on personal impression. However the rot became obvious after Rob Grant and Doug Naylor split. With Doug Naylor choosing to revive the series and turn it into a comedy/drama with no studio audience for Series 7 and a new Kochanski and getting the backlash that followed. Despite returning to a pure comedy format and shot in front of an audience for Series 8 the response was similarly poor, due to the jarring change of premise to a prison comedy with the old crew brought back to life as opposed to the more natural progression from series 5 through 7.

* ''[[Sliders]]'': Universally, season three, during which Maggie was introduced, Professor Arturo had a [[Dropped a Bridge On Him|bridge dropped on him]], and Quinn Mallory ceased being the genius he once had been. The debate is how much the show recovered, if at all.

** In the new series, despite the great performances of the cast and the occasional great episode, series 2 (season 28) is considered the least-well written of the first five by the fandom, and certainly overall worse than Eccleston's sole series, due in part to an over reliance in the romance of the Doctor/Rose ship and acting a little on the goofy side even for ''Who'', despite Tennant's Doctor being in some ways darker than Eccleston's.

*** To add to the above example, despite the poor reception of Tennant's first tenure, it is also considered that Tennant's performance as the Doctor was fantastic, as it showed he could handle the revived role that Eccleston had set the bar pretty high for, as it catapulted him to star status and made him the most popular Doctor since Tom Baker, another positive is the finale, which had Daleks vs Cybermen and was a very satisfactory ending that wrapped up all plot points from the first two series.

** 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)|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.

* The Los Angeles season of ''[[The Apprentice (TV)|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.

** 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 -- when it didn't write sketches laden with [[Ho Yay]] or [[Overly Long Gag|Overly Long Gags]] disguised as sketches with some semblance of a plot), and cast and crew tensions backstage (particularly with [[Janeane Garofalo (Creator)|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 -- 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)|Supernatural]]'':

** 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.

** While season 6 had its flaws, and definitely suffered the loss of the original show runners, season 7 has had ''Supernatural'' showing its age badly. Concurrent with Castiel's abrupt death, the Leviathans were pretty much pulled out of the show's continuity's ass, don't bring anything new to the table, and their plotline is going nowhere fast, resulting in a lot of filler episodes instead, since the writers apparently can't think of anything to do with them other than using their leader as a source of rather juvenile political [[Take That|TakeThats]]. The other monsters are barely menacing, {{spoiler|Bobby dies}}, Crowley makes a scant few appearances before vanishing from the story, and the Dean/Sam drama has gotten so overplayed that half of the dialogue is about how overplayed it is. At this point, the chemistry between the show's leads is about all it has left.

** Season 7 was boring largely because of [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]] with Castiel and Crowley and instead substituted the Leviathans, who are seen as the most boring villains in the show's run: [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|the abrupt dropping of the very-promising-sounding Cosmic New Order at the beginning of the season (Castiel was going to be the new God, while Crowley was already the king of Hell),]] was disappointing. This storyline (just imagine the awesomeness of Sam and Dean being caught up in a cold war between Cas and Crowley while desperately trying to get Cas to return to sanity) had the fans pumped and excited, and one really wonders just what the hell the writers were thinking when they threw it out. Castiel {{spoiler|was killed off}}, and Crowley just [[Brother Chuck|vanished from the plot with absolutely no explanation, and hasn't been seen or mentioned since, despite having been an important character.]] And who takes their place? The Leviathans, who were a complete [[Ass Pull]], and remained extremely vague in their abilities for several episodes. The writers themselves apparently couldn't figure out what to do with them, so they had them disappear for long stretches of time while still trying to make them out to be this huge threat...except that their goals were completely undefined, resulting in a sense that [[Vagueness Is Coming]]. Eventually they had an episode where their leader becomes a [[Strawman Political]] [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] so they could do a poorly-written [[Take That]] on conservatives and libertarians (which only served to offend some of the fanbase). Then the Leviathans ''disappeared AGAIN'' for an even longer stretch of episodes. They weren't doing very much onscreen, but Sam and Dean's dialogue constantly exhorted the audience to remember that [[Vagueness Is Coming]]. The fandom also was deprived of {{spoiler|Bobby and the Impala}} for most of the season, resulting in further dissatisfaction towards an already-boring season. Really, the introduction of [[Plucky Comic Relief]] character Garth may have been the season's only decent contribution.

* Season Five of ''[[House (TV)|House]]''. Plot points that were never brought up again, Wilson and Cuddy acting like bigger asses than ''House was'', an overemphasis on [[Strangled By the Red String|Foreteen]] and giving Foreman all the big plotlines, Chase and Cameron being very rarely seen, the medicine [[Did Not Do the Research|being even worse than before]], House turning pathetic and rather stupid and Kutner's {{spoiler|dumbass suicide}} made this season even worse than [[Deus Angst Machina|Season Three]] in the fans' eyes.

** Season Six isn't exactly liked either. Removing almost all of the character traits from House that ''made him a compelling character in the first place'' is a prime example of doing it wrong.

* ''[[Sanford and Son]]'' subverted this earlier in its run with Fred being [[Put On a Bus]] a few times because of Redd Foxx's contract disputes. However, the supporting characters were strong ([[Loads and Loads of Characters|and plentiful]]) enough to hold up the show along side Lamont. One stretch of episodes even had [[Cloudcuckoolander|Grady]] functioning as the second main character and it actually worked! Then real seasonal rot kicked in the final two seasons that had an increased focus on [[As Himself]] guest stars (who inexplicably showed up at the junk yard), a [[Vacation Episode]] to Hawaii and a bizarre episode that featured Fred entering a [[Celebrity Paradox|Redd Foxx look alike contest]] that were all very out of character for the show. On top of that, Foxx and costar Demond Wilson were both engaged in contract battles with the network that hurt their work on camera and ultimately caused both to leave the show thus ending it. The less said about the [[After Show]] ''The Sanford Arms'' (sans Foxx and Wilson) and the [[Revival]] ''[[Sanford]]'' (sans Wilson) that NBC tried to cash in with, the better.

* ''[[Arrested Development (TV)|Arrested Development]]'', while generaly considered to be [[Too Good to Last]], had a weaker story arc involving Charlize Theron. Acknowledged by the creators in the episode "SOBs":

* ''[[Survivor]]'': Season 5 ("Thailand") seems to be considered by most fans to be the worst season, an opinion also shared by host Jeff Probst, who referred to it as "mean-spirited" and "ugly" and called the final four contestants of the season the least likable ever.

** Season 14 ("Fiji") isn't highly regarded, either, due to a poorly thought out "Haves Vs. Have-Nots" twist where one tribe was initially given a much superior camp, then, predictably, rolled off a string of victories up until the merge.

* Season 5 of ''[[Threes Company|Three's Company]]'' is when Suzanne Somers' infamous salary dispute took place, which put the show through hell that year. The show effectively became "Two's Company" for a while when Suzanne refused to show up on several tape days and had to be hurriedly written out. Chrissy was eventually replaced in the apartment for the rest of the season with her cousin Cindy (a character that many fans seem to dislike), and was only seen herself over the phone in the one-minute tag scene at the end of each episode, before disappearing completely without explanation the next season.

* ''[[Friday Night Lights]]'': Season 2, which bafflingly changed gears from the first season's subtle, understated, and authentic portrait of small-town life to Landry murdering a rapist and hiding the body, Matt having a sexy affair with his grandmother's live-in caretaker, and Tim Riggins running afoul of Dillon's dangerous local meth dealer. Many fans feared that the show had [[Jump the Shark|Jumped the Shark]] only for it to return for a brilliant third season once again in the best spirit of the shows original intentions and with even less filler than the already-brilliant first season. Some have called the ongoing season 4 the best yet.

* Oh, ''[[Twin Peaks]]''. The first season and the beginning of the second were a cultural phenomenon, considered by critics to be some of the best television ever created. Then, creator [[David Lynch]] succumbed to [[Executive Meddling]] and revealed Laura Palmer's killer, who until that had been the major driving force of the plot, and in so doing left the show directionless. To make things worse, Lynch suffered some serious [[Artist Disillusionment]] after this and left the show, leaving it in the hands of writers who ''really'' didn't know what to do with it. The episodes post-Lynch were pure filler, and ratings plummeted, leading to its cancellation at the end of the second season. Luckily, there was a brief upswing in quality once the replacement writers got their game together, and Lynch came back to direct the (awesome) series finale.

* ''[[Chef (TV)|Chef]]'' ran three series in the early 90's. The first two are sharp, witty, and a wonderful vehicle for [[Lenny Henry]]. The third series... it's almost impossible to believe it is the same show.

* The fourth season of ''[[Due South]]''. Several problems contributed to this: the season premiere (Doctor Longball) is not nearly as memorable or exciting as the others from seasons past, the episodes go back to the well of "unmentioned friend/colleague from Fraser/Stanley's past is in need of help," there are no real guest stars or memorable episodes (until the finale), and there's an increasing reliance on Fraser's spiritual conversations with his dead father. The loss of Paul Haggis as a contributor also meant that a lot of the imagery, themes and quotable lines that were prevalent in the first two seasons also disappeared. Luckily, the series slightly rebounded with the excellent 2-part finale, "Call of the Wild."

** 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 (TV)|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 UNCLE|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--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.

* ''[[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]].

* Oddly enough, the very first series of ''[[Black Adder]]'' seems to suffer this. It's almost universally panned and rarely shown in syndication. In fact, the show was actually canceled after the first series due to it not being well-received. It was only after Elton and Curtis stripped it down and made it into one of the cheapest production value shows on the BBC that the show was given a second chance, heavily retooled, and made into the Blackadder we all know and love.

** Season three is either the [[Growing the Beard]] season that's made the show better than ever with things such as more serious character development and funnier plots, or even worse due to exaggerated character depths and over-the-top plotting.

* The third season of ''[[The Man From UNCLE]]'' (during which the approach was changed to ride the coattails of ''[[Batman (TV)|Batman]]'', which also affected ''The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.'') is hated by most fans - two lowpoints: Kuryakin riding a bomb full of essence of skunk that's falling onto Las Vegas and Solo dancing the Watusi with a gorilla - and considered to be the season that killed the show, although it did get an abbreviated fourth season that tried to reverse the damage (too little, too late - and as Jon Heitland's book on the series pointed out, if the third season was too comical the fourth season was too ''serious'').

* Whether ''[[Chuck]]'' decreased in quality in between seasons 2 and 3 is up for debate. On the other hand, season 4 is regarded as a large step down by both fans and critics. This may have largely been due to the fact that both seasons started out with thirteen episode orders and a sense that the show's perpetually low ratings would force it into cancellation, thus necessitating the writers to write episode 13 of each year as a potential series finale. But then, the show would inevitably get an extension from that original order due to its ratings being "good enough" amid the endless ratings bloodbath at NBC, thereby forcing the writers to somehow extend a season arc that had already (and in season four in particular, hastily) been wrapped. Season four in particular was rough on this, given that it was extended ELEVEN EPISODES from that original thirteen episode order, forcing the writers to do several standalones (albeit ones that were received rather well by the fanbase) between the end of the Alexei Volkoff arc and the beginning of the Vivian Volkoff arc. Vivian's arc in particular suffered from poorer character development than Alexei, and the perception that Lauren Cohan wasn't enjoying herself in the role as much as Timothy Dalton was. This latter point got to the extent that both Dalton and Ray Wise had no problems at all upstaging Cohan onscreen despite Vivian supposedly being the driving force of the second-half arc (until the focus whiplashed back to Alexei after it was revealed that {{spoiler|his entire persona was a creation of an old version of the Intersect that had gone haywire and submerged his original persona, Hartley Winterbottom}})

** The mass writer exodus during and after season three (Matt Miller and Zev Borow went to ''[[Human Target]]'', Scott Rosenbaum to the ''[[V]]'' remake, Alison Adler to ''[[No Ordinary Family]]'' and Phil Klemmer to ''[[Undercovers]]'') certainly didn't help, given that all of these departures were veterans of the original staff, who had helped shape the show in a very particular way up to that point.

** Season 5's plot seemed to be about how nothing that had happened in the series (FULCRUM, The Ring, Shaw, etc.) was a coincidence and that Chuck was being manipulated from the start. But then it turned out that Decker was just {{spoiler|working for Shaw}} and any implication of some [[Myth Arc]] disappeared. Then the season meandered before introducing the rather unsatisfying Nicholas Quinn in the last few episodes. Also, a lot of people didn't like that {{spoiler|Morgan}} became the Intersect because it was said numerous times that Chuck is special and is the only one who could handle it. His brief stint as the Intersect at the beginning of the season was also debatably pointless.

* Many fans would agree that ''[[Glee]]'', a once promising show, showed a steep decline in its second season with characters constantly changing motives and personalities, character development going backwards, plots coming out of nowhere, and the show becoming the preachy [[Public Service Announcement]] it used to mock.

* The British children's series ''[[Bernards Watch]]'' started out as just a simple series about a boy with a magic watch that could freeze time, which he used to fix various problems he ran into. But [[Un Canceled|post-revival]] the show focused mainly on Bernard's misadventures in school, and the series now seemed to have some kind of misogynistic agenda, as now all of Bernard's problems were caused by the [[Alpha Bitch]] who was constantly bullying him and his teacher who [[Does Not Like Men|hates boys]] and gives special treatment to girls (especially [[Alpha Bitch]]).

** To a lesser degree, Season 4 gets this as well, also due to the plot cramming, which caused weird pacing issues.

*** Granted, there are also many fans who argue that the first season was considerably weaker than the later ones due to slow pacing and (depending on who you ask) hammy acting from Michael O'Hare's Jeffrey Sinclair.

** Also, the second season allowed two fat chicks in the competition as stylists. These are not '[[Hollywood Fat]]' fat, but 'morbidly-obese' fat: A sure-fire ratings killer!

* Series 4 of ''[[Skins]]'' is considered by nearly all fans and critics to be the worst series so far - the debate is over whether it was wholly bad or whether there were some good episodes in the middle to make up for the way the series started and (especially) ended.

* With ''[[The L Word]]'', the later seasons in general are often accused of this, but particularly the final season - which is so universally hated that some [[Fanon Discontinuity|fans prefer to pretend it didn't happen.]]

* Series 14 of ''[[Top Gear]]'' is generally considered one of the weakest seasons of the show, with an over-reliance on scripted gags, rehashed jokes/challenges and focusing more on the characters of Jeremy, James, and Richard, instead of the actual presenters. (By which I mean, the caricature-like versions of the presenters, i.e. Jeremy being a ham-fisted oaf, rather than Jeremy's own personality.) Thankfully, the quality of later seasons (especially 17) is on the rise.

** After this [[CBS]] decided to [[Retool]] the show as ''[[Archie Bunkers 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]].

* ''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.

* ''[[Wheel of Fortune (TV)|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 (TV)|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]] 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).

* 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.

* For fans of the original run of the Gothic soap opera ''[[Dark Shadows (TV)|Dark Shadows]]'', the fall seems to have started anywhere between the over-extended 1897 arc and the modern-day Leviathan Cult arc that immediately followed it. Some have said that the 1840 arc toward the end of the series nearly revitalized things, but once the transition was made into 1841 Parallel Time, things were pretty much over.

* ''[[Winx Club]]'', Seasons 3 and 4:

** 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]].

* The final three seasons of the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' show (Seasons 8, 9, and 10, also known as the "Red Sky Seasons"), which [[Retool|Retooled]] 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.

* Season six of ''[[South Park]]'', largely due to the backlash against Parker and Stone retiring Kenny and their plans for Butters being the new [[Butt Monkey]] being changed by Comedy Central and fans [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap|rescuing Butters from the Scrappy pile]]. Needless to say, ever since that season, Parker and Stone have openly threatened to quit production of the show (to the point that Parker almost bailed entirely midway through season eight).

** Fans also say that seasons 12 and 15 are suffering rot as well, the latter for deliberately [[Character Derailment|derailing]] the characters for a melodramatic two-parter that ultimately went nowhere.

** Well, the halting of the romance arcs was probably a good thing since according to [[Word of God]], it got a lot of negative reception in France amongst audiences due to the endless, annoying [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]] between Ulrich and Yumi.

* Season Three of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' suffered from this due to [[Executive Meddling]].

* ''[[Ben 10 Alien Force (Animation)|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.