6 Canceled MTV Shows We Want to Return

6 Canceled MTV Shows We Want to Return,Shows like 'Faking It' and 'TRL' need to make a comeback.

6 Canceled MTV Shows We Want to Return

After MTV was known for just music, the network had a variety of hit scripted and unscripted series. Aside from shows like Ridiculousness and Jersey Shore, MTV’s slate has included some pretty underrated and popular gems that deserved a longer life. Particularly, the scripted slate was a goldmine. From Teen Wolf to Awkward to Faking It, music was second-best on the network for a little bit.

Then there’s the unscripted series, and I’m not talking about Teen Mom or Catfish. Going back to TRL, Silent Library, Parental Control, and more, MTV was at its height when it had a good balance of scripted and unscripted series. It’s hard to mention all of the shows that need to come back, so we’ve narrowed it down to six.

‘Faking It’

(Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for MTV)

Perhaps one of the most underrated scripted series on MTV was Faking It. Airing from 2014 to 2016 for three seasons, the dramedy focused on the lives of students at a suburban Austin high school. After friends Karma and Amy are assumed to be a lesbian couple and are outed as the school’s first, the two must navigate their “relationship.” At the same time, Amy develops feelings for Karma while Karma sets her sights on the popular and handsome Liam.

Although being a groundbreaking series for featuring the first intersex main character on a television show, the network canceled the series after only three seasons. It’s been seven years, and the cancelation still hurts.

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‘Finding Carter’

Another underrated series, Finding Carter centered on a teenage girl finding out her whole life is a lie and that the woman she thought was her mother abducted her when she was a child. She reunites with her actual family, including her twin sister, and she struggles with it. The show only lasted for two seasons, ending in 2015. The real kicker is that Finding Carter ended on a cliffhanger. To at least get some conclusion would be nice because it’s still upsetting.

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‘Awkward’

Awkward is one of the more popular shows on this list and definitely deserves some more love. The dramedy ran for five seasons and almost 100 episodes. It follows social outcast Jenna Hamilton starting a blog that helps her deal with various teen issues. While it seemed like the series would be renewed for Season 6, MTV ended up not renewing it. The show officially came to an end in May 2016, and it’s definitely time for a comeback.

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‘Eye Candy’

In Victoria Justice’s first TV role post-Nickelodeon, the actress starred in the one-season crime thriller Eye Candy. Based on the R.L. Stine novel of the same name, the drama follows Justice’s Lindy Sampson, a tech genius who hunts for a serial killer in New York while also searching for her lost sister. The series aired from January to March 2015, and it was revealed only a month later that the show was canceled.

Veteran shows getting canceled hurts but shows getting canceled after only one season hurts even more. It doesn’t give the show enough time to really grow, and it seems that people just forget about said series not long after. Plus, this was a good genre for Justice to do after her Nickelodeon days to ease into other projects, and it’s a shame we didn’t get more of it.

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‘Happyland’

Another one-season series, Happyland centered on the lives of theme park workers. It put a lot of focus into the daughter of one of the character actors who wants to leave the park but is instead swept off her feet by the son of the park’s owner. Only a double whammy could jeopardize that. It only ran for eight episodes. Despite not being one of the most popular shows and maybe even a forgettable one, Happyland had a lot of room to grow, and its cancellation was not very happy.

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‘Total Request Live’

Technically, TRL already had a comeback, but that doesn’t mean it still can’t try again. Total Request Live was the epitome of MTV and had teens tuning in every day to see if their favorite video made the countdown. The original run lasted for 10 years, officially ending in 2008. TRL was revived nine years later before ending again in 2019. It had quite the impact on music television. With all of the insane music coming out these days, it’s a crime that we can’t watch TRL anymore to see if the latest Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo video would make the countdown.

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