5. Lucky Louie
Louis C.K. is usually a name tied to success in TV series, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Lucky Louie. The show aired in 2006, and it didn’t manage to get past that first season.
C.K. plays a part-time mechanic at a muffler shop, and the filming is done with a live studio audience, like in the “good old days”. While the show depicts the average working class family lifestyle, it didn’t manage to connect with the audience. HBO ordered 12 episodes, which were filmed and aired, and the scripts for another eight episodes for a second series. It decided to cancel the show, however, before work even started on those, so that was the end of Lucky Louie.
4. John from Cincinnati
Another one-season wonder for HBO is John from Cincinnati, a show that ranks 4th in our list of biggest HBO flops of all time. It focuses on the surging community from the famous Imperial Beach in California. The show came from David Milch (Deadwood, NYPD Blue) and writer Kem Nunn and it only aired for one season in 2007.
Despite high anticipation following the pilot premiere, which happened after the series finale of The Sopranos, the show lost audience over the following weeks, dropping to about 3 million by the end of the season.
