2009 was filled with plenty of great television, both old and new, but just as fun were the low points.  This year, television also saw plenty of truly terrible TV, from a wide variety of awful new sitcoms to completely unnecessary reality shows.

BuddyTV has looked back and chosen our Bottom 9 of '09 for both reality and scripted television.  Do our lists match yours, or are we way off base with what was the worst TV of 2009?



REALITY TV


9. So You Think You Can Dance Season 6

For the first time airing in the Fall, SYTYCD got a painfully bad new set and a Top 20 that couldn't deliver on the promise that they were the best ever.  This was pointless and tarnished a fantastic season 5.

8. Project Runway on Lifetime

Lifetime stole Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum from Bravo, and in the process they turned a once entertaining and fun reality show into a boring, monotonous waste.  Maybe it was the casting, maybe it was L.A., but season 6 did not work.

7. Hitched or Ditched

The biggest threat to the institution of marriage isn't "opposite marriage," it's shows like Hitched or Ditched where couples are given a few weeks to decide whether they want to say "I do" on TV or break up during the ceremony.  For us, this mockery of relationships is one billion times worse than Adam Lambert kissing a dude.

6. The Hills

The show that defies realism at every turn continued with the return of Kristen, a move that proved even more boring than it sounds.  But to be fair, we really shouldn't be naming The Hills one of the worst reality shows of the year since there's nothing "real" about it.

5. Unnecessary E! Spin-Offs

Do Khloe, Kourtney and Kendra all really need their own shows?  E! thinks so, but we're tired of this spin-off madness.  Let's just hope no one from Denise Richards' family is looking for their own show.

4. The Girls Next Door: The Next Generation

We were completely fine with Bridget, Kendra and Holly's antics.  But when they left the Playboy Mansion, the girls in the title were gone.  For reasons beyond our comprehension, Hef got a few new younger blondes and the series continued, even more pointlessly than before.

3. VH1 Dating Shows

Real Chance of Love.  For the Love of Ray J.  Rock of Love Bus.  Daisy of Love.  Megan Wants a Millionaire.  My Antonio.  Regardless of what washed up pseudo-celebrity is at the center, this formula was reach the breaking point.

2. Jon and Kate Plus 8

Sadly, 2009 was the year the Gosselin family inexplicably became front page news for tabloid magazines.  Watching a family disintegrate on TV isn't fun, especially when both parents are equally unsympathetic.

1. I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!

We could simply point to Heidi and Spencer's presence as proof this was the worst reality show of the year, but there's more.  The sad truth is that they WERE among the biggest "stars" on this show, especially compared to Rod Blagojevich's wife and Frangela.  The competitions were monotonous, the drama was absent and we didn't care about any of it.



SCRIPTED TV

9. Gossip Girl

This once edgy show has resorted to cheap stunts like threesomes and gay kisses.  Those moments are "OMFG," they're "OMFZzzzzzzzzzz."

8. 90210 and Melrose Place

If you're going to ruin a '90s series, at least make it interesting.  90210 fell apart with dull stories and actors who look 40 playing teenagers.  Melrose Place started with promise, but quickly devolved into a slow and torturous bore-a-thon.

7. The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Here's all you need to know about why this show was so bad.  A devout Christian loses her virginity on the same night her dad dies in a plane crash, and she firmly believes that because she had sex, God killed her dad.  She ACTUALLY believes that.

6. The L Word

The lesbian drama's final season could've been a great send-off for one of the few TV shows that bothered to address a unique minority.  Instead, fans felt betrayed by the way the final season destroyed everything that came before it.

5. Cougar Town

A show about cougars could theoretically be empowering, but the female characters on this show are all whiny, pathetic, awful creatures painted as people who deserve to be mocked and pitied.

4. Roommates and Ruby and the Rockits

If you have no idea what these two shows are, you're lucky.  This year ABC Family tried to make sitcoms, and these two trainwrecks were the results.

3. Heroes

It's like the writers aren't even trying.  Hiro has gone back in time so often and changed so many things that everything that happened before is now meaningless.  Charlie is alive again?  Sure, why not!  Hopefully the next season will feature Hiro going back to before this show started so he can kill Tim Kring and let someone with actual talent run this show.

2. Brothers

What is Emmy nominee CCH Pounder doing on a generic sitcom with a football player?  For that matter, why are Carl Weathers and Daryl Mitchell doing the same thing?  This show is just a generically bad sitcom, but the level of acting talent assembled makes this a truly offensive show.

1. Hank

We're willing to overlook to stupid, cliché comedy.  But what makes this the absolutely worst show of 2009 is the premise.  Hank is a rich CEO who "loses everything" in the financial crisis and is forced to move to his hometown in a "small" house.  The problem is that his "small" house is nicer than the one the average American family lives in, and he and his family still spend the whole time whining about how awful their lives are.  We don't want to watch along and laugh with these people, we want to slap them for whining about being upper middle class.





(Image courtesy of MTV)