Trending badgeTrendingPosted 2 hours agoSubscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret Down15 TV Shows That Were So Controversial, They Were Canceled Before They Even Made It To Air"Game of Thrones" creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss almost made an "alt history" drama where slavery was still legal.by Kristen HarrisBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink TV shows get canceled for all sorts of reasons - low ratings, budget concerns, bad decisions by the network, etc. Sometimes, however, a series is canceled before a single episode makes it to air because something about the show makes people go, "Who on earth approved this?!" Nickelodeon / Via giphy.com Here are 15 TV shows that were so controversial, they were canceled before making it to air: 1. THE SHOW: In 2021, CBS announced its new reality competition series, The Activist. This "first of its kind" series was poised to follow six activists competing across an array of challenges. Their success would be determined by the level of social media engagement they garnered as well as the judgment of hosts Usher, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Julianne Hough. The grand prize was a trip to Rome for the G20 Summit, where they could meet with world leaders to advocate for their causes. Christopher Polk / Billboard via Getty Images, Dimitrios Kambouris / WireImage / Via Getty, Gilbert Carrasquillo / GC Images / Via Getty THE CONTROVERSY: The format was widely criticized online. For example, United We Dream cofounder Cristina Jiménez Moreta called it a "mockery" of activism. Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Time THE CANCELLATION: In a joint statement, CBS, Live Nation, and Global Citizen apologized and admitted that they "got it wrong." Variety reported that, following backlash, the reality show aspect of the show was dropped. The series had already been filmed, but the network planned to start completely over and rework the concept into a documentary. However, it doesn't appear that the documentary version was ever released.A message from Global Citizen on "The Activist." pic.twitter.com/CSODAwiIdR- Global Citizen ⭕ (@GlblCtzn) September 15, 2021 Twitter: @GlblCtzn 2. THE SHOW: In 2017, HBO announced its next series with Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss - the pair were set to write and showrun the "alt-history" drama Confederate. The show was set in an alternate timeline where the Confederate States of America didn't lose the Civil War, but successfully became an independent nation where slavery was still legalized. It would follow a cast of slave-holding conglomerate executives, abolitionists, slave hunters, journalists, freedom fighters, politicians, and their families in the events leading up to the Third American Civil War. Rich Polk / Deadline via Getty Images THE CONTROVERSY: Unsurprisingly, the show was widely criticized across social media and in the press. In an op-ed for the New York Times, aptly titled "I Don't Want to Watch Slavery Fan Fiction," writer Roxane Gay said, "Each time I see a reimagining of the Civil War that largely replicates what actually happened, I wonder why people are expending the energy to imagine that slavery continues to thrive when we are still dealing with the vestiges of slavery in very tangible ways. Those vestiges are visible in incarceration rates for black people, a wildly segregated country, disparities in pay and mortality rates and the ever-precarious nature of black life in a world where it can often seem as if police officers take those lives with impunity." Rob Kim / Getty Images Likewise, advocate and media strategist April Reign, who started the #OscarsSoWhite movement, created the hashtag #NoConfederate. While an episode of Game of Thrones aired, the hashtag trended nationally and internationally. April Reign / Via x.com THE CANCELLATION: Three years later, Confederate was finally dead in the water. HBO president Casey Bloys confirmed the cancellation to TVLine after the series creators made a significant deal with Netflix. Frazer Harrison/GA / The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images 3. THE SHOW: In 2005, ABC was set to premiere a reality series called Welcome to the Neighborhood, a competition to win a house in the Circle C Ranch subdivision of Austin, Texas, featuring seven diverse families: the Crenshaws (a religious Black family), the Eckharts (a white Wiccan family), the Gonzalezes (a "loud," warm Latino family), the Lees (an Asian family who owned a sushi restaurant), the Morgans (a "picture-perfect" white family with a mom secretly working in a strip club), the Sheets (a white Republican family covered in tattoos), and the Wrights (a white gay couple raising their adopted Black son). ABC / Via reddit.com They were judged by a trio of middle-class, white families from the neighborhood - the Stewarts, who had a "super opinionated" dad considered to be the "governor" of Circle C Ranch; the Bellamys, who had three open-minded kids and a super Republican dad ready to "challenge" anyone with differe