Courtesy of Netflix; Courtesy of CBS

In a world of 495 scripted shows, "worst" can mean many things.

Obviously it can refer to sheer ineptitude, but is it really interesting to pick on something like The CW’s utterly amateurish The Outpost over and over again, even if that low-budget acquisition had the feel of a summer-camp arts-and-crafts project? Nah.

More often, "worst" can be applied to degrees of frustration, annoyance, and disappointment that come from a show falling from previous heights, failing to live up to the level of its pedigree or badly blundering an interesting concept. Often, that hurts more than mere ineptitude.

Here are 10 of the year’s most dispiriting lowlights, listed alphabetically.