The 16 worst HBO shows, according to critics

HBO The Newsroom Jeff Daniels

Throughout its history of original programming, HBO has delivered some of the greatest TV shows of all time, including "The Wire," "Deadwood," and "The Sopranos."

But with every string of success comes at least some failure. Although HBO hasn't made nearly as many terrible shows as networks like CBS, NBC and ABC in the long run, it's certainly released quite a few stinkers.

But which HBO shows are the worst? We ranked its shows according to their ratings on Metacritic, which aggregates critic reviews and assigns each season of a show a score between 1 and 100.

For shows with multiple seasons, we averaged their scores. And to break ties, we brought in the audience score.

Here's how HBO's shows rank, from worst to best, according to critics on Metacritic.

(Note: We left off animated, children's, documentary/reality, and foreign programming, as well as miniseries, with a few notable exceptions.)

16. "The Newsroom" (2012-14), three seasons

Average Metacritic score: 61.7

"The series is kind of a mess ... but one you can't really look away from." — SFGate

15. "Carnivale" (2003-05), two seasons

Average Metacritic score: 61

"A bloated mess ... 'Carnivale' is a little too full of itself. Believing that it has a fascinating story to tell with all the complex themes you could imagine, the series nevertheless fails the first test of television: Move forward." — SFGate

14. "Unscripted" (2005), one season

Metacritic score: 60

Audience Score: N/A

"A faux documentary on actors who are not famous but who are struggling to be isn't inherently interesting to non-actors ... 'Unscripted' isn't a complete flop. It's just rare that HBO fails like this." — The San Francisco Chronicle

See the rest of the story at Business Insider