Breaking Bad almost went up in smoke: How Top TV networks passed on the show before AMC took the ultimate gamble

Breaking Bad is counted among the most iconic shows in television history, but there was a time when no network was ready to own the crime drama, which would go on to become a rage over the years.

The show premiered on AMC in 2008 and enjoyed a successful run of five seasons, sweeping multiple awards along the way and becoming a pop culture phenomenon. But before AMC came on board and showed faith in the show, several top TV networks had already rejected Vince Gilligan’s pitch.

Not just one, but four major networks said ‘no’ to Gilligan for varying reasons. These included TNT, HBO, Showtime, and FX. AMC ultimately bagged Breaking Bad, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Why four networks rejected Breaking Bad before AMC greenlit the crime drama

After writing Breaking Bad’s script, Vince Gilligan pitched it to Sony Pictures Television, which gladly agreed to produce the show. But the creator and the production company had no idea how difficult it would be to get a network to air the series.

Gilligan first went with the project to TNT executives. Though they loved the idea, they felt the drug-related subject was not suitable for the network’s audience. Gilligan talked about his meeting with TNT in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation and said:

“I get to the end, [the two executives] look at each other and they say, 'Oh god, I wish we could buy this.' Then they said, 'If we bought this, we'd be fired ... We cannot put this on TNT, it's meth, it can't be meth, it's reprehensible.”

The series creator understood their point and decided to pitch Breaking Bad to HBO, where the network executive had a pretty indifferent reaction. Gilligan later described the experience as the worst meeting of his life, which happened within a day of the rejection by TNT:

“The trouble with Hollywood — movies and TV — is people will leave you dangling on the end of a meat hook for days or weeks or months on end. That happened at HBO. Like the worst meeting I ever had versus the TNT meeting, and it was only like a day apart.”

“The woman we’re pitching to could not have been less interested — not even in my story, but about whether I actually lived or died. It was just sitting there, just sort of like looking at her watch. And I’ve got the flop sweat going. … My agents couldn’t even get her on the phone afterwards to say no.”

The next option for the show was Showtime, which let it go because the network already had a series based on a helpless individual turned drug lord. The show was called Weeds and starred Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin, a widow who starts dealing in drugs after her husband’s death.

The fourth network where Breaking Bad was pitched was FX, and Gilligan finally found some luck this time as the executives liked the script and bought it. But the project hit another roadblock as FX chairman John Landgraf felt there were already several shows on the network revolving around male anti-heroes.

They decided to shelve Breaking Bad and instead went ahead with a show called Dirt, which had a female anti-hero played by Friends star Courteney Cox. Landgraf later admitted that he regretted rejecting the Bryan Cranston-starring drama after it turned out to be a massive success.

After four rejections, Gilligan’s agent was finally able to set up his meeting with AMC’s director of original programming, Jeremy Elice, who, along with his colleagues, saw potential in the script and decided to invest in the show.

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FX eventually agreed to give up the rights to Breaking Bad, and the show finally saw the light of day on AMC in 2008 and aired on the network till 2013. AMC later became home to its spin-off, Better Call Saul, as well, which also received a thunderous response from the audience.

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