Jingle Binge

13 Biggest Turkeys of 2018: Megyn Kelly, Pete Davidson, and More Epic Fails

By Meghan O'Keefe @megsokay

Published Nov. 22, 2018, 8:00 a.m. ET

photo split of Pete Davidson, Megyn Kelly, and Kanye West — Photos: Getty Images; Photo Illustration: Dillen Phelps

Biggest Turkeys: Megyn Kelly — **The Turkey: MEGYN KELLY** **The Fail:** Perhaps no one failed so spectacularly in 2018 than Megyn Kelly. The former Fox News anchor had been lured to rival network NBC only a few years ago and promised a lucrative paycheck for her troubles. After she fumbled in prime time, the Peacock gave her a coveted morning slot which she drove into the ground with her non-stop marathon of blunders. Finally, after supporting black face on TV, Kelly was discarded by the network. And no one mourned her loss.Photo: Getty Images

Biggest Turkeys: Gotti — The Turkey: *GOTTI* **The Fail:** Every year, there is one movie so bad, that it enters the pop culture consciousness to become an study in infamy. In 2018, that movie was *Gotti.* *Gotti* is so bad that Decider's Josh Sorokoch declared it to be "actually worse than its 0% Rotten Tomatoes score." The 100-minute-long gangster film is an incoherent mess that doesn't deserve to exist. But somehow it does.Photo: Everett Collection

Biggest Turkeys: Roseanne Barr — **The Turkey: ROSEANNE** **The Fail:** Roseanne is no stranger to controversy, but over the summer, she hit the point of no return. After tweeting a racist invective about Valerie Jarrett, ABC decided to cancel her hit show. However, over the summer, the cast and creative team of *Roseanne* banded together to reboot the show as *The Connors*, which has already proven itself to be a hit on its own terms. Thus proving that Roseanne's own show didn't even need her to succeed. Yipes.Photo: Getty Images

Biggest Turkeys: Alec Baldwin — The Turkey: *THE ALEC BALDWIN SHOW* **The Fail:** In the spring, ABC announced that Alec Baldwin would be getting his own primetime talk show *Sundays with Alec Baldwin*. Fast forward to today and *The Alec Baldwin Show* has been yanked from the schedule and moved to Saturdays - that most ignoble of primetime broadcast days. The show is worse than a dud. It's dead on arrival. It has a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes.Photo: Getty Images

Biggest Turkeys: Kanye West — **The Turkey: KANYE WEST** **The Fail:** Where to start with Kanye West... Well, besides having a series of very bizarre public meltdowns, including tweeting out that slavery was a "choice," West also seemed to suddenly realize that he had been manipulated by people behind-the-scenes to further a racist agenda. In late October, West tweeted that he had "nothing to do" with Candace Owen's "Blexit" campaign and declared that his eyes were open now and he would focus on art. West's 2018 was messy indeed.Photo: Getty Images

Biggest Turkeys: Iron Fist — The Turkey: *MARVEL'S IRON FIST* **The Fail:** Even though *Marvel's Iron Fist*'s second season was astoundingly better than its first, it was still too little too late. The series became the first Marvel show canceled on Netflix and set the stage for *Luke Cage* to be killed, too. The laughably silly superhero show also may have dragged the prestige of the whole Marvel Defenders universe down with it... oof.Photo: Netflix

Biggest Turkeys: Nutcracker and the Four Realms — The Turkey: *THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS* **The Fail:** Disney had a juggernaut year at the box office, save for this baffling dud. Keira Knightley's batshit goo-goo baby voice aside, this film was boring, bizarre, and utterly unenjoyable. What...what even was it?Photo: Everett Collection

Biggest Turkeys: Cloverfield Paradox — The Turkey: *THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX* **The Fail:** You remember *The Cloverfield Paradox*, right? Netflix's biggest movie of 2018? Nope? *The Cloverfield Paradox?* You know the movie that Netflix surprise dropped onto its service immediately following the Super Bowl? It was supposed to be a huge hit, and *The Cloverfield Paradox* was actually kind of a lame sci-fi retread wasting a stellar cast.Photo: Netflix

Biggest Turkeys: Solo A Star Wars Story — The Turkey: *SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY* **The Fail:** Though technically a modest hit, *Solo: A Star Wars Story* grounded the Star Wars franchise in a distinctly unwelcome way. The movie itself was just...okay. The box office...just fine. This is the movie that took Star Wars out of the heavens and into the realm of the ho-hum.Photo: Everett Collection

Biggest Turkeys: Pete Davidson — **The Turkey: PETE DAVIDSON** **The Fail:** Davidson had a number of stumbles this year, most notably his public breakup with Ariana Grande and his offensive ribbing of veteran Dan Crenshaw for an injury sustained during war. But of all the turkeys on this list, Davidson is the one we're rooting for the most. His blunders are the naive kind, and he's already proven himself nimble in the face of defeat. Photo: Getty Images

Biggest Turkeys: Arrested Development Season 5 — **The Turkey: *ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT* SEASON 5** **The Fail:** *Arrested Development* was once one of the jewels of the Netflix crown, but Season 5 landed on the service without fanfare. The problem? Not only was the season kind of bad, but Jason Bateman put his foot in his mouth in a cringe-worthy interview where he made Jessica Walter cry. Bateman later apologized to Walter, but the PR damage was done...Photo: Netflix

Biggest Turkeys: Handmaids Tale — **The Turkey: THE END OF *THE HANDMAID'S TALE* SEASON 2** **The Fail:** Welp. Nothing gold can stay. We don't want to spoil the end of the hit Hulu drama's second season, but suffice to say, a lot of fans were upset with how the season shook out. Instead of following June's natural evolution as a character, we watched as she made a dumb-dumb choice clearly designed to keep the drama going in Gilead.

Biggest Turkeys: Hurricane Heist — The Turkey: *THE HURRICANE HEIST* **The Fail:** Giddy, goofy, and horrifyingly terrible, *The Hurricane Heist* was the worst movie of 2018 that...we actually kind of want to watch? Look, not all turkeys are entirely terrible. Some are so bad, they're good.Photo: Everett Collection

Where to Stream:

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Thanksgiving is commonly referred to as “Turkey Day,” as in the day Americans gather together to share a massive turkey dinner with family and friends. But the word turkey doesn’t just refer to a bird. In fact, the Dictionary.com definition of “turkey” extends to this blistering bit of slang:

a person or thing of little appeal; dud; loser.
a naive, stupid, or inept person.
a poor and unsuccessful theatrical production; flop.

This Thanksgiving, it’s time to acknowledge that 2018 gave us a lot of turkeys. I’m talking celebrities dumbly driving themselves into the jaws of disaster, movies that flopped big time at the box office, and shows that crashed and burned so badly we can’t even remember watching them at all.

Some of these turkeys involve the usual suspects. You know who I’m talking about. Megyn Kelly made news this year for her embarrassing marathon of gaffes, Roseanne messed up so badly she was killed off her own show, and Kanye wrecked himself by just being Kanye. However, there were some more surprising fails this year, too. The Star Wars franchise found itself dragged down to earth by the ho-hum Solo: A Star Wars Story and Hulu’s celebrated drama The Handmaid’s Tale alienated viewers with a maddening Season 2 finale.

Lest you think we’re just being mean, the truth is we’re rooting for these folks to rebound before the year is through. In fact, some folks on the list have already shown signs that they are willing to regroup and seize the rest of 2018. We’re just thankful that 2018 was better for us than it was for these 13 embarrassing turkeys.