History ToughActToFollow / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/DenjiSentaiMegaranger'' has a specific storytelling example, as it was the season that introduced the Nezirangers (trope-naming ThePsychoRangers from the season's American counterpart ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace.'') Unlike the typical "evil ranger" teams, who tend to be one-episode EliteMooks, the Neziranger/Psychos were multi-episode complex villains with their own personalities, plots, and interpersonal relationships and conflicts. The team was such a massive success in this regard, that both the American and Japanese creative teams seem to realize that they'd never be able to replicate their success, and haven't seemed to be all that motivated to try, and subsequent "evil ranger" teams have been primarily relegated back to EliteMooks status, with one of the few new attempts at a new Psycho-Ranger style team being the Five Venom Fists of ''Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger'' (named the Five Fingers of Poison in ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury,'') who were popular, albeit at least party because of their similarities to the Psycho Rangers.

** When ''Ex-Aid'' ended there were concerns as to how the following series, ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'', would measure up. Not only did it meet the high bar set by ''Ex-Aid'', it surpassed it... and in doing so, set an even higher bar for the following series to overcome. ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' got it the worst as ''Build's'' immediate follow-up, but even nowadays most new ''Rider'' seasons tend to get compared to ''Ex-Aid'' and/or ''Build'' in some way. Those two shows seem to be where he franchise peaked, and the installments that have come after have as of yet been unable to live up to their level of acclaim.

** Played straight, however, by Series/TensouSentaiGoseiger, coming immediately after the dripping-with-awesome Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger. It doesn't help matters that ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'' came after it. ''Series/TokumeiSentaiGobusters'' got exactly the same position, coming right off of the immense success that was ''Gokaiger''. And if that wasn't enough, ''Shinkenger'' and ''Go-Busters'' were both written by Yasuko Kobayashi, and the latter show kept being compared to her earlier work.

** Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe's tenure as producer (1975-77) is widely seen as the show's {{golden age}}. His replacement Creator/GrahamWilliams not only had to follow that, but he inherited a series with all sorts of production issues - budget problems, script problems, labour problems and a difficult star. While his era is era did produce some classic stories, it's widely considered inferior to his predecessor.

* When ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' returned to the airwaves in 1984, Creator/AlexTrebek became the new emcee. Trebek immediately received this reaction, to the point where long-time fans of Art Fleming—who had helmed the show for eleven years on two different NBC runs—considered him a ReplacementScrappy. The comparisons stopped by the third season, at which point Trebek had become well-adjusted to the role. Such was his tenure that it is inevitable that candidates to replace him will face a similar challenge.

* Creator/{{NBC}}'s December 2016 telecast of the ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'' musical premiered on the heels of TheNewTens' most-acclaimed network TV musicals thus far: Creator/{{FOX}}'s January 2016 production of ''Film/{{Grease}}'', and NBC's December 2015 production of ''Theatre/TheWiz''. While ''Hairspray'' earned mostly positive reviews, many critics and viewers also called it less polished than ''Grease'' and/or ''The Wiz'', despite sharing some backstage talent with both of them. Even more unfortunate, ''Hairspray'' scored the lowest Nielsen ratings of any musical aired live on American network TV during The New '10s so far. NBC also struggled winning over fans of the 2007 ''Hairspray'' movie, who couldn't resist making unfavorable comparisons between NBC's actors and its cast, and were even miffed that it was following the Broadway show instead of including changes that the movie had made. However, this telecast did manage to win three Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the most of any live NBC musical of TheNewTens thus far.

** ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' is a {{Spinoff}} of ''Breaking Bad'', so the fact it would struggle with this was a given. In spite of that, it ended up being an almost complete aversion, with a near universal agreement that it is a worthy successor, as well as being hailed as one of the best prequels of all time and a not insignificant number of people even finding it [[EvenBetterSequel superior]], due to many finding more pathos and nuance in Jimmy's [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain tragic fall]] than in Walt's.

** ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' is a {{Spinoff}} of ''Breaking Bad'', so the fact it would struggle with this was a given. In spite of that, it ended up being an almost complete aversion, with a near universal agreement that it is a worthy successor, as well as being hailed as one of the best prequels of all time and a not insignificant number of people even finding it [[EvenBetterSequel superior]], due to many finding more pathos and nuance in Saul's [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain tragic fall]] than in Walt's.

** When ''Ex-Aid'' ended there were concerns as to how the following series, ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'', would measure up. Not only did it meet the high bar set by ''Ex-Aid'', it surpassed it... and in doing so, set an even higher bar for the following series to overcome. ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' got it the worst as ''Build's'' immediate follow-up, but ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'' also recieved complaints about ArcFatigue that probably would have been less noticable were it not being compared to ''Build's'' much brisker pacing.

* ''Series/TheColbertReport'': The series was such a pop culture phenomenon that no attempt to fill its time slot as a companion series to ''Series/TheDailyShow'' has succeeded so far. It was first replaced by ''Series/TheNightlyShow'', which was met with a mixed response and ultimate canceled after 19 months. The slot was then filled with ''Series/TheOppositionWithJordanKlepper'', which was a more direct attempt to ape the success of ''The Colbert Report'' by doing the same thing to Alex Jones as the original show did to Bill O'Reilly. It, too, failed to garner a following and was canceled after 10 months. The time slot was subsequently filled with reruns of ''Series/TheOffice'' as Comedy Central regrouped.

* After the success of ''Series/{{The Office|UK}}'', creators Creator/RickyGervais and Creator/StephenMerchant actively parodied/dared people to invoke this trope in the lead-up and advertising for their next series ''Series/{{Extras}}'', which was essentially billed as "the show people are already calling 'the disappointing follow-up to ''Series/{{The Office|UK}}.''" Although ''Extras'' was largely praised as being just as good as their original series, comments of this nature could still nevertheless be heard from time to time.