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The Worst Episodes of Columbo

Every episode of Columbo ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Columbo!

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Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    Columbo Season 10 Episode 5 - No Time to Die
    6.1/10(212 votes)

    S10:E5

    Columbo attends the wedding of his police officer nephew. While her husband takes a shower, the bride disappears from the bridal suite. The groom enlists Uncle Columbo's help in unraveling the case. Seems she has been kidnapped by a psychopath who intends to kill her once he consummates "their" marriage.

    Director:Alan J. Levi
    Writer:Evan Hunter

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  2. Columbo Season 5 Episode 6 - Last Salute to the Commodore
    6.2/10(3289 votes)

    S5:E6

    The family and friends of brilliant naval architect Commodore Otis Swanson have gathered for the company’s annual party. The commodore, however, has become increasingly discontented with the way his son-in-law, Charles Clay, has developed the shipbuilding firm into a vast, impersonal corporation. He is tired of being surrounded by freeloaders like his alcoholic daughter, Joanna, his irresponsible nephew, Swanny, and of course, Charles. The only man he respects is Wayne Taylor, the head of the boatyard. In fact, the Commodore intends to sell the company. That night, Charles is wiping clean the belaying pin used to bash the Commodore’s skull.

    Director:Patrick McGoohan
    Writer:Jackson Gillis

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  3. Columbo Season 5 Episode 4 - A Matter of Honor
    6.7/10(2685 votes)

    S5:E4

    The owner of a bull ranch in Mexico gives his workers the day off, and then talks his number one man into fighting the bull who nearly killed his son. But instead he shoots him with a tranquilizer gun, and lets the bull kill him. Colombo, who is on vacation in Mexico, gets dragged into this case by an admiring colleague, but he has trouble convincing the Mexicans that the accident is really homicide. And how do you prove that the bull is a murder weapon?

    Director:Ted Post
    Writer:Brad Radnitz

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  4. Columbo Season 10 Episode 9 - Undercover
    6.7/10(121 votes)

    S10:E9

    A photograph is the only clue for Columbo when two dead men and a seven year old mystery with $4 million dollars involved as well as an obnoxious insurance investigator come into play.

    Director:Vincent McEveety
    Writer:Evan Hunter

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  5. Columbo Season 9 Episode 6 - Murder in Malibu
    6.8/10(280 votes)

    S9:E6

    An ambitious womanizer, rejected by the romance novelist he planned to marry, ends the story she was writing with a gun and makes the murder look like robbery gone awry.

    Director:Walter Grauman
    Writer:Jackson Gillis

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  6. Columbo Season 1 Episode 3 - Dead Weight
    6.9/10(4118 votes)

    S1:E3

    A famous general kills a business associate, then woos a neurotic female witness to thwart Columbo's investigation.

    Director:Jack Smight
    Writer:John T. Dugan

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  7. Columbo Season 8 Episode 4 - Grand Deceptions
    6.9/10(303 votes)

    S8:E4

    Frank Brailie runs a private military foundation for wanabe soldiers owned by the wheelchair bound General Padget. The General has become suspicious of Frank as a great deal of money seems to be going to a Special Projects Fund. The General tells a close colleague to investigate Frank and the Special Projects Fund. Instead of reporting his fraudulent findings back to the General, he decides to blackmail Frank for some of the money, Frank agrees and starts to plan his murder.

    Director:Sam Wanamaker
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Columbo Season 10 Episode 13 - Murder With Too Many Notes
    6.9/10(168 votes)

    S10:E13

    Hollywood film composer and conductor Findlay Crawford has been mentor to a talented young composer who has been ghostwriting most of Crawford's work for the last few years, and penned Crawford's entire last movie score, which won an Oscar. When the protege wants to venture out on his own, Crawford, whose own talent seems to have run dry, concocts the perfect murder, made to look like a suicide.

    Director:Patrick McGoohan
    Writers:Patrick McGoohan, Jeffrey Cava

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  9. Columbo Season 2 Episode 4 - Dagger of the Mind
    7.0/10(3631 votes)

    S2:E4

    Columbo journeys to London to observe Scotland Yard, but winds up investigating murders committed by two Shakespearean actors.

    Director:Richard Quine
    Writers:William Link, Richard Levinson

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  10. Columbo Season 3 Episode 6 - Mind Over Mayhem
    7.0/10(2928 votes)

    S3:E6

    The director of a government institute that employs various scientific geniuses commits a clever murder. But another kind of genius is on the case: Lt. Columbo.

    Director:Alf Kjellin
    Writers:Robert Specht, Steven Bochco, Dean Hargrove

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  11. Columbo Season 10 Episode 14 - Columbo Likes the Nightlife
    7.0/10(145 votes)

    S10:E14

    The final Columbo story starring Peter Falk, Los Angeles rave promoter Justin Price helps his girlfriend Vanessa get rid of the corpse of her ex-husband, who was backing Price's new club, after he drops dead in Vanessa's apartment. When an investigative reporter pieces the crime together and threatens to blackmail Justin, Justin kills him.

    Director:Jeffrey Reiner
    Writer:Michael Alaimo

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  12. Columbo Season 1 Episode 6 - Short Fuse
    7.1/10(3834 votes)

    S1:E6

    A chemist rigs a bomb in his uncle's car to gain control of his uncle's company, then plants clues to make Columbo suspicious of the company's Vice-President.

    Director:Edward M. Abroms
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Columbo Season 6 Episode 2 - Old Fashioned Murder
    7.1/10(2631 votes)

    S6:E2

    The female head of a museum hires one of the guards to rob the museum to collect the insurance money. But during the robbery she kills him and her own brother, and makes it look like they killed each other. The guard/robber's brother reports a strange message on his answering machine, that makes it seem that he has been killed. And Columbo gets the case. When Columbo first comes to the crime scene, he notices that the lights are off, a gold medallion in the robber's pants, and signs that pointed to the fact that he was going abroad after the heist. And he concluded that these clues mean that someone else was involved.

    Director:Robert Douglas
    Writer:Peter S. Feibleman

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  14. Columbo Season 1 Episode 5 - Lady in Waiting
    7.2/10(3978 votes)

    S1:E5

    A woman shoots her overbearing brother, claiming she thought he was a burglar. Columbo doesn't buy the self-defense claim - he know's it's murder.

    Director:Norman Lloyd
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Columbo Season 3 Episode 1 - Lovely But Lethal
    7.2/10(3357 votes)

    S3:E1

    Viveca Scott, the founder of Beauty Mark Cosmetics, is being threatened by her rival David Lang. When he finds out that her revolutionary cream formula actually removes wrinkles, he has the formula pirated.

    Director:Jeannot Szwarc
    Writers:Jackson Gillis, Myrna Bercovici

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  16. Columbo Season 5 Episode 2 - A Case of Immunity
    7.2/10(2806 votes)

    S5:E2

    An ambassador from Suari and his code clerk kill the chief of security in an attempt to make it look like the chief was a traitor, who blew up the legation safe and stole £600.000 on behalf of a dissident group. But Columbo gets suspicious. He just has one problem crushing the ambassador's alibi and then, when the code clerk turns up dead, the ambassador has an alibi again. But even if Colombo could rock the two alibis, there is always the immunity problem.

    Director:Ted Post
    Writers:Lou Shaw, James Menzies

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  17. Columbo Season 10 Episode 10 - Strange Bedfellows
    7.2/10(130 votes)

    S10:E10

    Graham McVeigh, a thoroughbred ranch owner, kills his brother, and frames a local mob bookie. Then, under the guise of making good on his brother's debt, he kills the bookie as well, claiming self-defense. Mob boss Vincenzo Fortelli starts to exert pressure on McVeigh. To solve the crime Columbo must work with the gangster.

    Director:Vincent McEveety
    Writer:Peter S. Fischer

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  18. Columbo Season 2 Episode 2 - The Greenhouse Jungle
    7.3/10(3589 votes)

    S2:E2

    Jarvis Goodland, along with his nephew, plan a kidnap scam to break the nephews trust fund, but after the money has been collected, Jarvis kills his partner.

    Director:Boris Sagal
    Writer:Jonathan Latimer

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  19. Columbo Season 2 Episode 5 - Requiem for a Falling Star
    7.3/10(3410 votes)

    S2:E5

    A fading movie star tries to murder a writer who is attempting to blackmail her, but accidentally kills her P.A.

    Director:Richard Quine
    Writer:Jackson Gillis

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  20. Columbo Season 7 Episode 5 - The Conspirators
    7.3/10(2729 votes)

    S7:E5

    An Irish poet, who fronts a peace organization while secretly running guns, kills an arms dealer who tries to swindle him.

    Director:Leo Penn
    Writers:Howard Berk, Pat Robison

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  21. Columbo Season 8 Episode 2 - Murder, Smoke and Shadows
    7.3/10(345 votes)

    S8:E2

    An egocentric film director resorts to his mastery of special effects to murder a vengeful friend who discovers the director's role in the movie stunt death of the friend's sister years before.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writer:Richard Alan Simmons

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  22. Columbo Season 8 Episode 3 - Sex and the Married Detective
    7.3/10(348 votes)

    S8:E3

    A sex therapist catches her boyfriend with another woman when he thinks she is out of town. She then disguises herself and manages to kill him while in disguise, not realizing that a potential suitor saw her enter the bathroom as a dark-haired woman and exit as a blonde.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writer:Jerrold L. Ludwig

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  23. Columbo Season 2 Episode 7 - The Most Dangerous Match
    7.4/10(3335 votes)

    S2:E7

    A chess grandmaster disposes of the champion, who keeps coming back on him.

    Director:Edward M. Abroms
    Writers:Richard Levinson, William Link

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  24. Columbo Season 4 Episode 6 - A Deadly State of Mind
    7.4/10(2808 votes)

    S4:E6

    A doctor kills the husband of the woman he is having an affair with but is seen leaving the house by a witness who is happens to be blind.

    Director:Harvey Hart
    Writer:Peter S. Fischer

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  25. Columbo Season 6 Episode 1 - Fade in to Murder
    7.4/10(2997 votes)

    S6:E1

    Ward Fowler, who plays debonair television detective Lieutenant Lucerne, has a reputation for being a difficult actor. His series is a hit, however, so the network and studio executives again and again capitulate to his demands. Although separated, husband and wife team Sid and Claire Daley continue to produce the Inspector Lucerne program. Claire continually advises everyone else to go along with their stars demands. Not even Sid knows that Claire is blackmailing Ward. Claire discovers Ward in Canada. She knows he deserted from the United States Army during the Korean War. If that information got out ,it would ruin Ward's career. When Claire takes a phone call in Ward's trailer, the actor overhears her saying she’ll be getting a sandwich at Tony’s Deli. Ward gets to Tony’s Deli just after Claire disguising himself with a ski mask and bulky parka he pretends to be a hold up man.

    Director:Bernard L. Kowalski
    Writers:Peter S. Feibleman, Lou Shaw, Henry Garson

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Worst Episodes Summary

"No Time to Die" is the worst rated episode of "Columbo". It scored 6.1/10 based on 212 votes. Directed by Alan J. Levi and written by Evan Hunter, it aired on 3/15/1992. This episode scored 0.1 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Last Salute to the Commodore".