The New York Times’ 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century: Breaking Bad Is No. 1, Stranger Things Is No. 53, The Pitt Is No. 36, The Sopranos Wasn’t Eligible, and These Are the Five Rankings I’d Fight Over

Every so often, someone publishes a list that reminds the whole internet it has strong feelings about television. This is one of those lists. The New York Times asked more than 500 actors, showrunners and other people who work in TV to name the ten best series to premiere since Jan. 1, 2000, added up the ballots and finished rolling out its top 100 on Friday, Sept. 25. Breaking Bad finished first.

Now that the first wave of outrage has settled, I think the list is more interesting than the arguments it started. It’s a snapshot of what people who make television actually admire, which is not always the same as what everybody watched. And I’ll say up front that I find that hopeful: a hospital drama from January 2025 and a four-episode limited series from March 2025 both landed in the top 40, so the medium is clearly not done surprising its own insiders.

I’m not going to recap all 100 in order, because Primetimer and the Times already did that. Instead I’ve built five things from the list myself: a podium with the networks, a rank meter for the shows people keep asking about, my own decade count of all 100, a finish-it-fast guide with episode counts, and a short list of rankings I’d fight over. My ballot and my verdict come at the end, and those parts are opinion, clearly marked.

Part 01 · The rules

How did the New York Times pick its 100 best TV shows of the 21st century, and who voted?

The method matters more than most people notice. The Times collected ballots from more than 500 “stars, showrunners and other TV insiders,” as World of Reel put it when the rollout began. Voters named the ten series they considered the best to premiere since Jan. 1, 2000, and the paper tallied the results. According to Selectra’s breakdown, drama, comedy and documentary all competed on equal footing, and a show counted no matter how long it ran after its premiere.

Ada Derana’s write-up names some of the people who voted, including Elisabeth Moss, Adam Scott, Bryan Cranston, Rose Byrne, Colman Domingo and Jason Bateman, along with showrunners such as Damon Lindelof, Lena Dunham, Lena Waithe and Noah Hawley. The results were released in batches of 20 across the week, with the top of the list revealed last.

Two things follow from that setup. First, this is an industry poll, not a critics’ panel and not a viewership chart. Dark Horizons noted that it skews heavily American, though Selectra counted 19 shows that were made in Britain or co-produced there, which is a lot of room for a poll run by an American paper. Second, a ten-show ballot rewards shows that many different people love. A show adored by a small circle can lose to one that’s merely loved by a lot of people. That’s my reading of how the math works, not a claim from the Times.

My own theory, and it’s only a theory, is that when the voters are the people who make television, craft counts for more than buzz. It would help explain why a sitcom like 30 Rock can sit one spot above Curb Your Enthusiasm in the top ten while a streaming phenomenon like Stranger Things sits at No. 53. Nobody has confirmed that, so take it as a hunch.

Part 02 · The podium

What are the top 10 shows on the New York Times list?

Here are the first ten, with their premiere years and original networks. The years come from Primetimer’s printed list, and the networks are mine.

1. 1Breaking Bad2008 · AMC
2. 2The Wire2002 · HBO
3. 3Mad Men2007 · AMC
4. 4Succession2018 · HBO
5. 5Fleabag2016 · BBC Three
6. 6Game of Thrones2011 · HBO
7. 7Veep2012 · HBO
8. 830 Rock2006 · NBC
9. 9Curb Your Enthusiasm2000 · HBO
10. 10Atlanta2016 · FX

Breaking Bad ran on AMC from 2008 to 2013, and its prequel, Better Call Saul, landed at No. 27. The Albuquerque Journal relayed Bryan Cranston’s explanation to the Times for the show’s success: Vince Gilligan simply wouldn’t let “good enough” be good enough. It’s a hard theory to beat for why one show outlasts its rivals, and it’s a big part of why I’m watching Gilligan’s current series so closely. If you’re curious where that stands, I wrote up the wait for Pluribus season 2.

A few patterns I noticed when I sorted the top ten myself. HBO accounts for five of the ten: The Wire, Succession, Game of Thrones, Veep and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Five of the ten are comedies or comedy-dramas by my sorting: Fleabag, Veep, 30 Rock, Curb and Atlanta. And the newest show in the top 17 is Succession, which premiered in 2018. Nothing that premiered after 2018 appears until I May Destroy You at No. 18, then Chernobyl at No. 19.

Part 03 · The shows everyone asks about

Where did Stranger Things, The Pitt, Severance and other big shows land? My rank meter

The most natural question about a list like this is “Where did my show end up?” So here’s a meter for seventeen of the shows people ask about most. A longer bar means a higher ranking, and every number is from the printed list.

• Game of Thrones (2011)No. 6
• The White Lotus (2021)No. 21
• Lost (2004)No. 22
• Better Call Saul (2015)No. 27
• Severance (2022)No. 30
• Andor (2022)No. 32
• The Pitt (2025)No. 36
• Adolescence (2025)No. 40
• Peaky Blinders (2013)No. 43
• Stranger Things (2016)No. 53
• Slow Horses (2022)No. 62
• Squid Game (2021)No. 72
• The Bear (2022)No. 74
• Ted Lasso (2020)No. 75
• Shogun (2024)No. 86
• Baby Reindeer (2024)No. 89
• The Diplomat (2023)No. 94

Bars are scaled so No. 1 would fill the whole track. The meter and the selection are mine.

Some of these placements are worth a second look. The White Lotus (No. 21) sits one spot ahead of Lost (No. 22). Severance (No. 30) is just above Survivor (No. 31) and Andor (No. 32). The Pitt, which premiered Jan. 9, 2025, is No. 36, ahead of Battlestar Galactica, Homeland and Watchmen, and Adolescence follows at No. 40. Stranger Things lands at No. 53, just one place below Downton Abbey at No. 52, which WDBO’s roundup also pointed out. Squid Game is No. 72, while The Bear (No. 74) and Ted Lasso (No. 75) sit side by side, a small reminder of how quickly the comedy crown changes hands. If you want to see how Ted Lasso ended, here’s my explainer on the Ted Lasso season 4 ending.

Slow Horses came in at No. 62 and The Diplomat at No. 94, two shows I’ve written about here recently. If either one is new to you, my Slow Horses season 6 finale piece and my Diplomat season 4 guide are good places to start.

Part 04 · My count

Which decade of TV won? My own count of all 100

Selectra’s UK write-up notes that the 2010s supply almost half the list, and I wanted the full picture, so I did my own count. I took the premiere date printed for each of the 100 shows and sorted them by decade. The newest premiere on the list is from 2025, so the 2020s column covers only six years.

Two other details from my count. The single most-represented premiere year is 2016, with nine shows: Fleabag, Atlanta, The Crown, Stranger Things, The Good Place, Insecure, Better Things, The Night Of and The OA. Five different years tie for second with six apiece (2005, 2009, 2014, 2021 and 2022). And the list contains two shows from 2025 and none from 2026.

What do I make of the lower 2020s ranking? I’d be careful. Recent shows have had less time to be rewatched, argued about and put on other people’s ballots, so I read it as a function of timing, not a verdict on the shows. Still, the early edge of the 2000s and 2010s is real: the first 17 spots on the list belong entirely to shows that premiered in 2018 or earlier.

Part 05 · The gaps

Why isn’t The Sopranos on the list, and which big shows didn’t make the 100?

The Sopranos is the easy one. It debuted on HBO in the winter of 1999, so it fell outside the Times’ rule that a show had to premiere on or after Jan. 1, 2000. Ada Derana noted the ineligibility, and Dark Horizons pointed out that it’s why the top three are the names you’d expect: Breaking Bad, The Wire and Mad Men.

The rest is trickier. I read the printed list line by line, and I did not find Fargo, Mr. Robot, Mindhunter, Hannibal, Sherlock, Westworld, Euphoria, The Last of Us or Yellowstone among the 100. Please check that against the Times’ own page before you repeat it, because I’m relying on Primetimer’s reproduction of the list. And remember what an absence means here. With every voter capped at ten picks, a show can be loved by plenty of people and still miss if its fans are spread thin across a very crowded field.

That’s the generous reading, and I think it’s the correct one. A hundred slots is not very many for twenty-six years of television, and the shows that miss aren’t being judged as bad, only as not quite on enough ballots.

Part 06 · The practical part

Which shows on the list can you finish in a weekend? My finish-it-fast guide

A top 100 can feel like homework. So here are twelve shows from the list that are short enough to finish, with their Times ranking and episode counts. Each count covers the show’s complete run, and none of this is a streaming recommendation, since where a show lives changes often.

Finish tonight or tomorrow: 4 to 8 episodes

One long weekend: 9 to 12 episodes

If I had to pick a first-timer’s starter pack from this group, I’d go with Chernobyl for a tight five episodes, Fleabag for two seasons that run just twelve episodes combined, and Adolescence if you want something you can finish in an evening. That’s taste, not a rule.

Part 07 · My ballot · Status: opinion

What would my own ballot look like? Ten shows, ranked

If the Times had emailed me, here’s the ballot I’d have sent, limited to shows that also appear on its list so you can compare the two directly. This is entirely my own taste and not a reporting claim.

1. 1

   The Wire

   Times: No. 2 → my No. 1

   The show that makes a whole city the main character, and still the one I’d hand to someone who says TV can’t be literature.

2. 2

   Breaking Bad

   Times: No. 1 → my No. 2

   The tightest plot machine on the list. Second place in my book is a quibble, not a protest.

3. 3

   Succession

   Times: No. 4 → my No. 3

   Four seasons and no throwaway one. It’s a family tragedy dressed as a comedy.

4. 4

   Fleabag

   Times: No. 5 → my No. 4

   Two seasons, twelve episodes, no padding. Nothing else on the list wastes less.

5. 5

   Chernobyl

   Times: No. 19 → my No. 5

   Five episodes that turn a nuclear disaster into a story about what lying costs. I’d put it in the Times’ top ten.

6. 6

   The Leftovers

   Times: No. 25 → my No. 6

   The most emotionally risky show here. It asks you to sit with grief and doesn’t flinch.

7. 7

   Better Call Saul

   Times: No. 27 → my No. 7

   A prequel that earned its own seat. Twenty-six spots under its parent show feels low to me.

8. 8

   Severance

   Times: No. 30 → my No. 8

   The best workplace nightmare TV has given us, and a clean idea executed with real style.

9. 9

   Andor

   Times: No. 32 → my No. 9

   Proof that a giant franchise can still make a show about people instead of logos.

10. 10

    Slow Horses

    Times: No. 62 → my No. 10

    The quiet one. A spy show about tired, funny, flawed people, and I’d rank it far above 62.

The biggest jump on my ballot is Slow Horses, from No. 62 to No. 10. The biggest disagreement at the top is mild: I’d swap Breaking Bad and The Wire. The rest of my ballot pulls shows from the No. 19 to No. 62 range into my top ten, which tells me I’d weigh the middle of the list differently than the Times’ voters did.

Part 08 · The fights · Status: opinion

Which five rankings would I fight over?

Verdict · My take · Status: opinion

Is it a good list? My verdict

It isn’t the best TV ever made. It’s what the people who make TV can’t stop thinking about.

My verdict is positive, with a few quibbles. I like that it counts reality, documentary and limited series next to prestige drama, because that’s how people actually watch. I like that a 2025 premiere is in the top 40. And I think the ten-pick ballot, whatever its quirks, is a nice way to measure how widely a show is loved.

What I’d want readers to take away is simple. Treat the list as a conversation starter, not a ranking carved in stone. Use it to find the short shows you’ve been meaning to try, argue about the middle with a friend, and remember that where a show lands says as much about the voters as about the show.