The poll is closed, the votes have been counted and verified, and I can now reveal that... oh, sorry, it all went a bit Big Brother there. Ahem. My mega-poll to find the Best Television Show Of The '00s (amongst my readership) has been running since mid-December, where I asked everyone to vote for their 10 favourites from a choice of 99 (with the option to add your own, unique vote.) That poll closed on 17 Jan, and 11 finalists went through for a weeklong battle to determine the Top 10. That final poll closed yesterday (24 Jan), so I can now reveal the results of the entire poll, in descending order. Owing to the ability for people to add their own choices, the poll actually begins from the collosal height of #120...
120. JPodMost of the shows below 100 are comprised of "other votes" (shows voters could add themselves if one of their favourites wasn't part of my 99-strong list). I would have added a lot more shows if Polldaddy.com allowed me to, but it's frankly not worth my time upgrading my account to do that. Still, great to see a few people remembered The Lost Room, and it surprised me that Rome, Eureka and Castle ended up being placed so low.
119. Outrageous Fortune
118. Rome
117. It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
116. Castle
115. Masters Of Horror
114. Eureka
113. One Tree Hill
112. The Tudors
111. The Lost Room
110. The L WordThe Sarah Connor Chronicles would have charted much higher, but it was unfortunately one of two shows (the other being Firefly) where fans organized a mini-campaign to skew my poll. So, T:tSCC clawed back some "other votes", but it was a shame a vocal few ruined it for the majority. Anyway, I was pleased to see a few people remember the excellent Garth Marenghi series and Pulling.
109. Dead Like Me
108. Everwood
107. Saxondale
106. Stargate Universe
105. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
104. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
103. Hung
102. Queer As Folk
101. Pulling
100. SpooksSpooks and Skins should have featured on my poll as one of my 99 choices, as I think they would have charted a lot higher if they had, but thankfully a few people remembered to add them as their "other vote". I was very surprised Entourage didn't prove more popular, though.
99. Spiral / Engrenages
98. Journeyman
97. Coupling
96. Medium
95. The Unit
94. The Fixer
93. Ugly Betty
92. Entourage
91. Skins
90. CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationI didn't have any of the CSI franchise up for voting, but only a few people thought to add it as their "other vote", anyway. I was quite surprised Prison Break didn't do much better, because it was always entertaining and in the public eye.
89. Two And A Half Men
88. Survivors
87. Community
86. Smack The Pony
85. Weeds
84. Prison Break
83. FlashForward
82. The Smoking Room
81. Modern Family
80. Phoenix NightsThere are some great shows there that didn't get the votes, for some strange reason. Dollhouse, Damages and Big Love were all snubbed for the most part. Big Love doesn't air in the UK, so that may have been an issue.
79. Monkey Dust
78. Big Love
77. Star Trek Enterprise
76. Stargate Atlantis
75. Damages
74. Dollhouse
73. Red Riding
72. Jericho
71. Little Britain
70. Summer Heights HighQuite a disappointment for Flight Of The Conchords and The Shield, no?
69. The OC
68. Californication
67. Gossip Girl
66. My Name Is Earl
65. Flight Of The Conchords
64. Friday Night Lights
63. Carnivale
62. Freaks & Geeks
61. The Shield
60. Robin HoodAnother strange batch in mid-chart, with current and popular shows like Fringe and Curb Your Enthusiasm perhaps deserving better. I was also expecting Robin Hood and Primeval to chart slightly higher, purely because those shows are quite popular around here. And have people forgotten Alias already?
59. Primeval
58. Pushing Daisies
57. Sons Of Anarchy
56. Fringe
55. Alias
54. Curb Your Enthusiasm
53. The Mighty Boosh
52. Generation Kill
51. Psychoville
50. MisfitsThe top-half of the chart begins, and the big shock is that The Sopranos only charts at #46! Six Feet Under perhaps deserved a higher placing, too. Misfits has arguably done well to reach #50, considering the fact it's only aired six episodes in the UK.
49. How I Met Your Mother
48. Ashes To Ashes
47. Extras
46. The Sopranos
45. Malcolm In The Middle
44. State Of Play
43. The Big Bang Theory
42. Farscape
41. Six Feet Under
40. Green WingNot much love for the American remake of The Office, really. Can't help thinking Being Human and Torchwood should have charted a little higher, too.
39. Black Books
38. 30 Rock
37. Supernatural
36. The Office (US)
35. The Thick Of It
34. Gilmore Girls
33. Being Human
32. Torchwood
31. Glee
30. OutnumberedTrue Blood, Chuck and Merlin fans will probably grumble over this, but any show in the Top 30 did very well. I was quite surprised to see Gavin & Stacey had a decent following of voters, too.
29. True Blood
28. Angel
27. Smallville
26. The IT Crowd
25. The League Of Gentlemen
24. Deadwood
23. Merlin
22. Chuck
21. Gavin & Stacey
20. Breaking BadThese shows all narrowly missed out on being the finalists, particularly the very unfortunate Mad Men. Of course, Futurama was a finalist, but it didn't get enough votes in the final week so it slipped back to #11. Great to see people remembering how excellent Band Of Brothers was, but a sore disappointment that Breaking Bad didn't make the top 15 at least. I guess that's because it's being buried in the schedules here in the UK...
19. Veronica Mars
18. Band Of Brothers
17. Heroes
16. Scrubs
15. House
14. Peep Show
13. The West Wing
12. Mad Men
11. Futurama
Arrested Development. I really can't say much about this show, because I never really watched it myself. But I know it's greatly respected and the episodes I have seen were always very interesting and funny. I just didn't get stuck in from the start, so always felt a little lost coming into it. But so many great actors were either involved in this (Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor), or have subsequently become big stars (Michael Cera, Will Arnett, David Cross), that it's always irritated me that I never got into it at the time.
Family Guy. I personally find the love for this animation very surprising, because it's always struck me as a ruder version of The Simpsons for people with the attention span of a gnat. I very rarely make it through a whole episode, as they're largely indistinguishable from watching someone's Family Guy compilation on YouTube. Still, I'd be lying if I said I never laugh at it, because I do. It's just... the 9th best television show of the '00s? Well, okay, you voted it so.
The Office (UK). I was very relieved to see the original BBC series beat its American remake by such a huge margin. I know the US version has its fans, but Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's forebearer is far better and more memorable to me. It's darker, more believable, truer to life, and there's the decade's best comic performance in office manager David Brent.
24. It's definitely a shadow of its former self (mostly because we're too accustomed to its format and tropes these days), but I think 24's high ranking is down to how awesome the first few years were. It's had a massive effect on TV and film, and is perhaps the driving force behind the success of DVD box-sets in the '00s. I still get a tingle of pleasure when the ticking clock pounds its beat into my livingroom, too.
Life On Mars (UK). Oh yes, arguably the most high-concept idea of the '00s, in its original BBC incarnation. Sci-fi/time-travel show, crime procedural, '70s period drama, buddy cop series, mind-bending fantasy; Life On Mars was all of those things, and didn't outstay its welcome with a swift two series. And it gave us a new TV icon in the sneering Gene Hunt.
Dexter. What is its secret? The first two seasons were fantastic entertainment, but Dexter has always had a problem making its supporting cast anywhere near as interesting as the eponymous anti-hero. You could pick holes in it all day, really, but I think the premise is just too irresistable and Michael C. Hall's performance so beguiling, that its flaws just melt away.
Battlestar Galactica. It started to lose its way mid-season 3, and season 4 only really kept momentum thanks to a series of mind-scrambling twists and surprises that felt very forced in hindsight, but you can't deny BSG was the decade's best "pure sci-fi" show: telling allegorical modern-day stories with complex characters in a futuristic context. War, politics, religion, life, death, the show covered it all.
The Wire. This is another show that's a blindspot to me, although I did get through the season 1 box-set a year ago, so I think I have a vague idea why it's so popular. It's incredibly dense, realistic and well-acted, basically. I'm told that the subsequent four seasons are just as deep and involving, too.
Lost. Oh, you thought it would be #1? To be fair, it was neck-and-neck with the eventual winner for days, so it was a very close call. Anyway, I know Lost has its detractors (usually people who bailed midway through season 2 and now moan about it from a very outdated point-of-view). Fact is, this has been a marvellously entertaining, clever, exciting, complex and gripping mix of human drama and cool sci-fi. The fact it's won over such a diverse audience is its real success, with half its devotees having never really sampled much sci-fi before Lost lured them into it.
Doctor Who. This was, undeniably, the biggest comeback of the '00s. Doctor Who was a defunct joke at the BBC, until Russell T. Davies revitalized it for new audiences with Christopher Ecclestone and Billie Piper in 2005, before allowing David Tennant to truly make Who a mega-hit. While still only a "phenomenon" in its native UK, the fact it topped my poll speaks volumes about how it's managed to find a place in many people's affections around the world. It was certainly a very close run thing with Lost slipping to #2 in the last day of voting, but Doctor Who was voted the Best Television Show Of The '00s by my readership. And with a new series full of new faces and a new production team, it probably has a chance of repeating that success for the '10s...
Thanks again to everyone who voted -- thousands took part in the first-round poll, and hundreds voted in this final week, so I'm grateful the results therefore have some degree of credibility. I'm sure there'll be some frustrated fans who are annoyed their favourite show did so poorly, or that a few "questionable" picks did so well, but that's just how it goes. What did you make of the results?
