This is our attempt to statistically rank the greatest shows in television history.  We are sure you have questions about our rankings, so we will try and answer them in advance.

1.  Which shows were eligible to be ranked?  We only included shows that were “script written”.  Meaning variety shows, game shows, news shows, and talk shows were NOT included.   We are sure you will quickly figure out most of the shows are American shows.

2.  What is the basis of your rankings?  We ranked them in three categories:  (1) Ratings measured by how long the show was on the air.  (2) Reviews from critics and audiences.  (3) Emmy nominations and wins.  Once we collected all the data, we combined the stats to get one rating per show.  Then compared the rating to other shows and made our list.

3.  Does this list include all “script written” shows?  Sadly, no.  We researched over 500 shows and kept over 300 shows for the rankings.  There are many many more television shows out there. If you see a major omission please let us know.

4.  Can this ranking be taken as “gospel”?  Of course not!  Lists are made to get people to argue.  But ultimately this is just a fun way to look at the history of television shows.  The following massive table does provide a ton of stats. Hopefully, you will enjoy that as much as we did researching those stats.

But enough questions….please check out our All-Time Greatest Television Shows….Statistically Speaking.

All-Time Greatest Television Shows Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

• Sort All-Time Greatest Television Shows by the stars of the show
• Sort All-Time Greatest Television Shows by years on the air
• Sort All-Time Greatest Television Shows by season and total episodes made
• Sort All-Time Greatest Television Shows how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good show
• Sort by how many Emmy® nominations and how many Emmy® wins each All-Time Greatest Television Shows received.
• Use the sort and search buttons to make this table very interactive.  For example if you want to see the 3 Lucille Ball shows to make the list…just type in Ball in the search box and up they pop.