The Top 100 Television Programmes of the 00s: An Important Statistical Review

It’s the running theme that just won’t die. To round off the coverage of the 00s, just before we put the finishing touches to the book version of the Top 100*, here’s a bit of analysis. We know how all of our readers love pointless bar charts. Also, a poll of polls, which should be really exciting for people who love polls.

(* Three new entries! More pointless meandering! Fewer YouTube links, because really, what would be the point! The 25 worst TV programmes of the decade! Other things!)

TV CHANNEL OF THE DECADE

Which network was home to the most shows on our list? We’ve taken the channels that each programme started on – no point in giving BBC Two the credit for The Thick Of It when BBC Four took the risk of commissioning it, for example – and come up with the following:

So, BBC Two tops that particular chart, with 21 of the hundred best programmes of the decade originating on the channel. Channel Four comes second, proving that it wasn’t all complete shit like Balls Of Steel, Bo Selecta and Fonejacker on there in the 00s. The fact that three of the top four on there are BBC channels does kind of prove how good the BBC actually bloody is, while the number of shows from Sky One, blushing poster boy of the free market system, is zero. No, James Murdoch, just throwing all your money at American imports, even if they’re really good American imports (that were popular on other British channels first anyway) doesn’t really cut it.

It’s not all bad news for the Murdoch family (“Phew! I was concerned there for a moment.” – R. Murdoch), as Fox proves to be the winner from the other side of the pond, taking up five positions on the list, including of course that all-important number one programme. Close behind, possibly the greatest source of genuinely exciting and groundbreaking new comedy over the course of the entire decade, is newcomer Adult Swim, and really, we could easily have included more Adult Swim shows here. A lot more. ITV1 fare better than might have been expected for a network that continues to employ Piers Morgan, sharing fifth place on the list with Fox.

But, of course, this system of working out which was the best channel of the decade is as unfair as the General Election vote of someone who’d pored over party policies, MP voting records and Hansard for the last two decades counting the same as someone who’ll vote for whichever political party leader has the most pregnant wife. This is a meritocracy, and as such, here is a list where each channel has been scored by the position of each show. The channel with the show at number one gets 100 points for that show, the channel with the show at number 100 gets just one point. And this is the result of that thing we just said.

So, BBC Two remains top, though with less of a lead over second placed Channel Four. Fox leapfrog BBC One, BBC Four and ITV1 into third, thanks to their brilliant drama and comedy output, especially Arrested Development, being placed so highly in the rundown. The quality of programming from Adult Swim shines through here too, with it enjoying a higher position on our ‘leaderboard’ than NBC, HBO and ITV1. And BBC Three, but then that’s not really a surprise.

 

BEST TELEVISUAL YEAR OF THE DECADE

So with BBC Two walking away with the entirely notional prize of “Best Channel Of The Last Decade”, which year will prove to be responsible for the largest proportion of the Top 100? Or, to put it another way, as this is a listing of our favourite programmes of the decade, this will reveal which year of television we enjoyed the most, which could become a handy reference guide in case passing BBC Two researchers are looking for talking head gobshites to take part in the almost inevitable “I Love 200x” series. (Note to said researchers: we’ll do almost anything for money, apart from take part in a montage of clip show idiots singing along to a theme tune. But apart from that, yes, literally anything. If you know what we mean.)

As before, we’ve only considered the first year that a show was on air – no point giving 2004 the credit for a programme 2003 took the risk on – and here’s a first chart only taking into account the number of shows on the chart from each year:

 Shut up, looking at this IS an interesting and worthwhile use of your time. So, fifteen of the programmes on our list were born in 2003, and fifteen popped out of a commissioning editor’s schedule-hole in 2007. 2005 and 2006 weren’t far behind, with the worst showing coming from 2009. Could this be because the new shows that made their inaugural appearance in the Radio Times that year have yet to become firm favourites, or that TV companies were too scared of tabloid scorn to take any interesting risks? Time, that fickle old strumpet, will tell.

“But which year is best? We want a list going by chart placing, like before!” scream the imaginary people we like to think are still reading. Well, just for you should you exist, here:

So, 2005 pips 2007 to second place, largely thanks to programmes like My Name Is Earl and The Colbert Report. But, 2003 was the very best year for television over the last decade, helped by it being home to the mighty Arrested Development. And we’ll be handing 2003 the shiny silver “Best Year” trophy, just as soon as time travel is invented.

 

THE BIG POLL OF POLLS

Onto the main, pretty damn huge, and hugely damned pretty part of our stat-fest. We looked at ten other listings of “The Best TV Shows of the 00s”, from the UK, USA and Australia, and scored them all up accordingly. Not all of them were top hundred lists (which is probably why it didn’t take them until sodding April to get to number one, eh readers?), but we’ve accounted for that. Each show in number one position received 110 points – ten points bonus for being So Damn Good, the show in number two position on each chart received 99 points, number three 98, and so on for as long as there’s an entry to score. We’re sure you’re with us here. The other charts we’ve considered are from the following publications:

The Chiaroscuro Coalition
Entertainment Weekly
Hollywood.com
Starpulse.com
news.com.au
The Times
SFGate
Paste Magazine
The Onion AV Club
The Telegraph

…and of course, plucky British upstarts BrokenTV. And just to be extra fair, the programmes that we picked for our chart don’t score double points, even though we’re always right about everything.

Keep in mind that while our list only included programmes which began in the years 2000 to 2009, the others were happy to include anything broadcast in that decade. And so, here’s the rundown, a full Top 200:

Pos	Show	TOTAL
1	The Sopranos	1022
2	The Wire	906
3	The Office (UK)	860
4	Arrested Development	703
5	Mad Men	657
6	Lost	635
7	The West Wing	621
8	Deadwood	472
9	Curb Your Enthusiasm	423
10	The Daily Show	361
11	The Thick of It	360
12	Breaking Bad	348
13	30 Rock	347
14	Doctor Who	328
15	Big Brother	312
16	The Shield	280
17	Freaks and Geeks	278
18	The Power of Nightmares	277
19	24	273
"	Battlestar Galactica	273
21	The Office (US)	271
22	Friday Night Lights	263
23	Dexter	257
24	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	255
25	Peep Show	250
26	Flight Of The Conchords	228
27	QI	215
28	TV Burp	202
29	American Idol	196
30	The Apprentice	186
31	9/11	183
"	Sex and the City	183
33	The Colbert Report	172
34	Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!	169
"	Veronica Mars	169
36	Six Feet Under	168
"	The Venture Bros	168
38	Bleak House	167
39	Malcolm in the Middle	166
40	How I Met Your Mother	165
41	Chapelle's Show	157
42	A History of Britain	156
43	The X Factor	146
44	Strictly Come Dancing	145
45	Jamie’s School Dinners	141
46	The Chaser’s War On Everything	135
47	House	132
"	The Blue Planet	132
49	Who Do You Think You Are?	127
50	Skins	124
51	Life on Mars	123
52	South Park	122
53	Criminal Justice	104
54	In the Night Garden	102
55	Pop Idol	99
56	Survivor	97
57	Monarchy: the Royal Family at Work	96
58	Jam	95
59	Planet Earth	94
"	Slings and Arrows	94
"	Summer Heights High	94
62	Oz	93
63	Bodies	92
"	Everybody Loves Raymond	92
"	Gilmore Girls	92
66	Newstopia	92
67	The Armando Ianucci Shows	91
"	The Comeback	91
69	Marion & Geoff	90
"	Timeshift	90
71	Frontline Football	89
72	Band of Brothers	87
"	Futurama	87
74	Still Game	86
75	Phoenix Nights	85
"	Weeds	85
77	Family Guy	84
"	Firefly	84
"	Little Britain	84
"	State of Play	84
"	The Showbiz Set	84
82	15 Storeys High	83
"	The Fallen	83
84	Big Love	82
"	My Name Is Earl	82
86	Cranford	81
"	Wit	81
88	The Century of the Self	80
"	The Jeremy Kyle Show	80
90	Brass Eye Special	79
"	Rome	79
"	Tomorrow, La Scala!	79
93	Undeclared	78
94	Charlie Brooker's News Wipe	77
"	Out of Control	77
96	Top Chef	76
"	Top Gear	76
98	Adam and Joe Go Tokyo	74
"	Britain’s Got Talent	74
"	Krapp’s Last Tape	74
101	Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution	73
"	Eastbound & Down	73
"	Not Only, But Always	73
104	American Dad!	72
"	Dispatches: Beslan	72
"	Location, Location, Location	72
"	Wonder Showzen	72
108	Black Books	71
"	The Private Life of a Masterpiece	71
110	Living with Michael Jackson	70
111	CSI	69
"	Forgiven	69
113	Bored To Death	68
"	Da Ali G Show	68
"	Grand Designs	68
116	No Direction Home: Bob Dylan	67
"	The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson	67
"	Weakest Link	67
119	Desperate Housewives	66
"	Richard & Judy	66
"	The Riches	66
122	Never Mind the Buzzcocks	65
"	Stephen Fry in America	65
"	That Mitchell and Webb Look	65
125	Dead Set	64
"	Have I Got News for You	64
127	Early Doors	63
"	Footballers’ Wives	63
"	God on Trial	63
130	Look Around You	62
131	Damages	61
"	The Lie of the Land	61
133	The Unloved	60
134	Britz	59
"	The Lost Prince	59
"	The South Bank Show	59
137	Maxwell	58
138	Michael Palin’s New Europe	57
"	Soccer Saturday	57
140	How We Built Britain	56
"	Pierrepoint	56
"	Red Riding	56
143	MasterChef	55
"	Sealab 2021	55
"	When Louis Met the Hamiltons	55
146	Life on Mars	54
"	Robert Newman's A History of Oil	54
148	I Love…	53
"	Lost in Austen	53
"	The Sarah Silverman Program	53
151	Grass	52
"	Springwatch	52
153	Testees	50
"	Wife Swap	50
155	Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares	49
"	Restoration	49
157	Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain	48
"	Jerry Springer: the Opera	48
159	Outnumbered	47
160	100 Greatest Britons	46
"	Days That Shook the World	46
162	Land Girls	45
163	Who Killed Saturday Night TV?	43
164	The Deal	42
"	The IT Crowd	42
166	The Kumars at No 42	41
"	The Story of ITV: The People's Channel (& ITV50 Regional)	41
168	Tiswas Reunited	40
169	Bremner, Bird & Fortune	39
"	That Was The Week We Watched	39
171	Coast	38
"	The Story of Light Entertainment	38
173	Forty Years of Fuck	37
"	Spooks	37
175	Biffovision	36
"	Extras	36
177	10 O’Clock News	35
"	Comedy Map of Britain	35
179	Death of a President	34
"	Fantabulosa!	34
181	Attention Scum	33
"	Hannah Montana	33
183	Countryfile	32
"	The Punk Years	32
185	Gavin & Stacey	31
186	Deal or No Deal	30
"	The Osbournes	30
"	videoGaiden	30
189	Return of the Goodies	29
"	The Way We Live Now	29
191	Frisky Dingo	28
"	My Family	28
193	The Knights of Prosperity	27
194	Bloody Sunday	26
"	The Two Ronnies Sketchbook	26
196	Malcolm & Barbara: Love’s Farewell/Right to Die?	25
"	World of Pub	25
198	Blue Peter	24
199	SpongeBob SquarePants	23
200	Jekyll	22
"	Party Animals	22

And, there it is. The Sopranos, a programme that began in the late 1990s, is judged to be the best television programme of the decade, shortly followed by The bloody Wire and The bloody Office. Pleasingly, the mighty Arrested Development finishes in fourth place, so there’s some hope yet for those up-and-coming publications. Want to see where each chart placed each show? Here’s a full Excel spreadsheet of the calculations. Enjoy.

And there, for the sake of our own sanity, and very probably yours too, is where we leave the online portion of our Top 100 rundown. Now we can get back to being annoyingly esoteric on here. Get ready for BrokenTV’s TV-Tie In Board Game Jamboree. Yep, really.

(And yes, there is going to be a book of the Top 100. Once we’ve finished it. Blimey, eh?)