Watching: The 100 Best Shows of the 21st Century

September 21, 2026

The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century

Illustration by Bráulio Amado; Video via Netflix (“Baby Reindeer,” “The Queen’s Gambit”); FX (“Shogun”)

	By Austin Considine

Dear Watchers,

The votes are in — more than 500 from around the TV industry — and the numbers are crunched: Now, after many months of writing, editing and shooting celebrity interviews, we present The New York Times’s list of The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century.

Starting today, we’ll be rolling out the list all week, counting down from 100 in batches of 20. Click here to see Nos. 81-100. Every day this week, you’ll get highlights from each new batch, including excerpts from celebrity interviews, delivered to your inbox.

We also invite you to vote for your own favorites. We’ll post those results next week.

To be eligible for consideration, shows had to have multiple episodes and have premiered on or after Jan. 1, 2000. So you won’t see “The Sopranos,” which came out in 1999, or hits like “The Simpsons,” “Sex and the City,” “Sesame Street” and “Saturday Night Live” that started in the 20th century. (Though the actors and creators behind many of those shows did vote in our poll.)

We decided that restricting this list to shows that have existed only in this century was the best way to ensure that it says something meaningful about this century. It is also consistent with our recent lists of the best books and films, which were limited to works that arrived in 2000 or later.

As with those lists, our ranking is based on ballots from a diverse array of industry experts. For the TV list, voters included Bryan Cranston, Padma Lakshmi and Damon Lindelof, among many other actors, creators, writers, producers, executives, social-media influencers and more, from Hollywood and around the world.

What did “best” mean to our voters? Some, like Connie Britton, Colman Domingo and Adam Scott, spoke to us about their choices in videos included in the list. Others, like Ava DuVernay, Kathryn Hahn and Mike Myers, let us share their ballots, and again, we hope you will cast your own.

While you’re browsing, you can also save the TV shows you want to watch, then manage your picks anytime in the “You” tab of the New York Times app. (Click here in the app to view the You tab.)

This list is a rich text documenting the dominant pop culture medium of the past quarter-century. There will be a lot to read and watch, and even more to argue about. Keep watching your inbox all week as we count down to No. 1.

Starting off with ‘Scandal’

A woman in a suit, standing in an office full of books, holds a cellphone to her ear, looking concerned.

Kerry Washington in a scene from “Scandal,” No. 100 on our list. Danny Feld/ABC

Kicking off the list at No. 100 is the ABC political thriller “Scandal,” which our Pulitzer Prize-winning contributor Salamishah Tillet describes as a “fast-paced, sumptuously stylish” series that established its creator, Shonda Rhimes, as “a bona fide TV hitmaker with a distinct aesthetic and a feminist point of view.”

What did our voters have to say about the others? In video interviews, actors and creators discuss their favorite shows as well as their own. This first batch includes Alexis Bledel on “Gilmore Girls,” Lena Waithe on “Better Things” and Giancarlo Esposito on “Shogun,” among others.

Here are some fun excerpts and outtakes. Check those out, click through to the list to read and watch more, and come back tomorrow for Nos. 61-80.

We had no idea if it would be picked up or not. So we were like, We’re gonna lay it all bare here, if not for anything, but just for ourselves. I’m not surprised, but I’m glad that it’s really starting to get its flowers. It was a slow burn. — Devery Jacobs on “Reservation Dogs”

John Turturro is such a magnificent actor, but Riz Ahmed grabbed me so firmly. Jeannie Berlin is incredible. Bill Camp? I mean, stop right there. The darkness and the tone, it was suffocating. And of course, Michael K. Williams, who was like that Buddha inside the cell, the guy that ran Rikers Island. My God, he was a great actor. — Alec Baldwin on “The Night Of”

I think people didn’t realize that it’s OK to dislike yourself, and a lot people actually go through life going through a huge battle with themselves on a daily basis. I think that there was a certain self-flagellation in “Baby Reindeer” that was universal, and I think that was also a reason why it was so successful. — Richard Gadd on “Baby Reindeer”

Tell us what you think

What has surprised you so far? What hasn’t? We want to hear from you as The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century rolls out this week. Click here to leave a comment. Each day, Times editors, critics and reporters will be joining in the conversation.

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“The Social Reckoning” and other movies reflect growing discontent with Silicon Valley founders. But such films may be at the mercy of the companies themselves.

By Alissa Wilkinson

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