An extensive poll from The Hollywood Reporter reveals Hollywood’s favorite TV shows of all time: Friends, Breaking Bad and The X-Files top the list.
What’s your favorite TV show of all time? No, not your top 10. You can only name one.
We’re betting most of you are struggling to answer that question. Because if you’re a TV fan, chances are you’ve got lots of favorite shows, mentally organized by era, genre, context and personal connection.
This writer, for example, might name Buffy the Vampire Slayer as her favorite show, and yet list Lost as the one she was most invested in, with Friends remaining her most re-watched, and Merlin as her guilty pleasure. A show like Breaking Bad might stand out as the objective best show, with The 100 a standout contemporary drama. And so the list goes on.
Yet The Hollywood Reporter pulled off the impossible, and had 2,800 Hollywood industry professionals (including actors, directors and producers) pick just one TV show, of any decade and genre, and label it their unequivocal favorite.
They’ve put together a top 100 list, which we obviously won’t repeat in full, but the top 10 is full of surprises.
‘Friends’ is Hollywood’s #1 favorite TV show
The 90s sitcom Friends lands the top spot; THR notes that an astonishing 52 million people tuned in to watch the series finale in 2004. Despite the fact that Friends is showing its age, and certainly reflects cultural biases and limitations of its time, we can’t deny that it’s probably the most repeated and referenced show of all time.
It’s therefore unsurprising that so many Hollywood professionals, who probably have fond memories of growing up with Friends, relating the glossy sitcom characters’ work and romance struggles to their own life experiences, would find themselves naming Friends as their #1 favorite show.
In second place comes Breaking Bad — a no-brainer, as the recently concluded AMC series is repeatedly named the best show of all time by critics. While Friends is mainstream and continues to be a beloved part of our pop culture, Hollywood insiders clearly also recognize pure storytelling brilliance.
The X-Files (which, incidentally, launched Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s career) gets third place — another show we suspect is picked both for nostalgia reasons and because contemporary Hollywood professionals are influenced by its genre-defining storylines, as, like Friends, The X-Files is certainly a product of its time.
Related: The first trailer for The X-Files revival series is here
In fourth place we’ve got Game of Thrones, another contemporary watercooler series; Seinfeld lands in fifth place (it may have influenced Friends heavily, but unfortunately doesn’t resonate as well with contemporary audiences), and The Sopranos comes in sixth.
We’re guessing the difference in votes for all of these shows is very small, as all of the above shows take turns topping various other top 10 TV show lists!
The seventh place show is somewhat divergent, going to the long-running comedy vehicle Saturday Night Live. The classic I Love Lucy comes in eighth place, followed by Mad Men and The Simpsons.
You can see the full top 100 list at The Hollywood Reporter. (Buffy, if you’re interested, comes in at #27.)