Today we are happy to announce the release of the Top 250 TV (beta) list on IMDb! Similar to the Top 250 Movies list, the Top 250 TV (beta) list ranks TV shows as rated by regular users. Check out the list, vote on your favorites, and let us know what you think of the release. The list can be seen here on your desktop: http://www.imdb.com/chart/toptv , and under the 'TV' menu on IMDb apps and mobile browsers.
Thanks, and we hope you enjoy the new list!
Thanks, and we hope you enjoy the new list!
Posted 5 years ago
Please remove documentaries, cartoons and live shows. They can have their own lists.
I think it's fine as is.
It is lovely.
cartoons really shouldn't have their own list, since in the movie top 250 animated movies are included as well.
Not sure about documentaries, agree on live shows; however, cartoons definitely belong in this list.
I think the order in which each TV show appears in the list should be determined by how each episode is rated individually.
I could watch 6 episodes of a 9 season show with 22 episodes per season and rate the show a 1/10 which would contribute to the rating and is not a fair reflection of the actual show.
If the list was compiled from an average of each episodes rating it would be a more accurate representation of the how the show performed over all and would take into account people who watched the whole thing and not just those who gave it a go, didn't like it and rated it poorly.
I could watch 6 episodes of a 9 season show with 22 episodes per season and rate the show a 1/10 which would contribute to the rating and is not a fair reflection of the actual show.
If the list was compiled from an average of each episodes rating it would be a more accurate representation of the how the show performed over all and would take into account people who watched the whole thing and not just those who gave it a go, didn't like it and rated it poorly.
I suspect that would be much more involved and time consuming, and perhaps this list, though amusing, isn't worth the investment of time it would take for that methodology to be used. Though you make a valid point.
What do you mean, time consuming? This is all automated.
It's a great idea, it would also help keep away those people whose only reason to vote on some shows is to make their ratings lower in order for their favorite shows to be ranked higher.
It's a great idea, it would also help keep away those people whose only reason to vote on some shows is to make their ratings lower in order for their favorite shows to be ranked higher.
While your idea is interesting, it does have plenty of its own problems.
First of all, while you're right that everything deserves a fair shake, you're dead wrong in the implication that one must watch an entire show run before being able to give something a fair rating. And I would even argue that what qualifies as a fair shake would and should vary for each show and each person. Maybe 6 episodes of a 9-season, 200-episode series doesn't seem fair to you, but in many cases it's more than enough to know if you don't like or even hate something. Let me put it this way: according to wikipedia, Keeping Up with the Kardashians has 143 episodes across 10 seasons. I'm willing to bet most of us who don't like it can draw that conclusion very quickly. We don't need to watch all or even most of those episodes to know that. The vast majority of shows that seem bad at first stay bad. They don't have a sudden renaissance after a few seasons that would make that rating of 1 invalid. (such a renaissance is very rare even in average or good shows - in most cases, what you see is what you get) The opinions of people who hated a show and dropped it right away are just as valid as those of the diehard fans who didn't miss an episode.
Another problem with your suggestion is most voters just rate the series. They don't rate each individual episode. If a series has a few thousand votes, you're lucky if the average episode for that series has over 200. These low numbers would introduce a lot of noise in the data.
There are tons of other statistical problems too. Do you weigh every episode rating exactly the same, whether it's a season finale or a filler bottle episode? Do you weigh it by number of votes? Do you forgive some lapses in quality, bearing in mind that with so many hours of storyline and budget/production constraints, almost every series will have a few duds? What about a series like The Simpsons, where (IMO), you started with a run of seasons of some of the best TV ever, but followed that with a decade and a half of mediocrity? What about unaired episodes of cancelled series? Should a hit-and-miss series (half the episodes are 10s, half are 6s) be equal to a consistently good (8) series?
IMO, it's simpler, cleaner, and more accurate to just use the overall ratings.
IMHO what a TERRIBLE list! It's ridiculously weighted towards the more modern and BBC shows. Where are all of the early TV shows? The great Westerns? You mean shows like I Spy and Combat! are no where to be seen here? I Love Lucy so very far down? No, IMHO this list is just not valid if you are truly listing ALL of the greatest TV shows of all time.
bluesmanSF, Champion
Well, they certainly cannot just put them in if it's meant to reflect the preference of regular IMDb users. It's not meant to be a list of your favorites.
They are not truly listing the "greatest of all time" but the current top picks by user ratings (where do you get that it's the "greatest of all time, as picked by James Yeatts?" I am probably a lot older than the majority of users and have never seen "I Spy" nor "Combat," and have never even heard of Combat, that I can remember.
They are not truly listing the "greatest of all time" but the current top picks by user ratings (where do you get that it's the "greatest of all time, as picked by James Yeatts?" I am probably a lot older than the majority of users and have never seen "I Spy" nor "Combat," and have never even heard of Combat, that I can remember.
I, for one, am really tired of people telling me how great a comedienne Lucille Ball was and why I should like her. My parents watched that show, and I never liked her insulting characterization of American women or modern-day wives. I remember thinking that wasn't going to be me, not if I could help it. I also remember thinking her character was well meaning but really stupid, and I had no respect for her or for that idiotic show, and certainly none for the sexist attitude the men's characters had. I wanted to smack them all so hard they wouldn't land until next year ... and I was only six or seven at the time (my mother was a professional and worked for a living, and I thought that show was terribly insulting to her). So no, I don't love Lucy. Not ever.
Yes, this probably is a list of top favorites of IMDb users only, but the list's name doesn't reflect that -- and maybe it should, so that nobody thinks it's an objective ranking of 'best shows of all time, ever' or anything like that. Oh, and @bluesmanSF, I'm probably older than you are, and yet so much younger and cooler, too. Don't make assumptions based on (your best guess of) someone's age.
Yes, this probably is a list of top favorites of IMDb users only, but the list's name doesn't reflect that -- and maybe it should, so that nobody thinks it's an objective ranking of 'best shows of all time, ever' or anything like that. Oh, and @bluesmanSF, I'm probably older than you are, and yet so much younger and cooler, too. Don't make assumptions based on (your best guess of) someone's age.
(Edited)
Anyone who uses imdb should be aware that, for both films and TV, there is a VERY strong recency effect (which makes sense if you know what the site's demographic breakdown is). Stuff made in the last decade or two are many times more popular than stuff from 50 years ago. The 20th most popular title of 2010 will soon pass 250,000 votes, #20 from 1985 is under 40,000, and #20 from 1960 just passed 10,000. Go back another 20-25 years and you're down to 2,000-3,000.
Why Game of throne is 9.4 on this list, and when you go on the page of that serie, we can see 9.5?
Was curious
GOT is on a top place it doesnt matter 1. or 2. it's in first 10. But Where is Spartacus? in 137 god damn it i can cry...
Just one problem with the "Top 250 TV" list, ATLEAST HALF of the things on the list are MOVIES & Not TV !!! There should be 2 lists "Top 250 TV" & " Top 250 Movies".
DavidAH_Ca, Champion
There are 2 lists: Top 250 for movies, and Top 250 TV for TV..
Can you give some examples of the half that are movies? Are you perhaps seeing miniseries such as Das Boot (1985) as movies? Since these have episodes they are classified as TV Series and would not show up on the Movies list..
Can you give some examples of the half that are movies? Are you perhaps seeing miniseries such as Das Boot (1985) as movies? Since these have episodes they are classified as TV Series and would not show up on the Movies list..
I think this is a great list, just one thing: TV Movies should enter the formula, since they aren't allowed in the top 250 for movies.
A pretty good idea, but may need some tweaking for numbers purposes (no TV movies would make it onto the current list).
Pretty bogus list IMO. It's weighted too heavily in favor of recent productions over somewhat older but equal or better series. It's also surprisingly highly stacked in favor of children's series. Who made the list? Where is Strike Back, True Blood, American Horror Story?
... somewhat older but equal or better series ....Further, looking back through the long history of television, perhaps a "Top Classic TV" list could eventually be developed. In addition to well-known golden oldies that have retained their due share of fame over the years, a curated list could also shine a light on some nearly-forgotten milestone classics. Vote counts alone would not be sufficient to build such a list, but perhaps the list could be specially curated by a group of interested volunteers.
(Edited)
Nobody:
Ehh. Once you're getting to that point, it's not really worth making new site features IMO. The further you go, the more people would be clamoring for more and more esoteric lists until the site is even more cluttered than it is now. Anyone who's interested can easily find or make their own lists via Advanced Title Search, browsing user-created lists, and googling.
... Once you're getting to that point, it's not really worth making new site features IMO. The further you go, the more people would be clamoring for more and more esoteric lists until the site is even more cluttered than it is now. ...I was even thinking of multiple "Top Classic TV" lists by decade;
but yeah, I know it's not likely to happen (except in user-created lists, of course).
Oh well, FWIW, at least IMDb does have Classic TV boards for each decade:
So that was what inspired me to imagine Top Classic lists for each decade. Not gonna happen, I know. ... I just thought it would've been a cool way to "shine a light" on some worthy classics (some of which are still remembered with their due share of enduring fame, and some that are unfortunately almost forgotten now).
(Edited)
It is unfortunate that some of those classic shows have been forgotten or overlooked. It doesn't help that many of them have still yet to be put out on DVD. For those among us in the younger generations who sometimes want to check out some of these shows, they can be next to impossible to find.
It's just too random of a list. Limit it to series that produce at least six episodes (gotta be fair to BBC productions) a season, at least 20 minutes per episode, and require at least 25,000 votes (as with the movies list), and then maybe you'd be on to something.
For the record, I'd say something like the BBC's recent Sherlock series could qualify, as it produces three ninety-minute episodes (movies?) per season, which is pretty much the same as six 45-minute episodes. But it's on the fence.
Anime Japanese/English duplicates, you have to combine them, or eliminate the dubbed version altogether.
And I haven't scanned over the list carefully. Is Fanny and Alexander on there? Scenes From A Marriage? Berlin Alexanderplatz? If Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (which I like, don't get me wrong) qualifies at TV, surely these do as well?
For the record, I'd say something like the BBC's recent Sherlock series could qualify, as it produces three ninety-minute episodes (movies?) per season, which is pretty much the same as six 45-minute episodes. But it's on the fence.
Anime Japanese/English duplicates, you have to combine them, or eliminate the dubbed version altogether.
And I haven't scanned over the list carefully. Is Fanny and Alexander on there? Scenes From A Marriage? Berlin Alexanderplatz? If Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (which I like, don't get me wrong) qualifies at TV, surely these do as well?
Dr. Horrible shouldn't qualify. No reason at all for it to be there.
Great initiative but some fixes are required... 1st remove the documentaries from there ... 2nd remove the animes from there.. not because I'm not a fan, I love animes but they don't have a lot of votes compared to tv series and they are simply not the same type of media in my opinion.
Your comment makes no sense. Any anime on this list had to pass the same voting criteria (5000+) as all the other shows on this list. The type of media is TV. TV is TV. It's not as cleanly homogenous as what you see in the theatres. It runs the gamut from kid's shows to your grandpa's favorite news program or PBS documentary series. All of it should be included.
Flawed in its selection of shows or not, I think perhaps this list is going to be biased in any case: I've just noticed that as of this writing, I'm one of only two women commenting ... and if that statistic holds for the voting, too, then there's going to be a testosterone tidal wave flooding the voting. Yeah, that would be bias. So, you folks in charge: how are you going to compensate for that? Or will you even bother?? Sign me: Seriously Wondering.
(Edited)
Yeah, this has long been a problem on imdb. The listed demographics say the male:female ratio is 55:45, but from all the ratings breakdowns I've looked at and from my admittedly anecdotal experience with the forums, I suspect the subset of users and voters who are the most active are even more skewed towards being males (especially young, nerdy ones - like many other sites on the internet). It gets to the point where there are so few female voters in certain categories (usually the under-18s and the over-45s), that the downvoters/upvoters throw off the average rating for that category.
What about Wiseguy???? It was a great show, with maybe the top TV actor in the 80s Mr. Ken Wahl. Great story, intriguing and complex characters, fascinating atmosphere. The cast was tip top, Jonathan Banks was great as the legendary Frank McPike, Kevin Spacey and Joan Severance were brilliant. William Russ was totally awesome. At times the show was so epic especially the Proffit and Sonny Steelgrave arcs. In my opinion is one of the best shows ever and is sad that people have forgotten this TV series. It deserves a place on this list
bluesmanSF, Champion
Wisevuy doesn't have enough ratings to be considered and isn't rated high enough with the votes it currently has.
