I’s that time of year again – May sweeps. This is the season where television writers give viewers cliffhangers, births (who is the father of Shirley’s baby on Community?) and weddings (Callie and Arizona on Grey’s Anatomy). It’s also the time of year where viewers learn if their favorite show will come back next season (Fringe, How I Met Your Mother), fade into the sunset (Smallville, Stargate Universe) or be on the dreaded bubble (Chuck). But one thing is for sure, people have their favorite show and this year, to go along with having America’s Favorite TV Star Mark Harmon, NCIS is also America’s Favorite TV Show, jumping up from the number 4 spot in 2009.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,379 adults surveyed online between March 7 and 14, 2011 by Harris Interactive.
CSI, the number 1 show in 2009 lost Gil Grissom and also lost one spot and is now number 2 on the list. M*A*S*H, a show now only seen in reruns also dropped one spot and moved from number 2 to number 3. Charlie Sheen may have a few issues and his future on the show may be in doubt, but viewers like Two and a Half Men moving it from number 8 to number 4 this year. Also only in reruns now, the show about nothing, Seinfeld, rounds out the top five favorite shows.
Diving a little deeper into the list of favorite shows, people are still wondering about the ending of the 6th show on the list – Lost, while a new movie franchise may have moved Star Trek up the list from number 13 in 2009 to number 7 this year. In a tie for the 8th spot on the favorite show list are two shows that couldn’t be more different – Friends (down from number 7) and Criminal Minds which is new to the list this year.
Two more shows which are quite different are tied for the 10th spot – I Love Lucy/The Lucy Show, which is new this year, and Law and Order up from the 12th spot. Three shows tied for the 12th spot on the list: an animated show Family Guy; a show based on a popular series of books, Bones, which is also new to the list this year; and a cranky doctor, House, which delved into the disastrous Cuddy/House relationship and dropped from 3rd on the list in 2009. In 15th place and holding the same place as two years ago, Grey’s Anatomy.
Looking at the type of shows people gravitate to, it’s clear that people like escapism. Of the top 15, six shows are sitcoms or animated shows. Five shows are crime and mysteries which present a nice clear result at the end of the hour. Two shows are medical dramas and while on occasion, people don’t make it at the end of the show, most of the time the medical mystery is solved. Finally, two shows are science-fiction.
