2009-10 TV Scorecard: The Best and Worst Shows and Networks

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor
Publish Date: May 3, 2010
Comments: ↓ 26 user comments

A step in the right direction

Something good is happening in New Orleans

Few people have the knack for pleasing critics all of the time, but David Simon appears to be one of them. The creator of The Wire, one of the previous decade's most critically-acclaimed programs, returned to HBO last month with his follow-up series, Treme 87. Set in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina, the ensemble drama is the 2009-10 season's best-reviewed new show.

Treme is not alone in receiving praise from television critics. Overall, the past television season appears to represent an improvement over the previous year in terms of show quality. The five broadcast networks combined to launch 34 major new shows in 2008-09, for an average Metascore of 51.7; during this past season, the same networks launched 38 new programs with an average score of 54.8. And the past year's highest-scoring broadcast show, Modern Family 86, was one of three new programs to surpass the Metascore of the prior season's top first-year program, the short-lived Life on Mars 74.

In a moment, we'll look at the best and worst new shows of the past season. First, we compare the overall performance across the five broadcast networks. While none of the networks consistently delivered, Fox and ABC were the best of the bunch.

Broadcast Network Quality Comparison (New Shows Only), 2009-10 Season
Network		New Shows	% Good	% Mixed	% Bad	Average Metascore	Score Change vs. 2008-09 Season	2008-09 Score Rank
1	Fox	6	33%	67%	0%	58.8	↑8.4	4th
2	ABC	13	38%	46%	8%	56.8	↑2.1	2nd
3	CBS	6	17%	83%	0%	55.5	↓3.0	1st
4	NBC	7 *	29%	71%	0%	52.3	↑6.0	5th
5	CW	6	17%	50%	33%	48.3	↓3.0	3rd

* An eighth new program, the game show Minute to Win It, is not included in our calculations, because a Metascore is not available (due to insufficient reviews).

The 2009-10 season's best and worst new shows

Best Reviews from Top TV Critics


Treme (HBO)		Modern Family (ABC)		Justified (FX)		Men of a Certain Age (TNT)		Archer (FX)
Critics:	87	Critics:	86	Critics:	81	Critics:	79	Critics:	78

Best Reviews from Metacritic.com Users


Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (ABC)		Archer (FX)		Justified (FX)		Men of a Certain Age (TNT)		White Collar (USA)
Users:	9.5	Users:	9.2	Users:	9.2	Users:	8.9	Users:	8.9

Worst Reviews from Top TV Critics


The Jeff Dunham Show (Comedy Central)		High Society (CW)		Hank (ABC)		Fly Girls (CW)		The Deep End (ABC)
Critics:	20	Critics:	34	Critics:	37	Critics:	39	Critics:	40

Worst Reviews from Metacritic.com Users


High Society (CW)		The Jeff Dunham Show (Comedy Central)		The Cleveland Show (Fox)		The Marriage Ref (NBC)		The Jay Leno Show (NBC)
Users:	1.0	Users:	2.7	Users:	3.5	Users:	3.6	Users:	4.1

American television series with seven or more reviews and debuting between August 2009 and April 2010 were eligible for the above lists. Shows are scored and ranked based on reviews published at the time of the original first season debut; returning series are excluded from these lists. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Although scores have been rounded to the nearest whole number, shows are ranked prior to rounding. User scores represent an average of scores assigned by Metacritic.com site visitors on a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (good). All scores as of April 30, 2010.

The season's best new network and cable shows

The year's best-reviewed new comedy, on network or cable, was ABC's hit Modern Family 86. The best new network drama was CBS' The Good Wife 76, while the best drama overall was HBO's Treme 87.

Best Reviewed New Network Television Series, 2009-10 Season
	Show (Network)	Genre	Metascore	Users
1	Modern Family (ABC)	Comedy	86	8.6
2	Glee (Fox)	Comedy/Musical	77	7.9
3	The Good Wife (CBS)	Drama	76	8.1
4	FlashForward (ABC)	Sci-Fi	72	6.7
5	Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (ABC)	Reality (Non-Competitive)	71	9.5
6	The Middle (ABC)	Comedy	70	7.6
7	Human Target (Fox)	Action	70	8.2
8	Community (NBC)	Comedy	69	8.1
9	Life Unexpected (CW)	Drama	69	8.5
10	V (ABC)	Sci-Fi	67	6.4

Best Reviewed New Cable Television Series, 2009-10 Season
	Show (Network)	Genre	Metascore	Users
1	Treme (HBO)	Drama	87	8.6
2	Justified (FX)	Drama	81	9.2
3	Men of a Certain Age (TNT)	Comedy/Drama	79	8.9
4	Archer (FX)	Animation/Comedy	78	9.2
5	White Collar (USA)	Comedy/Drama	78	8.9
6	The Inbetweeners (BBC America)	Comedy	72	9.6
7	Caprica (Syfy)	Sci-Fi	72	6.7
8	Bored to Death (HBO)	Comedy	65	8.0
9	The Ricky Gervais Show (HBO)	Animation/Comedy	62	8.2
10	Sherri (Lifetime)	Comedy	62	7.0

Among other types of programs (anything that isn't a regular, ongoing series), the Oprah Winfrey-narrated nature documentary series Life 90 was tops among several titles earning universal acclaim from critics:

Best Reviewed Movies, Miniseries, or Specials, 2009-10 Season
	Title (Network)	Type	Metascore	Users
1	Life (Discovery)	Miniseries	90	7.1
2	The Diary of Anne Frank (PBS)	Movie	87	9.0
3	The Pacific (HBO)	Miniseries	87	8.2
4	Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) (IFC)	Miniseries	84	9.4
5	Temple Grandin (HBO)	Movie	84	9.7
6	Occupation (BBC America)	Miniseries	80	9.0
7	You Don't Know Jack (HBO)	Movie	79	9.3
8	Endgame (PBS)	Movie	77	n/a
9	Emma (PBS)	Miniseries	77	8.6
10	Return to Cranford (PBS)	Movie	76	9.0

Network performance

On the next page, we examine the performance of each broadcast network in greater detail.

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Comments (26)

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Latest

Ted Brois
- Mar 27, 2011 1:38PM
It is hard to belive this show replaced KING OF THE HILL where there was always a moral to a story a lesson to of value to be learned, i guess there is nothing funny about 4 Regular Beer drinking guys in America Today.
I tought me some life lessons kindness, friendship,caring about doing the right thing defending others . In the imortal words of Hank Hill Ill Kick your Ass you all need it.
Bottom
- Dec 21, 2010 1:48AM
My Balls are all sweaty from reading all the bs on here. Seriously , STFU.

But seriously , walking dead wins (:
Hairy Balls
- Oct 31, 2010 3:45AM
My bottom itches :-(
Nadia
- Sep 16, 2010 2:39PM
i dont think theres really any doubt about the fact that House and The Office are the two best shows that have ever been on television (save Mash and for a long time, Friends). Entourage's new season is unbelievable and i cannot wait for the rest of the series to unfold. I know its slightly maniacal to wish it but i really hope that House never ever ever ends and simultaneously never ever ever stops amazing me with its awesomeness. Wow. that was truly the inanest thing ive ever written. Its crazy how much freedom random blogging provides. like. i can say whatever i want and it doesnt matter because none of u know me and its unlikely ill visit this webpage again. nice.
stella
- Aug 17, 2010 6:25AM
the vampire diaries is a very good show. why is it so underrated? oh i know people think vampires that sparkle are sexier than real hot vampires.(looking at you twilight). true blood sucks. i tried watching it and it was so boring that i fell asleep halfway. vampire diaries deserves an Emmy.(i dont care what other people think)
Gav
- Jul 14, 2010 4:45AM
Treme is definitely the best new tv show to watch! I'm also enjoying Hung, The Mentalist (guilty pleasure) 30 Rock, Human Target, and Southland (which we've only just got here in Scotland, raging that it was canceled but hopefully TNT will keep it going!) Also new series Haven could be promising (Nice to see Mr Lahey from Trailer Park Boys in something new) Does anybody get the increasing worry when they start a new show that it's going to get canceled mid season, the axe seems to be used without a care for fans these days. I mean Flash Forward wasn't great, but we're still hurting over Carnivàle and Arrested Development! If anyone fancies a taste of great Scottish alt comedy, I urge you to watch Limmy's Show, probably the freshest British sketch show in years! http://www.limmy.com/show/
Jenna
- May 26, 2010 3:40AM
Meltose Place could have been amazing if it had not been so anchored in the past.Too many flash backs and dark depressing episodes.Ella had the most potentiial as a strong character but her developement was stagnated by the return of old cast members playing out old sad storylines.Try again but please no more old cast members ruining the show's episodes.Viewers need new exciting episodes.
Jori K.
- May 14, 2010 7:54AM
"Modern Family" is one of my new favorite TV shows. I have to admit, I do love "Vampire Diaries," it's one of my guilty pleasures. I am a huge Gleek, but the second half of the season hasn't been very good, so I'm hoping they can get things back up to where they were in the first half. I also LOVE "Parenthood," I think that show's fantastic.
Seth
- May 10, 2010 9:24PM
Uhh... where the hell is breaking bad?
ZDunc
- May 7, 2010 10:31PM
Wow, I can't believe so many people are asking about old shows that aren't on the list. I know the title is misleading, but it clearly says "2009-2010 best and worst NEW shows". It doesn't mention any show that didn't premiere this season, such as Lost, Breaking Bad, etc.