The 12 Biggest TV Shows of 2020
It’s safe to say that 2020 has been a year of watching: intently as the presidential debates implode on our TVs, haphazardly as another Zoom meeting commences on our computer screens, and reluctantly as ever-changing COVID-19 updates hit our social media feeds. We’ve watched the world from inside our respective quarantine posts, and although this year had enough twists and turns to warrant a TV show in itself, we turned to professional creations to escape from reality. With more time to watch TV than ever this year, show after show went viral as the next big binge. Here are the 12 most popular shows of 2020, from the pre-quarantine months to the end of a monumental year.
After its premiere on Netflix in February, Love is Blind quickly gained traction as the next popular dating show on the tails of The Bachelor and Married at First Sight. The show begins with 30 men and women who, hoping to find love, get to know each other in a speed-dating format. The catch? They can’t see each other and are only permitted to speak through separate “pods.” Couples grow closer through conversation, and at any time, the men can propose to the woman they want to marry. The couples whose relationships resulted in proposals meet face to face, go on a group retreat in Mexico, and then move to an apartment complex in Atlanta. We love to root against the naive hopefuls we see on dating shows, but many were binging Love is Blind with a genuine yearning for proof that lasting connections can indeed be found sight unseen.
Watch Love is Blind on Netflix.
Sally Rooney’s second novel, Normal People, was an instant best-seller in the United States with almost 64,000 hardcover copies sold in the first four months of its 2018 release. Fans of the novel eagerly awaited its TV adaptation, which premiered on Hulu in April and received critical acclaim. The series follows the tumultuous relationship between Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron as they grow from highschoolers to undergraduate students at Trinity College in Dublin. Many applauded Normal People for actress Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal's chemistry and the show's realistic approach to sex scenes. In fact, the series featured 41 minutes of explicit activity across its 12 episodes.
Watch Normal People on Hulu.
This endearing docuseries took the world by storm when viewers fell in love with the nationally-ranked cheer team of a small community college in Corsicana, Texas. The show follows the Navarro College Bulldogs Cheer Team and its coach, Monica Aldama, as they prepare for the National Cheerleading Championship held in Daytona Beach, Florida. Viewers find themselves rooting hard for Navarro student-cheerleaders like Lexi Brumback, Jerry Harris, Morgan Simianer, and La’Darius Marshall, who explain the difficult roads that brought them to Navarro like poverty, abandonment, family sickness, and addiction.
Watch Cheer on Netflix.
Released on Netflix just one week after President Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency, Tiger King became one of the first shows widely known as a “quarantine binge.” The true crime documentary follows the bizarrely entertaining world of big cat breeding and the feud between two of its major players: zookeeper Joe Exotic and animal rights activist Carole Baskin. This show seemed to provide endless material for Internet memes, allowing viewers to bond over a shared semblance of normalcy in comparison to these larger than life characters.
Watch Tiger King on Netflix.
This drama miniseries by Ryan Murphy follows a diverse group of aspiring actors and filmmakers as they navigate the post-World War II Hollywood Golden Age. Starring well-known names like Darren Criss and Laura Harrier, the show exposes some of Hollywood’s most deeply rooted flaws and long-held biases, and poses an inclusive alternative to the reality of showbusiness at the time.
Watch Hollywood on Netflix.
The Canadian television sitcom Schitt’s Creek premiered in 2015 and aired its final episode in April of this year. The show stars the dysfunctional Rose family who are defrauded by their business manager. After losing all their wealth, they are forced to relocate to a motel in Schitt’s Creek, a town they once purchased as a joke. In its final year, Schitt’s Creek swept the Primetime Emmy Awards with 15 nominations and nine wins. The show’s final season won all seven of the ceremony’s major comedy awards, becoming the first comedy or drama series to do so.
Watch Schitt's Creek on Netflix.
Based on the 2016 novel by Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country is an HBO horror drama series about Atticus Freeman, a young Black man who travels through the 1950s Jim Crow United States in search of his missing father. When the show premiered in August, America stood in deep turmoil over race relations and police brutality, met with activism from the Black Lives Matter movement. Lovecraft County shows us just how far we’ve come—or how far we still have to go.
Watch Lovecraft Country on HBO.
Comedy-drama series I May Destroy You centers on Arabella Essiedu, a Millennial novelist on a quest to rebuild her life after being raped during a night out in London. Michaela Coel, who wrote the series and stars as Arabella, captivates viewers with her portrayal of trauma. In the aftermath of her assault, Arabella evaluates her identity as a Black woman, pressing viewers to dissect the different facets of their own identities.
Watch I May Destroy You on HBO.
The Netflix lovers' favorite historical drama portrays the life of Queen Elizabeth II beginning with her marriage to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and continuing through the 21st century. Each season brings a new era of British aristocracy to explore, with the newest one focusing on Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles' relationship.
Watch The Crown on Netflix.
L'OFFICIEL star Lily Collins plays Emily Cooper, a 20-something American marketing professional who moves to Paris to take a social media strategy job at a French marketing firm. The show became one of Netflix’s most popular within a week of its premiere, but viewers took to social media to express a love-hate relationship with Emily. An American girl effortlessly gallivanting around Paris in designer clothing is infuriatingly unrealistic, but it satisfies the exact craving for escape that so many developed this year.
Watch Emily in Paris on Netflix.
This coming-of-age period drama is based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis. Beth Harmon, an orphaned chess prodigy, embarks on a quest to become the world’s greatest chess player in the 1950s and early 1960s while simultaneously battling addiction issues that stemmed from her childhood in an orphanage. Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays Beth, captivates those on all levels of the chess knowledge spectrum with her tenacity, determination, and undeniable skill. The show sparked a widespread public interest in the game that coincided with a skyrocketing of chess set sales.
Watch The Queen's Gambit on Netflix.
Although a late contender in the year, HBO’s recently released drama has quickly captivated audieces. In The Undoing, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant play a wealthy and happily married psychologist-oncologist duo living in New York with their young son Henry. Their blissful reality crumbles when Grant’s character, Jonathan Fraser, is accused of murder. This nail-biting thriller series keeps viewers searching for a killer until the very last episode, causing them to question the authenticity of the show’s most trustworthy characters—even Grant, who most can’t separate from his charismatic roles in lighter works like Notting Hill and Love Actually. While waiting for the sixth and final episode to air, rapper Travis Scott tweeted, “I can’t be the only one waiting for the last episode of the undoing.” Kidman responded with a winking emoji, “Who do you think did it?” .
Watch The Undoing on HBO.
