The most common favorite TV show in the U.S. is Friends, favorited by 12 states.
The other 28 TV shows only showed up as a favorite in 1 or 2 states.
Only 12 of the favored TV shows have finished filming and are now reruns. The other 18 have more episodes coming.
There are over 500 TV shows produced in the U.S. each year.
Growing up, my family’s schedule was crazy busy. But every day at 5 p.m. we would all sit down for dinner in front of the TV to watch Seinfield on TBS.
Now, with all the streaming services, no one even knows what it means to wait all day to be able to watch a show. We even get to pick which episode we watch now.
With the entire world of TV at the click of a button, we wondered what everyone was choosing to watch. The answers may surprise you.
Shows that Kept Our Attention
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The second most-watched show is The Umbrella Academy. It’s the most-watched show in four states.
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WandaVision is Alaska’s favorite TV show and is the most recent show to air. In fact, there are only three episodes out to the public currently. Another episode is set to come out Friday.
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The most-watched show, Friends, is the only one that began airing in the ’90s. 1994 to be exact.
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Chicago Fire is the favorite of one state. But it’s not Illinois. Instead, it’s a Kentucky favorite.
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Seeing as Ozark is a show based on a family who relocates to the Missouri Ozarks, it seems fitting that the show is Missouri’s favorite.
How We Figured This Out
We looked at the top 100 most, highly ranked TV shows from IMDB, the internet database of all things movies. We culled out some shows that were mini-series but otherwise bowed to the people’s wisdom.
From there we referenced Google Trends data from the past twelve months and came up with the most statistically significant, unique TV program in each state. For example, How I Met Your Mother is not the most-watched show in New York, but it is watched there more than in any other state.
In general, this method tends to favor new tv shows, particularly those with cliffhangers and other probing questions. So we can’t guarantee that everyone isn’t just happily watching The Office- no questions needed, just the play button.
Get Your Binge On
There you have it. All of the shows the U.S. has deemed worthy of being binge-watched. That’s really saying something.
If nothing else, at least this list has given you a list of shows that you need to watch. Hopefully, there’s at least one or two you haven’t seen yet.
And our research proved that Disney was able to accomplish something the other streaming services have yet to do.
Make a show worthy of watching as new episodes are released, rather than binge-watching all of the episodes once they’ve all been released. Check out the list below to figure out what you need to watch next.
| State | Tv Show |
|---|---|
| Alabama | The Vampire Diaries |
| Alaska | WandaVision |
| Arizona | The Boys |
| Arkansas | Supernatural |
| California | Friends |
| Colorado | Friends |
| Connecticut | The Vampire Diaries |
| Delaware | The Umbrella Academy |
| District of Columbia | The Wire |
| Florida | Suits |
| Georgia | Stranger Things |
| Hawaii | Cobra Kai |
| Idaho | Friends |
| Illinois | Friends |
| Indiana | Friends |
| Iowa | The Big Bang Theory |
| Kansas | Modern Family |
| Kentucky | Chicago Fire |
| Louisiana | American Horror Story |
| Maine | The Queens Gambit |
| Maryland | The Umbrella Academy |
| Massachusetts | The Handmaid’s Tale |
| Michigan | Friends |
| Minnesota | Fargo |
| Mississippi | Grey’s Anatomy |
| Missouri | Ozark |
| Montana | Yellowstone |
| Nebraska | Friends |
| Nevada | Chilling Adventures of Sabrina |
| New Hampshire | Breaking Bad |
| New Jersey | The Sopranos |
| New Mexico | Better Call Saul |
| New York | How I Met Your Mother |
| North Carolina | Grey’s Anatomy |
| North Dakota | Shameless |
| Ohio | Friends |
| Oklahoma | The Big Bang Theory |
| Oregon | The Umbrella Academy |
| Pennsylvania | Friends |
| Rhode Island | Peaky Blinders |
| South Carolina | Supernatural |
| South Dakota | NCIS |
| Tennessee | Friends |
| Texas | Friends |
| Utah | The Office |
| Vermont | The Crown |
| Virginia | Suits |
| Washington | The Umbrella Academy |
| West Virginia | Virgin River |
| Wisconsin | Friends |
| Wyoming | The Crown |
Author
Amanda Postma is a writer for the Zippia Career Advice blog with a focus on creating entertaining content to help you through your job search. She received her BA from the University Of Missouri-Columbia.
