Favorite TV Shows List Maker: Rank Your Top 10 Series (2026)

Try It on Five Shows Right Now

This is the entire method, running on this page. You see two series and tap the one you like more. There are no stars to hand out and nothing to drag. Six to eight taps later the five shows below are in your order, top to bottom. Everything Shortlist does is this, on the shows you actually watch.

Put your favorites in order right here

Five shows, head-to-head. Tap the one you prefer and we will put all five in your order, top to bottom.

Which do you prefer?

Game of Thrones2011

VS

Breaking Bad2008

Tap your favorite

Why Ranking TV Is Harder Than Ranking Movies

A film is two hours you judge as one thing. A series is a run of seasons you watched over months or years, and your memory of it is really several memories: the season that hooked you, the stretch where you kept watching out of loyalty, and the ending you are still arguing about. Asking where it sits on a list asks you to average all of that into a single spot, and nobody does that the same way twice.

Then the list mixes shapes. A limited series that told one story perfectly sits next to a comedy you have rewatched for a decade. Both are favorites, for completely different reasons, and writing the list from memory forces you to settle that comparison in your head while also holding every other show in place.

Decide What You Are Ranking Before You Start

Most stalled TV lists are stalled on a rule nobody set. Pick one before the first matchup and the hard pairs get easier:

• The show at its best, or the whole run? Ranking by best season rewards a brilliant peak. Ranking the whole run rewards a show that never let you down. Either is fine. Switching between them halfway is what makes the list feel wrong.
• Favorite or best? A favorites list is the shows you return to. A best-TV list is about craft and can include a show you never want to sit through again. If you would not rewatch it, it belongs on the other list.
• Finished shows only? A series still airing can go either way. Leaving it off until it ends is the simplest rule, and adding it later only takes a few taps.

Three Ways to Make a Favorite TV Shows List, Compared

There are really only three methods, and the difference between them is the question each one asks you.

Those tap counts are measured, not estimated. The ranker on this page uses binary insertion, so each new show is only compared against the few near where it belongs. Across thousands of random orders, ten titles settled in 19 to 25 taps and twenty in 56 to 68, run against our own ranking code.

How to Build Your All-Time Top 10 Shows

1. Brain-dump twenty candidates: every series that could plausibly make the list, including the ones you stopped watching years ago. Getting the names out is a separate job from ranking them.
2. Set your one rule: best season or whole run, finished shows or everything. Write it at the top so the matchups stay honest.
3. Rank what is left head-to-head: about sixty taps for twenty shows. Go on your first instinct. You are recording a preference you already have, not rewatching the series in your head.
4. Keep the top ten: the other ten are your honorable mentions, already in order, which is exactly what you need when someone asks what to start next.
5. Insert new favorites as they finish: a show you complete next month only has to be compared against a handful of shows near where it lands, four or five taps against a list of twenty, so the list stays current without starting over.

What the App Adds to the Five Shows Above

You have already done the ranking part on this page. Shortlist is a free app for iPhone and Android running the same mechanic, and what it adds is about scale and about keeping the list:

1. Past ten shows: the search above stops at ten. The app has a database of over 500,000 movies and TV shows, so every series on your twenty-show brain dump goes on one list.
2. The list survives the session: the rankers above forget your order the moment you close the tab. In the app it keeps building as you add shows.
3. Film alongside TV: the same head-to-head order works on movies, so your favorite films are a favorite movies list away.
4. Share the finished list: every ranking makes a shareable link, which is a better answer to "what should I watch next" than a list typed into a text.

Rank your own favorite shows

Free on iPhone and Android. No account required to start ranking.

More Ways to Rank What You Watch

• TV Show Tier List: the same mechanic, labelled S through D
• Favorite Movies List Maker: your top 10 films, two at a time
• Watchlist Picker: the same method pointed at what to watch tonight
• Best Movie Ranking Apps: how the ranking apps compare

Favorite TV Shows List FAQ

How do I make a list of my favorite TV shows in order?

Separate naming the shows from ranking them. First write down every series that could make the list, around twenty, in any order. Decide one rule, such as ranking each show by its best season or by its whole run. Then compare the shows two at a time and let the order come out of your answers. Twenty shows takes about sixty comparisons, and you can rank up to ten of your own shows on this page without installing anything.

How do you rank a show that had a bad final season?

Choose before you start whether you are ranking each show at its best or across its whole run, and apply that rule to every matchup. Neither is wrong. What makes a TV list feel off is using the peak for one show and the ending for the next, which a head-to-head comparison makes easy to notice.

Is there an app for ranking your favorite TV shows?

Shortlist. It shows you two titles, asks which you prefer, and builds a ranked list out of your answers, across TV and movies. It is a ranking app rather than an episode tracker or a streaming guide, and every ranking makes a shareable link. Free on iPhone and Android, with no account required to start ranking.

Should limited series and long-running shows be on the same list?

They can be, as long as the question stays the same: which of these two do you like more. A head-to-head comparison does not need the two shows to be the same shape, only for you to have a preference. If mixing them keeps stalling you, make two lists and rank each separately.

How many comparisons does it take to rank 10 TV shows?

Between 19 and 25, about 22 on average, measured over thousands of random orders against the ranking code on this page. It uses binary insertion, so each new show is only compared against the few near where it belongs. Adding one more show to a ranked list of twenty takes four or five taps.