After 249 rounds of voting, we have a winner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny7uGEPgoXk
Yes, the Twilight Zone has been scientifically proven to be the best, most effective, and most memorable TV intro of all time. BEHOLD THE SCARY DOOR! The Muppet Show takes the silver, while Cheers easily handled Sesame Street for the bronze. Both Henson shows lost decisively here in the final round.
Here’s your top sixteen:
| Champion: | The Twilight Zone |
| Second Place: | The Muppet Show |
| Third Place: | Cheers |
| 4th place: | Sesame Street |
| 5th place tie: | The Addams Family The Simpsons Batman (1966) The Fresh Prince of Bel Air |
| 9th place tie: | Animaniacs The X-Files Twin Peaks Mission: Impossible Bojack Horseman Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood The Monkees |
Some overall statistics: Over the course of the 249 matches in the single-elimination bracket, including the consolation match, a total of 19,534 votes were cast – an average of 78.45 per round.
| Round of 249 (1) | Round 249 (2) | Round of 128 | Round of 64 | Round of 32 | Sweet 16 | Elite Eight | Final Four | Championship | All rounds | |
| Total | 4182 | 3793 | 4554 | 2979 | 1956 | 1044 | 578 | 229 | 219 | 19534 |
| # Nominees / Matches | 61 | 60 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 249 |
| Average | 68.56 | 63.22 | 71.16 | 93.09 | 122.25 | 130.50 | 144.50 | 114.50 | 109.50 | 78.45 |
In general, interest grew as the matchups became more intense and the stakes got higher, peaking in the elite eight. After that, participation waned – perhaps because people were unable to decide between two shows, or because they rage-quit when their personal favorite was eliminated.
In addition, the seeding round involved 7348 votes spread over 468 nominated shows – an average of 15.70 per show.
Thoughts for future tournaments (if Gougagna doesn’t kill them): separating the seeding from the nominating worked very well! It gave all the entries approximately the same amount of time and exposure, which means the seeding was much more accurate. I think a well-seeded tournament like this one can be much shorter – nothing outside the top 64 made it particularly deep into the bracket, so it probably would have been safe to eliminate those before the start of single-elimination.
I’d like to thank all of you for your participation, your comments, and your enthusiasm … but mostly for the 26,882 upvotes, which are the greatest gift of all.
No, but seriously, thank you. This has been a lot of fun.