Sports TV Shows

Sports television's open secret is that the game is the smallest part of it. The genre is really about pressure — what a town, a locker room, or a single career looks like when everything rides on Friday night. That's why its best shows reach people who couldn't name a single starting lineup.

Nothing proves it like this lineup. Friday Night Lights used Texas high school football to tell one of TV's great American stories about marriage, class, and community; 30 for 30 redefined the sports documentary, finding epic and tragedy in moments the box scores forgot; and Sports Night brought rapid-fire wit to the broadcast desk itself. The rankings use our quality score — sustained acclaim is the championship metric — and the recently premiered section watches for new contenders.

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