Explore the top 100 television series that premiered in 2016. From viral hits to award-winning dramas.
Top 100 Best TV Series of 2016
Relive the greatest moments in television and cinema history. Our definitive guide ranks the top-rated and most influential titles released in television during this year.
Explore the live-updated list below to find the masterpieces that defined the era.
The Definitive Collection
Our proprietary algorithm analyzed thousands of titles to bring you this definitive, real-time updated ranking.
Stranger Things
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.
Lucifer
Bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar abandoned his throne and retired to Los Angeles, where he has teamed up with LAPD detective Chloe Decker to take down criminals. But the longer he's away from the underworld, the greater the threat that the worst of humanity could escape.
Westworld
A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.
My Hero Academia
After he saves a bully from a Villain, a normal student is granted a superpower that allows him to attend a high school training academy for Heroes.
Guardian: The Lonely and Great God
In his quest for a bride to break his immortal curse, a 939-year-old guardian of souls meets a grim reaper and a sprightly student with a tragic past.
Sin senos sí hay paraíso
A young woman born in a mafia-controlled town seeks revenge on those who wrongfully harmed and imprisoned her family.
DC's Legends of Tomorrow
When heroes alone are not enough ... the world needs legends. Having seen the future, one he will desperately try to prevent from happening, time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter is tasked with assembling a disparate group of both heroes and villains to confront an unstoppable threat — one in which not only is the planet at stake, but all of time itself. Can this ragtag team defeat an immortal threat unlike anything they have ever known?
The Crown
The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
Marvel's Luke Cage
Given superstrength and durability by a sabotaged experiment, a wrongly accused man escapes prison to become a superhero for hire.




The Good Place
Eleanor Shellstrop, an ordinary woman who, through an extraordinary string of events, enters the afterlife where she comes to realize that she hasn't been a very good person. With the help of her wise afterlife mentor, she's determined to shed her old way of living and discover the awesome (or at least the pretty good) person within.



Fleabag
A portrait into the mind of a dry-witted, sexual, angry, porn-watching, grief-riddled woman, trying to make sense of the world. As she hurls herself headlong at modern living, Fleabag is thrown roughly up against the walls of contemporary London, with all its frenetic energy, late nights, and bright lights.



Rosario Tijeras (Mexico)
Worlds collide when a vengeance-obsessed young woman from the other side of the tracks captures the attention of two well-off friends.



11.22.63
An English teacher travels back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination, but discovers he is attached to the life he has made in a bygone era.




This Is Us
Follows the lives and families of three adults living and growing up in the United States of America in present and past times. As their paths cross and their life stories intertwine in curious ways, we find that several of them share the same birthday - and so much more than anyone would expect.




40 y 20
A comedy series about a divorced dad who likes younger women, and his son who likes older women.



KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world!
After a traffic accident, Kazuma Sato’s disappointingly brief life was supposed to be over, but he wakes up to see a beautiful girl before him. She claims to be a goddess, Aqua, and asks if he would like to go to another world and bring only one thing with him. Kazuma decides to bring the goddess herself, and they are transported to a fantasy world filled with adventure, ruled by a demon king. Now Kazuma only wants to live in peace, but Aqua wants to solve many of this world’s problems, and the demon king will only turn a blind eye for so long…



The OA
Seven years after vanishing from her home, a young woman returns with mysterious new abilities and recruits five strangers for a secret mission.




The Night Of
After a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.




Mob Psycho 100
Shigeo Kageyama, a.k.a. "Mob," is a boy who has trouble expressing himself, but who happens to be a powerful esper. Mob is determined to live a normal life and keeps his ESP suppressed, but when his emotions surge to a level of 100%, something terrible happens to him! As he's surrounded by false espers, evil spirits, and mysterious organizations, what will Mob think? What choices will he make?




Preacher
A preacher sets out on a mission to make the almighty himself confess his sin of abandoning the world. With his best friend Cassidy, an alcoholic Irish vampire, his love Tulip, a red blooded gun towing Texan, and the power of genesis, an unholy child born from an angel and a devil, Jesse gives up everything to set the world straight with its creator.

The Night Manager
Former British soldier Jonathan Pine navigates the shadowy recesses of Whitehall and Washington where an unholy alliance operates between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. To infiltrate the inner circle of lethal arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper, Pine must himself become a criminal.

ERASED
Satoru Fujinuma is a struggling manga artist who has the ability to turn back time and prevent deaths. When his mother is killed he turns back time to solve the mystery, but ends up back in elementary school, just before the disappearance of his classmate Kayo.

Shadowhunters
When Clary Fray's mother has disappeared, Clary joins a band of Shadowhunters; demon killing hunters, and gets caught up in a plan to save the world.

Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia
After uncovering a mysterious amulet, an average teen assumes an unlikely destiny and sets out to save two worlds.

Designated Survivor
Tom Kirkman, a low-level cabinet member is suddenly appointed President of the United States after a catastrophic attack during the State of the Union kills everyone above him in the Presidential line of succession.

Soy Luna
Luna Valente lives with her family in Cancún, Mexico. She goes to school, has her own group of friends, has a job, and loves to skate. However, her life changes when her parents are given a job offer that moves them to Buenos Aires, Argentina. There she finds a new skating rink (named Jam & Roller), learns freestyling, makes new friends, and even falls in love.

American Crime Story
An anthology series centered around some of history's most famous criminal investigations.

The Shannara Chronicles
A young Healer armed with an unpredictable magic guides a runaway Elf in her perilous quest to save the peoples of the Four Lands from an age-old Demon scourge.

Billions
Shrewd, savvy U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades and the brilliant, ambitious hedge fund king Bobby "Axe" Axelrod are on an explosive collision course, with each using all of his considerable smarts, power and influence to outmaneuver the other. The stakes are in the billions in this timely, provocative series.

MacGyver
20-something Angus MacGyver creates a clandestine organization where he uses his knack for solving problems in unconventional ways to help prevent disasters from happening.

W: Two Worlds Apart
After being pulled into the webtoon world created by her father, a surgical resident gets entangled in a murder mystery involving the story's hero.

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo
A competitive swimmer crosses paths with his childhood friend, a rising weight lifting star, and realizes that she has a secret crush on his cousin.

Van Helsing
Vanessa Helsing, the daughter of famous vampire hunter and Dracula nemesis Abraham Van Helsing is resurrected five years in the future to find out that vampires have taken over the world and that she possesses unique power over them. She is humanity’s last hope to lead an offensive to take back what has been lost.

Planet Earth II
David Attenborough presents a documentary series exploring how animals meet the challenges of surviving in the most iconic habitats on earth.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
A comedic thriller that follows the bizarre adventures of eccentric “holistic” detective Dirk Gently and his reluctant assistant Todd. An adaptation of Douglas Adams’ wildly successful comic novels.

Travelers
Hundreds of years from now, the last surviving humans discover the means of sending consciousness back through time, directly into people in the 21st century. These "travelers" assume the lives of seemingly random people, while secretly working as teams to perform missions in order to save humanity from a terrible future.

The Grand Tour
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are back with a show about adventure, excitement and friendship... as long as you accept that the people you call friends are also the ones you find extremely annoying. Sometimes it's even a show about cars. Follow them on their global adventure.

Atlanta
Two cousins work through the Atlanta music scene in order to better their lives and the lives of their families.

Descendants of the Sun
After a chance meeting in a hospital, an ardent soldier falls for a gifted surgeon. Opposing philosophies tear them apart, but fate has other plans.

Wynonna Earp
Wyatt Earp's great granddaughter Wynonna battles demons and other creatures with her unique abilities and a posse of dysfunctional allies - the only thing that can bring the paranormal to justice.

Lethal Weapon
A slightly unhinged former Navy SEAL lands a job as a police officer in Los Angeles where he's partnered with a veteran detective trying to keep maintain a low stress level in his life.

Timeless
A mysterious criminal steals a secret state-of-the-art time machine, intent on destroying America as we know it by changing the past. Our only hope is an unexpected team: a scientist, a soldier and a history professor, who must use the machine's prototype to travel back in time to critical events. While they must make every effort not to affect the past themselves, they must also stay one step ahead of this dangerous fugitive. But can this handpicked team uncover the mystery behind it all and end his destruction before it's too late?

El Chema
Follow one man's epic journey as he transforms from wily underage drug smuggler to one of the world's most infamous cartel leaders.

The Exorcist
Follow the lives of two very different priests tackling one family’s case of terrifying demonic possession.

Shooter
Bob Lee Swagger is an expert marksman living in exile who is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president.

Yuri!!! on Ice
While on the verge of retirement, skater Yuri Katsuki meets Yuri Plisetsky and Victor Nikiforov, two skaters who rekindle his competitive fire.

The Young Pope
Lenny Belardo, the youngest and first American Pope in the history of the Church, must establish his new papacy and navigate the power struggles of the closed, secretive Vatican.

Colony
In the near future a family must make difficult decisions as they balance staying together with trying to survive. They live in Los Angeles, which has been occupied by a force of outside intruders. While some people have chosen to collaborate with the authorities and benefit from the new order, others have rebelled — and suffer the consequences.

La Doña
A story of revenge and ambition, seduction and betrayal; all told from the perspective of an offended and abused woman named Altagracia. Altagracia represents the hundreds of thousands of Mexican women who have been victims of the violence by faceless men who are protected by impunity. But Altagracia, transformed into a strong-willed, ruthless man-eater known as La Doña, will seek out each and every one of these men to bring them to justice.

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-
Natsuki Subaru, an ordinary high school student, is on his way home from the convenience store when he finds himself transported to another world. As he's lost and confused in a new world where he doesn't even know left from right, the only person to reach out to him was a beautiful girl with silver hair. Determined to repay her somehow for saving him from his own despair, Subaru agrees to help the girl find something she's looking for.

Fuller House
D.J. Tanner-Fuller is a widow and mother of three. Things become too much to handle, so she asks for help from her sister Stephanie and her best-friend Kimmy.

Scarlet Heart: Ryeo
A story of a 25-year-old Go Hajin who is transported back in time to the Goryeo Dynasty. She then wakes up in the body of Lady Hae Soo and finds herself amongst the ruling princes of the Wang Family.

The Loud House
Welcome to the Loud House, where life can get pretty crazy. One boy, TEN girls?! Lincoln Loud wouldn’t change it for the world!

Animal Kingdom
17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody moves in with his freewheeling relatives in their Southern California beach town after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Headed by boot-tough matriarch Janine "Smurf" Cody and her right-hand Baz, who runs the business and calls the shots, the clan also consists of Pope, the oldest and most dangerous of the Cody boys; Craig, the tough and fearless middle son; and Deran, the troubled, suspicious "baby" of the family.

3%
In a future where the elite inhabit an island paradise far from the crowded slums, you get one chance to join the 3% saved from squalor.

Outcast
Kyle Barnes has been plagued by possession since he was a child. Now an adult, he embarks on a spiritual journey to find answers, but what he uncovers could mean the end of life on Earth as we know it.

Goliath
Once a powerful lawyer, Billy McBride is now burned out and washed up, spending more time in a bar than a courtroom. When he reluctantly agrees to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the biggest client of Cooperman & McBride, the massive law firm he helped create, Billy and his ragtag team uncover a vast and deadly conspiracy, pitting them all in a life or death trial against the ultimate Goliath.

Orange
One day, Naho Takamiya receives a letter written to herself from ten years in the future. As Naho reads on, the letter recites the exact events of the day, including the transfer of a new student into her class named Kakeru Naruse. The Naho from ten years later repeatedly states that she has many regrets, and she wants to fix these by making sure the Naho from the past can make the right decisions—especially regarding Kakeru. What's more shocking is that she discovers that ten years later, Kakeru will no longer be with them. Future Naho asks her to watch over him closely.

Queen of the South
Teresa flees Mexico after her drug-runner boyfriend is murdered. Settling in Dallas, she looks to become the country's reigning drug smuggler and to avenge her lover's murder.

A Terra Prometida

The Girlfriend Experience
Explore the relationships between exclusive escorts and their clients, for whom they provide far more than just sex. Known as GFEs, they are women who provide “The Girlfriend Experience”—emotional and sexual relationships at a very high price.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life
Set nearly a decade after the finale of the original series, this revival follows Lorelai, Rory and Emily Gilmore through four seasons of change.

Bungo Stray Dogs
Stalked by a beastly white tiger, Atsushi Nakajima has no idea that the menace lives inside him—a power that catches the attention of the Armed Detective Agency. Using inhuman abilities to combat crime, this team takes Atsushi under the wing of their most eccentric member, Dazai. Together, they tear through mafia-muddled mysteries while enemies keep an eye on the tiger’s lofty bounty.

You Me Her
An unusual, real-world romance involving relatable people, with one catch - there are three of them! You Me Her infuses the sensibilities of a smart, grounded indie rom-com with a distinctive twist: one of the two parties just happens to be a suburban married couple.

El marginal
An ex-cop entered a prison as convicted under a false identity in order to infiltrate within a group of prisoners that has just kidnapped the teenage daughter of an important national judge.

Nosotros los Guapos
Vítor and Albertano are in pursuit of the same objective: to find a place to live, and as much as they don't want to, get a job that allows them to live and pay the rent for the room that the two decide to share at Doña Cuca's house.

Call Me Bruna
Raquel is a girl, adopted by an upper-middle-class family, who rebelled at 17 and left her family and studies at a traditional college in São Paulo to become a prostitute.

Bull
Dr. Jason Bull is the brilliant, brash, and charming founder of a hugely successful trial consulting firm.

The Story of God with Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman presents his quest in order to find how most religions perceive life after death, what different civilizations thought about the act of creation and other big questions that mankind has continuously asked.

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
High school sophomore Kusuo Saiki swore as a child that he would keep his psychic talents hidden, but his abilities still make his life difficult.

Mars
The maiden crew of the Daedalus spacecraft must push itself to the brink of human capability in order to successfully establish the first sustainable colony on Mars. Set both in the future and in the present day, this series blends scripted elements set in the future with documentary vérité interviews with today’s best and brightest minds in modern science and innovation, illuminating how research and development is creating the space technology that will enable our first attempt at a mission to Mars.

Twin Star Exorcists
Rokuro is from a family of exorcists, but he'd rather be a singer, a soccer player or anything but an exorcist! He's forced to own up to his own incredible potential when new arrival Benio stirs his competitive spirit. But their rivalry gets a twist when they earn the prestigious title of "Twin Star Exorcists"—two supreme fighters fated to marry and birth the ultimate spiritual warrior!

Ajin
17 years ago, immortals first appeared on the battlefields of Africa. Later, rare, unknown new immortal lifeforms began appearing among humans, and they became known as "Ajin" (demi-humans). Just before summer vacation, a Japanese high school student is instantly killed in a traffic accident on his way home from school. However, he is revived, and a price is placed on his head. Thus begins a boy's life on the run from all of humankind.

Slasher
Thirty years ago, in the sleepy community of Waterbury, a killer known as “The Executioner” murdered Sarah Bennett's parents. Now Sarah and her husband Dylan have returned to town, only to find herself the centerpiece in a series of horrifying murders centered around the seven deadly sins.

Beyblade Burst
Middle schooler Valt Aoi, with his Beyblade Valkyrie (Valtryek), faces off against friends, classmates, and rivals to become the world's number one Blader.

Frontier
In 18th-century North America, ruthless trappers and entrepreneurs fight to wrest control of the fur trade from the mighty Hudson's Bay Company.

The Three Sides of Ana
Over a road trip, triplets Ana Laura, Ana Leticia, and Ana Lucía, along with their parents, suffer a dramatic accident crashing by the side of a river. The consequences of this event are catastrophic: Both parents die, Ana Laura loses one leg, and Ana Lucía, unconscious, is dragged by the river’s flow. Only Ana Leticia, who actually caused the accident, emerges unscathed. Soledad, a woman who was seriously hurt after her daughter’s death, helps Ana Lucía, whom she finds agonizing. Although Soledad discovers who the girl is, she takes advantage of her memory loss regarding the accident and her family and decides to keep her, making her believe she is her mother. Despite everyone declares Ana Lucía is death, Ernestina, the triplets' grandmother, and Ramiro, their uncle, don’t give up and do everything they can to find Ana Lucía. But years go by, the same as their wishful

Love
Rebellious Mickey and good-natured Gus navigate the thrills and agonies of modern relationships.

Doctors
A recalcitrant, delinquent teen girl meets a compassionate teacher, who inspires her to alter her path and become a street-savvy neurosurgeon.

Medici: Masters of Florence
The story of the Medici family of Florence, their ascent from simple merchants to power brokers sparking an economic and cultural revolution. Along the way, they also accrue a long list of powerful enemies.

The Tick
In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an accountant with zero powers comes to realize his city is owned by a super villain. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero.

Kiss Him, Not Me
Kae Serinuma is a second year high school student and an avid fujoshi who secretly ships her classmates, Igarashi and Nanashima. The death of her favorite anime character causes her to become stressed and lose weight rapidly. Now that Serinuma has become an attractive girl to her classmates, snarky junior Shinomiya and senior Mutsumi, how is she going to deal with them with her constant BL-filled fujoshi mind?

Channel Zero
A horror anthology series inspired by “Creepypasta” online tales.

Berserk
Spurred by the flame raging in his heart, the Black Swordsman Guts continues his seemingly endless quest for revenge. Standing in his path are heinous outlaws, delusional evil spirits, and a devout child of god. Even as it chips away at his life, Guts continues to fight his enemies, who wield repulsive and inhumane power, with nary but his body and sword—his strength as a human.

Victoria
The story of Queen Victoria, who came to the throne at a time of great economic turbulence and resurgent republicanism – and died 64 years later the head of the largest empire the world had ever seen, having revitalised the throne’s public image and become “grandmother of Europe”.

Marcella
Marcella is shocked to the core of her being when her husband Jason leaves her unexpectedly, confessing he no longer loves her. Heartbroken, Marcella returns to the Met’s Murder Squad. Ten years ago Marcella gave up her fast-tracked police career to marry and devote her life to her family. With the abrupt end to her marriage and isolated from her 13 year old daughter and 10 year old son, Marcella throws herself into work to stop herself from falling apart.

Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth
An elite group of young warriors trained in morals and martial arts finds love and friendship in Silla during Korea’s ancient Three Kingdoms period.

The Ranch
Being a pro athlete didn't pan out for Colt. Now he's helping his dad and brother keep the ranch afloat, and figuring out how he fits into the family.

Vice Principals
After North Jackson High's long-time principal steps down to tend to his ailing wife, Neal Gamby and Lee Russell, the school's vice principals, are forced to put their mutual disdain aside and form an unholy alliance in order to sabotage the newly appointed principal, Dr. Belinda Brown.

Shades of Blue
Sexy New York detective and single mother Harlee Santos fell in with a tight-knit group of dirty cops, taking bribes and protection money that she uses to provide the best life for her honest, talented daughter. But when she's trapped by the FBI and forced to inform on her own "brothers," she'll have to walk the fine line between love, loyalty, honor and betrayal, and try to keep it together for her daughter's future.

The Lion Guard
Simba's son, Kion, assembles a group of animals to protect the Pride Lands, known as the Lion Guard.

StartUp
A desperate banker needs to conceal stolen money. A Haitian-American gang lord wants to go legit. A Cuban-American hacker has an idea that will revolutionize the very future of money itself. Forced to work together, they unwittingly create their version of the American dream - organized crime 2.0.

Frequency
Detective Raimy Sullivan is stunned when a voice suddenly crackles through her father’s old, long-broken ham radio – it’s Frank Sullivan, somehow transmitting over the airwaves and through the decades from 1996. Separated by twenty years, father and daughter have reunited on a frequency only they can hear, but can they rewrite the story of their lives without risking everyone they love?

Silvana Sin Lana
A high society woman loses everything and has to move with her three daughters, and her mom to a middle-class neighborhood.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot
Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, an Inhuman with the ability to move at super-speed, is required to sign the Sokovia Accords. However, the restrictions of the Accords are in direct conflict with a personal mission she's desperate to fulfill, one that will test her abilities and will include tense encounters with S.H.I.E.L.D. team members.

Another Miss Oh
Two women working in the same industry with the exact same name keep getting their lives entangled both professionally and personally.

The Girl
A young woman who was part of the guerrilla group is now seeking a better life in the city. She wants to study medicine, to heal rather than harm, but she will face a challenge, because being part of outlaw groups always has consequences.

Vinyl
In 1970s New York, jaded record exec Richie Finestra tries to resurrect his failing label and fractured personal life while keeping his finger on the pulse of the city's new sound.

War and Peace
The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.

Crashing
A comedy drama that crashes straight into the lives and loves of six twenty-something adults living together as Property Guardians in a disused hospital.
Our Methodology
This list represents a fusion of massive scale TMDB audience data and expert editorial oversight. We track global engagement, critical reception, and historical significance across over 10,000 data points to ensure every entry is verified for accuracy.
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