Today is National Television Day in the United States, a day for individuals, broadcasters and media organizations to reflect on the impact that television has had on society.
The societal impacts of television will vary as different shows grab hold on the public every year. Shows like “Friends” and “Seinfeld” dominated the airwaves in the 1990s and early 2000s, influencing society in much different ways than shows such as “Game of Thrones” and “Breaking Bad” did in recent years.
In honor of National Television Day, MinnesotaBets.com decided to take a short break from Minnesota sports betting to see which shows have been influencing the population most in 2023. To do this, we utilized IMDB’s list of the top 50 TV shows in 2023 and then we used AhRefs.com to narrow the list to the five most-searched shows of the year. The shows that qualified were “The Last of Us,” “Ted Lasso,” “The Mandalorian,” “Succession” and “The Bear.” We then utilized Google Trends to search each TV show to see the highest level of interest of each state for the show since Jan. 1.
Like much of the country, Minnesota’s top TV show for 2023 has been “The Last of Us”, a post-apocalyptic drama series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. “Ted Lasso” and “Succession” rank second and third, respectively, in the state.
In “The Last of Us,” a global pandemic has destroyed civilization as we know it and Pascal’s character takes charge of a 14-year-old girl, played by Ramsey, who appears to be humanity’s last hope. The show is based off a popular video game, which helps explain its massive popularity. The video game popularity - combined with the country’s recent experience with a global pandemic - are a deadly combination when it comes to generating viewership, making it no surprise that the show tops the rankings.
“Ted Lasso” follows a completely different route to the top of the charts. The show is based around a popular soccer coach and a unique cast and storyline. The show is very positive and uplifting and contains a lot of good life lessons that are told around the setting of a sports team, an area that is often stereotyped to be the opposite. With the popularity of the sport, actor Jason Sudeikis. and society’s need for a positive and cheerful show, it makes complete sense that “Ted Lasso” is a massive global hit.
There are many types of TV shows and the list of favorites already has shown the diversity in offerings with two very different shows topping the list in Minnesota. Despite the shows being so different, many Minnesotans no doubt have enjoyed both shows as both take different routes to influencing society in different ways.
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Author
Cecil Peters is a Senior Betting Analyst for MinnesotaBets.com. A professional sports bettor in Canada, Cecil specializes in analyzing the latest odds impacting professional sports, particularly MLB and the NHL. He will be providing insight throughout the baseball season.
