The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2017

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 27, 2017

Above are the highest-scoring first-year TV series debuting in the United States between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. Shows are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding, and any programs with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded. (Note that limited series, as well as TV movies and specials, are ranked in a separate list.)

9 of 22 photo by Erika Doss/IFC

79 Brockmire (IFC)

(#9) In this age of too much TV, you'd be forgiven for failing to discover that this summer comedy series even existed. But many of the handful of critics who reviewed it seemed to love it, and enough viewers finally caught on to Brockmire that it became IFC's highest-rated new series this year, and the network picked it up for a second season. Hank Azaria stars as the title character, whom he first played years ago in a Funny or Die special: a hard-drinking baseball announcer whose on-air meltdown forces him to re-start his career in the minor leagues.

“Each episode provides everything you would want from a comedy: originality, elegantly crude humor, genuine warmth and heartbreak.” —Melanie McFarland, Salon

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