The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2020

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 30, 2020

Above are the highest-scoring first-year TV series (including limited series) debuting in the United States between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. Shows are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding based on scores as of December 29, 2020, and any programs with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded.

2 of 21 photo by Netflix

81 Cheer (Netflix)

(#19) The producers of Last Chance U returned to Netflix at the beginning of 2020 with a similar docuseries, this time focusing on the world of competitive cheerleading—and, specifically, on a dominant Texas junior college team aiming for their school's 15th national championship this century. Critics loved the series, but a recent scandal involving one of the show's stars, Jerry Harris, could make it harder to recommend.

“A gripping inside peek at the world of top-flight athletics, where calamities are always one misstep away, physical agony and emotional devastation are ever-present, and the process of forming a cohesive team is complicated by the thorny hang-ups that everyone brings to the table.” —Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

Watch it on Netflix (6 episodes)

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