Every Stephen King TV Show, Ranked Worst to Best

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – June 3, 2021

Originally a reluctant convert to television, best-selling horror author Stephen King has seen over two dozen projects bearing his name reach the small screen over the past 40+ years, from Salem's Lot to the just-launched Lisey's Story. While most of these have been adaptations of King's novels and stories, a few were wholly new projects written by the author directly for TV. Some have been deeply mediocre at best, but quite a few of King's TV shows have received a warm welcome from critics.

In the gallery on this page, we rank every Stephen King series from worst to best by Metascore, reflecting the critical consensus at the time of each show's debut. Miniseries are included alongside conventional TV shows, but made-for-TV movies are excluded.

24 of 26 photo by ABC

79It (ABC, 1990)

Based on the novel It (1986)

[#2] Before the $700 million-grossing 2017 feature film (and its 2019 sequel) there was this two-night ABC miniseries adaptation of King's massive 1986 horror novel—just the second-ever TV adaptation of a King work. Over 30 million viewers tuned in to see Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) portray the sinister clown Pennywise, along with a cast composed (rather unusually for a horror series) mostly of sitcom veterans, including John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Richard Masur, and Tim Reid. Though there were complaints about the ending, Curry's partially improvised performance captivated viewers and critics and helped It achieve cult status in the following decades when it continued to find an audience on home video.

“This is a good, at times brilliant, always solid and well-done example of the horror/suspense genre. But be forewarned, the superb setup is better than the slightly disappointing payoff.” —Michael Hill, Baltimore Sun

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