The Top 5 Spinoffs Currently On the Air
Many of us remember a time when virtually every series on television was a spinoff of something else: All in the Family had seven separate sister series premiere over the course of three decades. But although that era is behind us, we may be in the middle of a new era of spinoff television. Today, everything from sci-fi-, to horror, to prestige drama shows are getting the spinoff treatment — and these new shows are often even more popular than the originals.
For example, HBO’s new Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon is only three episodes into its first season, but as of the writing of this blog, it’s viewed positively by an impressive 75% of those who have voted on it on lists like The Best HBO Max TV Shows Of 2022. That’s better than the 68% positive sentiment voters have registered for Game of Thrones. And some spinoffs of spinoffs are more popular than their direct descendants, like Picard, which has a 61% positive sentiment score compared with Star Trek: The Next Generation’s 57%; and Law & Order: Organized Crime, which is viewed positively by 58% of those who voted on it, compared with the 54% sentiment score for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
But forget about their TV ancestors for a moment: which current TV spinoffs are the most popular shows on the air? We took a look at one of our most popular TV lists, The Best Shows Currently On The Air (370K votes), and pulled out the five highest-ranked series that happen to be spinoffs. These shows got beyond the shadow left by their predecessors to become TV phenomena in their own right.
Photo: AMC
#1: Better Call Saul
After coming to a conclusion in August, this show doesn’t technically qualify as “currently on the air.” Still, as the #4 show on the list, it seems a fitting sendoff for Better Call Saul to note that it was the most popular spinoff on the air at the time of its finale. The show is centered on Jimmy McGill and his transformation into criminal lawyer Saul Goodman in the years leading up to the events of Breaking Bad.
Though Better Call Saul is a smash hit compared with its contemporaries, it doesn’t quite stack up to its predecessor in the eyes of Ranker voters: the prequel is viewed positively by 57% of those who voted on it, while Breaking Bad is beloved by 67% of its voters. Still, given that the consensus view among Ranker voters is that Breaking Bad is literally the The Greatest Show Of All Time (1.9M votes), it’s hard to blame Better Call Saul for falling short here — especially since it’s sitting pretty at #11 on that list, an impressive feat in its own right on a list with 2,288 other shows on it.
Photo: The CW
#2: The Flash
This CW superhero show is #7 on The Best Shows Currently On The Air, and as part of the “Arrowverse,” the name given to TV series that exist within the fictional universe established by Arrow, it’s also the second-ranked spinoff series on the list. The Flash is set to end with its ninth season in 2023, and with it, the decade-old Arrowverse. With Better Call Saul not long for the list, we should expect that The Flash will become the most popular spinoff on the air before its finale next year.
Unlike Better Call Saul, The Flash enjoys a slightly higher approval rating than its sister series, with 59% of all voting for the show reflecting a positive sentiment compared with Arrow’s 56%.
Photo: NBC
#3: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
SVU’s descendent Organized Crime might have a higher percentage of positive votes, but SVU is still recognized by a larger portion of current TV fans. This spinoff of Dick Wolf’s original cops-and-lawyers procedural Law & Order is #17 overall on our Best Shows Currently On The Air list, making it the third most popular spinoff. Starring Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T, the show is best known for its lineup of stars that included Christopher Meloni, Richard Belzer, Dann Florek, and BD Wong. As popular as the show is, its high ranking on the list is at least partially thanks to the fact that it’s been on the air since 1999, 14 years before the creation of this list.
Special Victims Unit boasts a higher positive sentiment among our voters than does the original Law & Order, which has a 51% approval rating among its voters compared with SVU’s 54%. Since the original Law & Order was recently rebooted after a 13-year hiatus, however, we can expect its approval rating to change soon.
Photo: AMC
#4: Fear the Walking Dead
Another prequel series (though it runs concurrently with the original after its third season), Fear the Walking Dead is currently #35 on our Best Shows Currently On The Air list. Besides SVU, whose progenitor rose from the dead this year, Fear the Walking Dead is the first spinoff on this list whose originating series is still on the air, though The Walking Dead is set to conclude this November.
Fear the Walking Dead has another spinoff, Tales of the Walking Dead, to compete with. So far, the new anthology series is losing that battle: A few weeks after its premiere in August, only a third of those voters who’ve made their feelings about the show known view it positively. That’s lower than Fear the Walking Dead’s 47% positive sentiment, but the most popular in this franchise is still the original… just not by much. The Walking Dead is approved of by 49% of voters.
Photo: Paramount+
#5: Star Trek: Discovery
The Star Trek television franchise has gone down a long and winding road since the premiere of the original series in 1966. We’ve seen almost too many Star Trek spinoff films, series, and reboots over the last 50+ years to count — right now we have Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, and Lower Decks on the air, and two new series are in production. But of those shows, the Paramount+ original Discovery is the highest ranked on our Best Shows Currently On The Air list, where it sits at #36, just one spot behind Fear the Walking Dead.
Though Discovery may trump Picard on this list, those who have seen Picard tend to have a more positive view of the shows than of Discovery, according to Insights. In fact, Picard has a higher percentage of positive sentiment on Ranker than any other Star Trek series, with 61% of all votes on the show reflecting favorable feelings. The show that comes closest to that high mark is Picard’s progenitor, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is viewed positively by 57% of those who have voted on it.
