Inside The New York Times 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century List, and Why the Times Is All-In On “Canon”

The New York Times‘ exhaustive list of the best TV shows of the 21st century traces its origin to a similar list of the best books a couple years ago. The idea, Times canon editor Gilbert Cruz tells The Hollywood Reporter, was to reach out to the world’s best authors (many of them he notes, already write for the Times or the Times Book Review in one capacity or another), and have them select their favorites.

“It was such a success that we said, let’s try it again with movies,” says Cruz. Celebrities, however, are a different beast than authors, though the Times figured it out.

For the TV list, Cruz said that they reached out to more than 1,000 people, and about 500 or so ended up participating. Many of them also agreed to discuss their picks on camera, with videos interwoven throughout the list.

“Part of the thing that we’re promising readers is we’re doing this because these are people in these industries — the book industry, the movie industry, TV industry — who know about this stuff, create this stuff, but also care about this stuff,” says Cruz. “When you hear creators, showrunners, stars talking about the things that they love to see, yes, they are famous people, but also they’re just TV fans like the rest of us, right?

“Maybe you could do it in audio as well, and it would deliver some of that, but you wouldn’t go as far as you can with video, where you can hear Connie Britton telling a funny story like, ‘oh, I passed on Arrested Development because I thought it was dumb as hell,’ and then to see the final product, it’s not only the sound of her voice telling that story, but it’s the look on her face telling that story. In the end, what we wanted to do was just show people that TV creators love this medium just like we do, and that’s why we asked them to participate in this project.”

Earlier this summer Cruz was named “canon editor” at the Times, a role that immediately raised some eyebrows in media circles? What even is a canon in the context of an institution like the Times?

The TV list is in many ways the textbook example of what Cruz hopes to bring to the table, building on the learnings from the books and films list that were previously published.

“The idea is, can you have someone and a small team that can make a franchise out of this, make it into something that is living on a more regular basis, but also is interconnected,” says Cruz. “You don’t necessarily want all these things sort of popping up all over the newsroom on their own in their various silos.”

“It’s brand new, it’s an experiment,” he adds. “I’m still figuring out what the heck it is, and a big part of it is can we leverage our access to amplify our authority in all of these spaces — books, movies, TV — The New York Times has access, and we’ve always had access. In all of these places, we’ve had authority, and we’ve always had authority.”

The TV list, of course, is just the start. Others will follow, with video and dynamic features intertwined with the critical takes and the written word. Though just how many of these projects Cruz and his team (when he has hired his team) do remains to be determined.

“We need to figure out what the right cadence is. You know, it [the same list] can’t be every year. Obviously, that wouldn’t work,” he says. “That would be too big of a heave, and you wouldn’t get enough variance in the list every year in order to make it meaningful.

“Part of my challenge, and it is a challenge, is to figure out how to make sure, as you say, that these are not just one-offs,” he adds. “That it’s not just ‘here’s this thing we put out in September 2026, maybe you’ll never hear about it again.” Is there a way to sort of make them live on a more regular basis, even the ones we’ve already published?”