TV Madness: ‘Outlander,’ ‘The Blacklist’ face off in first Final Four battle

For the past two weeks-plus, we’ve been chronicling a series of showdowns between shows in our TV Madness series, and we are now happy to present you with your Final Four! “Outlander,” “The Blacklist,” “Halt and Catch Fire,” and “Once Upon a Time” are the CarterMatt favorites that have emerged from the heap, and it’s an interesting amalgam of shows. All of them managed to blow out their opponents in round two despite some close showdowns in the first round, and there are some underdog stories in here. Heck, all of them are underdogs in some way given that there are no #1 seeds remaining.

So today, let’s kick things off with our first two contenders. As noted above, voting will be open until March 18 at noon Pacific time, and from there we’ll feature the next day the battle for the title. Vote at your leisure until then!

“The Blacklist” (5) – After narrowly beating “The Flash” in the closest battle of the entire first round, the James Spader – Megan Boone series made short work of “Game of Thrones” rather surprisingly in the second round, making it one of the biggest dragon-slayers of the entire tournament so far. Can it take down a show with a super-passionate internet following? This is going to be a huge test, but maybe the Final Four placement will give fans something to be excited about while waiting for the show’s return on April 7.

“Outlander” (2) – After emerging from a tough battle with “Longmire,” the Starz drama (premiering on April 9) is hoping to travel to the finale. We think the popularity of the show online in some ways speaks for itself, but if we were to analyze why this show has such a passionate following, we’d attribute to a combination of things: The fantasy, the romance, the performances from Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, and the strength of the source material by Diana Gabaldon. It has been able to build on a loyal audience in a super-short period of time.

(Photo: NBC)