TV Madness 2018: Chicago Fire, Blue Bloods compete in Round 1
Welcome to another edition of our third annual TV Madness Tournament! This is a fun annual tradition here at CarterMatt where we have some fun, engaging battles between various shows looking to make it all the way to the final round on March 28.
Above, you can see our full bracket, complete with entries, their seeds, and start/end dates. Once you are within the bracket, the dates listed are when the previous poll ends and the next one begins! We’ve got a great group of shows taking part this year, with some newbies as well as others who have been a part of the tournament every single year. The voting rules are pretty simple — you can vote however often you would like on however many devices that you would like! If you are on mobile and you are having a problem seeing the poll at the bottom of the article for whatever reason, be sure to click to view the non-AMP version of the page at the bottom of the article.
In this article, we’ve got two established series doing battle — given that we’ve got a #4 and a #5 seed competing here, signs point to this being one of the closest battles in the first round. Chicago Fire is a show that continues to be the beacon of the entire One Chicago franchise; meanwhile, Blue Bloods is the under-the-radar little engine that could for CBS. Even though it doesn’t get the best promotion in the world, it does still find a way to draw big numbers time and time again.
With that, let’s get to breaking down these entries further. Voting for this round remains open until Friday, March 16 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific time.
Chicago Fire (#4 seed) – This is the sixth season for the NBC firefighter drama and, creatively, it is continuing to deliver. While it does have a lot of serious drama and relentless action, one of the reasons we enjoy it so is simply because of its fun factor. There is a lot of humor sprinkled into every episode and, to go along with it, a fantastic family environment. While being a firefighter can be a dangerous job, this series does do a great job of making you want to be a part of Firehouse 51.
Blue Bloods (#5 seed) – Meanwhile, let’s transition over to the CBS crime procedural, which is largely fascinating in that we are going from a metaphorical family with Chicago Fire to a literal one here. It’s pretty easy to root for the Reagan family given that their struggles are real, relatable, and almost always gripping. While we do wish that there was more of Jamie and Eddie on the show these days, we do love that this series exists and creating them in the first place — the same goes for Danny, Erin, Frank, and everyone else.