TV Madness 2019: The Resident and Blindspot square off in Round One

TV Madness

TV Madness 2019 is officially upon us! March is one of our favorite times of the year for many reasons — spring is in the air, the days are getting longer, and the idea of a bracket is a part of our pop-culture lexicon. TV Madness is CarterMatt’s version of March Madness, where a number of fantastic shows from across the map face off against each other. There are seedings, head-to-head showdowns, and the performance of each show is based entirely on you, the reader.

This particular edition of the tournament is setting the stage for what could be one of the first round’s more fascinating battles. On paper, The Resident and Blindspot feel evenly matched — hence the seeding. Both have devoted followings, but both are probably thought of as under-the-radar hits that don’t get anywhere near enough attention. Each is anchored by great casts and a few twists that make them something different than your standard medical drama or crime show (respectively). Either one of them could be a darkhorse contender in the next round, but only one will get the chance.

If you’ve taken part in CarterMatt’s TV Madness before, you likely know how this works — we spotlight the two competitors and then, on the other side of it, give you a poll for you to commence your voting! The poll is located at the bottom of this article.

How voting works – Vote however often you would like! (Technical instructions for multiple voting can be found right above the poll.) We will keep this poll open until Wednesday, March 13 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. Whoever wins this battle will have another major challenge ahead — trying to face off against either Hawaii Five-0, a formidable #1 seed hungry for its first overall TV Madness victory, or an upstart in Legacies that is pretty eager to prove itself this year.

You can see the full bracket (including start dates for each individual round) in the graphic at the top of this article.

The competitors

The Resident (#4 seed) – It’s getting the higher seeding of the two shows on the basis of having better ratings, but that doesn’t necessarily mean more votes here! The medical drama is in its second season on the air and has carved out a great place as one of television’s best medical shows. While the patient-of-the-week stories are always compelling, where we think The Resident truly shines is in taking on the bureaucracy of medicine and some of the political landmines that some of the doctors and nurses are forced to take on. This season, a major roadblock has come up from medical-device companies and the corruption that can bleed through an entire hospital.

The Resident feels like the sort of TV Madness competitor that could get more and more formidable as time goes on, so we’re certainly interested to see how it fares here. It doesn’t have a season 3 renewal yet, but that feels likely.

Blindspot (#5 seed) – Technically, Blindspot is entering this showdown as an underdog, but we also know that it’s more than capable of pulling off a defeat here. It’s had some respectable performances in the past in both TV Madness and some other tournaments that we do at CarterMatt, such as Crime Dynamic Duos. It’s a show that packs a lot of content into every episode — you have characters solving cases, but then also breakneck action, logical problem-solving, fun characters, and also some romance. It’s also a show that takes big, ambitious risks — think in terms of the on-location shoots this season in Japan and also Peru.

When you consider just how much work the Blindspot production team puts into the show, doesn’t that add another incentive to give back? Its future on NBC is currently in doubt, so we’ve seen a more mobilized fan base as of late than we have over the past few years.

Related Check out some other TV Madness showdowns!

Let the voting commence…

Be sure to share who you want to see advance in our TV Madness Tournament below!

I can’t see the poll; what do I do? – If you are on mobile, scroll to the bottom of the page and click to view the non-AMP version. If that does not work, give the poll a moment to load! On some mobile browsers, it may take a moment.

How can I vote more than once? – If you are having trouble casting multiple votes, try switching your browser, your device, or visiting the page under private browsing or incognito mode. There should be many handy guides online explaining how to do so if interested.

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