TV Madness 2019: The Blacklist, Bodyguard do battle in round 1

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.

We’re now at the halfway point of showcasing all of the battles in round 1, and that brings up today to the next important showdown: The Blacklist facing off against Bodyguard. In the case of the former, you’ve got a battle-tested entity with a great following and a story that is certainly in an interesting spot at the moment. Meanwhile, in the case of the latter you’ve got one of the biggest British TV sensations of the past year, one with a story that gets you talking about Richard Madden and British politics even if you know very little about them. This should be a fun showdown; there’s an unpredictable nature to it going in! There is also a rather interesting similarity between these shows in that they each involve characters who sometimes decide to operate far outside the traditional rules of the law.

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 Friday, March 15 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. From there, the winner will face off against either Criminal Minds or Absentia, which are also going to begin their own TV Madness battle today.

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 Blacklist (#1 seed) – The James Spader – Megan Boone series is entering TV Madness 2018 following a pretty solid run last year — it made it all the way to the final eight as a #1 seed, and it ended up losing to The Brave, the show that ended up winning the entire tournament. Nothing to sneeze at there! This time around, the show’s out for redemption in the midst of one of its most exciting runs we’ve seen in some time. It’s now officially confirmed that Raymond Reddington is an imposter, and Liz Keen is hot on the trail to figuring out who he really is. We don’t want to say too much more in case you’re behind; consider this your sign that you really need to catch up and start watching the show live! We definitely think that it is worth your time.

We certainly know The Blacklist to have a fan following like no other — these are people who love to jump into all of the wonderful theories and have some of the best discussions going. We’re excited to see where this season goes, and we’re certainly intrigued to track its performance here.

Bodyguard (#8 seed) – There really aren’t many times in which we consider the BBC / Netflix series to be an underdog given its success of the past year — we’re talking about one of the most successful British dramas of the past decade! To us, it’s made the biggest mainstream impact of any since Downton Abbey, and it’s also gotten some awards consideration that many other shows from Britain have not.

So why in the world seed Bodyguard so low here? We gauge the TV Madness tournament by more than just ratings, and within this sphere, the show is still a great unknown. Will viewers come out for it, or are most of them dispersed only to potentially re-gather when news of a long-awaited season 2 finally comes out? There are a lot of question marks circling the series still; hopefully, some blanks will be filled in soon.