TV Madness 2019: Last Man Standing, Blue Bloods face off in round 3
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.
Today, we close the door formally on round 3 with a showdown between two underdog shows that managed to defy the odds and make it this far: Last Man Standing as well as Blue Bloods. These two shows have devoted followings and, ironically, have become Friday-night staples for so many years. That’s one of the reasons why the cancellation of the former was so shocking when it happened — it’s hard to imagine the 2018-19 season without both of them on the air, and we’re lucky we don’t have to. (Let’s just hope that the renewals for these two shows come sooner rather than later.)
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 Tuesday, March 26 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific time. That’s a pretty quick turnaround compared to the voting windows that we’ve had throughout the tournament, so consider that a reason to get some of your votes in fast! The winner here is going to face off against either Lucifer or Absentia in the final four, and both of them are going to be considerable competition for it to get that grand prize of TV Madness Champion.
You can see the full bracket (including start dates for each individual round) in the graphic at the top of this article.
The competitors
Last Man Standing (#8 seed) – We expected the Tim Allen-led comedy series to be a solid underdog contender in the tournament, given that its fans had rallied to help save it from cancellation and it also continues to receive so much love for its new episodes. Yet, it was somewhat of an unknown within the context of TV Madness. It had never appeared in any CarterMatt poll before, and it was hard to be able to properly determine whether or not viewers would be coming out for it.
Now that we’re three rounds in and the show’s notched some impressive victories over the likes of Manifest and Poldark, it is fair to say that this is a show clearly heading in the right direction and also doing some of the right things. It feels like a strong, formidable contender now to make it to the final four, but you can’t count your chickens before they hatch … especially when you got a pretty formidable opponent in the other corner.
Blue Bloods (#6 seed) – For the Tom Selleck-led CBS series, it’s already posted its strongest TV Madness performance to do — while it’s participated before, it has experienced an influx of voters this time around. Maybe it comes as a result of an ever-expanding online fan community, one emboldened further by the social-media postings of the cast or specifically by the Jamie – Eddie relationship. Regardless of the reasoning, it is fairly hard at this point to doubt the ability of Blue Bloods to be a major threat to succeed in TV Madness the rest of the way this year.
Like Last Man Standing, Blue Bloods has the distinction of unseating two straight favorites in a row — first, it took down MacGyver, a show that had performed well in TV Madness in the past. Then, it found a way to unseat Grey’s Anatomy. Is this going to be the year that the Reagans make it to the final four?