Inside Pulse TV Madness Bracket Tournament – House and Big Bang Theory Hope To Eliminate Higher Seeded Shows, Friday Night Lights and Burn Notice!

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The Sweet 16 Round voting has ended and again there were some close battles! Two of the four #1 seeds went down this week, but those contests weren’t really close, which is somewhat surprising. The remaining #2 seeds, though, both ended up winning, but each by the closest of margins.

In the ABC Region, both the #1 seed Lost and #2 24 have survived to make it to the elite 8 and the finals of that region. This is the only region that has a #1 vs. #2 matchup in the finals. But credit must be given to South Park and NCIS, as the early votes were for them, but the late votes came in against them and that was the difference.

In the FOX Region, the top seeds won again. The Office was never behind and took care of the rookie comedy Modern Family by a large margin. But it should be noted that the highest margin of victory this round was 62% to 38%, which is a far cry from earlier rounds where The Office and other top seeds were winning with 85% of votes and even higher than that. The lowest seed going into this round, #15 Castle almost did it again! They were back and forth with Chuck for much the week. But some late votes eventually pushed Chuck ahead for good. So here we have a #1 seed vs. a #3 seed in the regional finals.

The CBS Region has become the “upset” region. #4 Burn Notice never had to sweat beating #1 Mad Men. I honestly wouldn’t call this an upset as Burn Notice is an excellent series, and it looks like most people agreed. Even though both shows are on cable networks, I think Burn Notice is more known to regular viewers on the USA NETWORK than Mad Men on the AMC network. Mad Men does have a lot of awards and critic love, though, but obviously that wasn’t enough to move on to the next round. Likewise, #6 Big Bang Theory easily beat #10 Supernatural. So in this final matchup we have a #4 seed vs. a #6 seed.

Finally, the NBC Region almost had a MAJOR upset. #14 Bones almost had enough late votes to beat
#2 Friday Night Lights, but they fell short by one vote. Once again, though, a #4 seed House had an easy time with a #1 seed Dexter. It’s easier to see why this #1 seed went down. Dexter is on SHOWTIME, a premium channel you have to pay for, while House is on FOX, a major network. Sure, you can always catch Dexter on DVD or online somewhere, but you can watch House easier than you can watch Dexter. That obviously had to play a part in House winning here. So we end up with a #2 seed vs. a #4 seed in this final.

So looking overall at the final 8 shows. There are still 3 shows from NBC, which is almost half of the final 8. However, there is a NBC vs. NBC battle this round with The Office vs. Chuck, so at most only 2 NBC shows can make the final four. There are 2 FOX shows, which is good enough for second place. Finally, there is 1 show from ABC and CBS, and 1 cable network, the USA NETWORK. So while NBC might be stuck battling for third or fourth place as a major network in the ratings, in the eyes of Inside Pulse TV readers, it has some of the best shows on television.

We are now getting closer to the end. There are 8 shows left and pretty much all of the “Cinderella” shows have been elimination. Big Bang Theory is a #6 seed, but it has a strong following. So it will be interesting to see if it can beat #4 Burn Notice. It’s also interesting to look at one side of the bracket with the ABC and FOX regions, which have a two #1 seeds, a #2 seed, and #3 seed left. On the other side with the CBS and NBC regions, there is one #2 seed, two #4 seeds, and a #6 seed. So we could have two #1 seeds facing off against each other in the Final Four, while on the other side we can have two #4 seeds facing off. There is no doubt that all of the remaining shows have a strong fan following, so the voting for these matchups should be the closest and most interesting yet.

If you don’t know what this is all about, go back to the First Round Voting Page, Second Round Voting Page, Third Round Voting, and Sweet 16 Round Voting, and get all of the details there. If you did vote in the first four rounds, you should already know, so go check out the updated bracket for yourself by going here:

2010 Inside Pulse Best Television Show Tournament Bracket

Now on with the Elite 8 matchups and let the voting begin!


ABC Region – Elite 8 Matchup

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FOX Region – Elite 8 Matchup

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CBS Region – Elite 8 Matchup

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NBC Region – Elite 8 Matchup

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Each of these polls will stay open for one week. Next week the next round begins and we will continue until the final show is crowed as the best some time in May. Remember to tell all of your friends to vote as well!

Sir Linksalot: Television News

I'm not embarrassed to say that my favorite television show of all-time is The O.C. I live by the motto "you can't fight fate!" More importantly, I watch WAY too much television, but I do so for the benefit of everyone reading this now. So to my mom and my wife, I say thanks for reading! To everyone else that might stumble across this, remember TiVo should be your best friend!