Last year Lost narrowly missed winning the reader award for Best TV Show for the third year in a row, when The Office bested its vote count by about 2%. Both shows had strong performances in 2007, setting up the potential for a vicious rematch for readers' affections. And so it comes as a minor surprise that Lost, in winning this year's reader award for Best TV Show, did so by a convincing 29% margin over The Office. The Office can still lay claim as readers' favorite comedy, by a 19% margin over 30 Rock. There was a clear consensus among readers regarding the top four finishers, as 30 Rock finished 17% ahead of Heroes, but there was a huge, 57% drop-off after Heroes. The remaining shows in the top 15 were tightly grouped, finishing within negligible amounts of each other.

30 Rock is the highest debuting show, having finished outside the readers' top 15 last year. As for truly new shows (i.e. Fall 2007 premier), that honor goes to Pushing Daisies by just a 3% margin over the only other rookie on the list, Chuck.

Looking at trends compared to last year's reader awards, shows on the rise also include Dexter (new), South Park (15th), Friday Night Lights (new), The Colbert Report (new), Desperate Housewives (new), and The Daily Show (new). These shows took the place of those that fell out of the readers' top 15 last year including 24 (4th), Arrested Development (5th), Grey's Anatomy (9th), Veronica Mars (10th), Entourage (11th), Family Guy (12th), American Idol (13th), and Ugly Betty (14th). Add in Scrubs' slide from 8th to 13th, and you can observe a bit of a sea change happening among readers viewing preferences. American Idol remains readers' top reality show but came in ranked well outside the top 15.

There aren't major differences between the readers and BOP staff when it comes to television references, but a few stand out. Heroes 2nd season left us flat, and we punished it accordingly. Chuck, not Pushing Daisies, was our favorite among the Fall debuts. You liked Dexter and the daily Comedy Central offerings from Stewart and Colbert better than we did.

NBC wins this year's network competition with four of the top six shows and six overall in the top 15. Just a year ago NBC had to share top honors with FOX; however, FOX only returned one of five shows to the readers' top 15 this year, House.

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