While the TV landscape has changed significantly over the last few decades, by and large, pilots are still a vital key to a show’s future success. A pilot doesn’t necessarily have to be great, but it does need to show promise. Comedy pilots are notoriously tricky to pull off as it usually takes a few episodes to find the characters, but there’s usuallysomethingin that pilot that hints at greatness to come (see:The Office,Parks and Recreation). For dramas, it’s all about setting the stage and ending with a reason to tune back in the next week. Some drama pilots aregreatbut subsequently fail to deliver on the intriguing promise that they set up, and viewers will jump ship quickly if you can’t maintain the high level of quality in your next few episodes.
And while some networks have eschewed pilot season altogether in favor of just ordering a show straight to series (see:House of Cards,True Detective), there’s still nothing like tuning into the first episode of a TV series and being handed a spectacular hour or two hours of storytelling.
As we currently live in the Second Golden Age of Television, there have been a number of memorable pilots since the year 2000. As such, we’ve culled together a list of the best of the best of the 21st century thus far—pilots that stood out for their ingenuity, artfulness, or maybe just happened to give viewers something wholly unique. Not all of these pilots resulted in great series, but regardless of what followed, they served as spectacular introductions to a world, to new characters, and to inventive storytelling.
Without further ado, Adam Chitwood and Allison Keene present the 17 best TV pilots of the 2000s so far.
Network:ABC
Date Aired:September 22nd and 29th, 2004
Director:J.J. Abrams
The pilot forLostis one of the best pilots in television history. The ABC series materialized notoriously quickly, withDamon LindelofandJ.J. Abramscreating the characters while simultaneously casting the ensemble for this twist on the “stranded on a deserted island” format. Indeed, ABC was so doubtful of the project that the only reason they gave them so much money for the pilot (the most expensive ever made at that time) was because they felt they could air it as a TV movie and be done with it.
But in practice, this two-hour pilot is a stunning piece of filmmaking that introduces the eerie world ofLostin highly engaging fashion. It sets up this massive ensemble in an intriguing way, establishes rules (or lack thereof) for the strange goings-on on the island, and sets up the central conflicts of the characters with what would become a hallmark of the series: the singular POV flashbacks. And that ending, with the group learning that the mysterious looping transmission has been going for 16 years, is the epitome of a well-executed cliffhanger. Moreover, mysterious aspects of the show are set up in this pilot (like the smoke monster) that Lindelof and Abrams only had basic ideas of, but were able to blossom into fulfilling series-long mysteries.
Whatever your feelings about the series finale, it cannot be denied that theLostpilot is one of the most memorable pieces of television history. Ah, the joy of discovery. –Adam Chitwood
‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’
Network:NBC
Date Aired:July 15, 2025
Director:Thomas Schlamme
Studio 60 on the Sunset Stripis a prime example of a series failing to live up to the promise of its pilot. The show served as the highly anticipated follow-up toAaron Sorkin’s masterfulThe West Wing, so all eyes were on this prestigious (and expensive) hourlong show about the backstage goings-on at anSNL-esque sketch series. The pilot is classic Sorkin, starting off with a brilliantly executed inciting event that evokes the on-air meltdown fromNetwork, which subsequently serves to create the gap for producer/director Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford) and whip-smart, self-loathing addict writer Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) to rejoin the series-within-a-series. The chemistry between Whitford and Perry is off the charts, and the momentum of this first episode zips along under the direction of Sorkin’sWest WingcohortThomas Schlamme. It’s an incredibly exciting piece of television that also marked a prestigious role for future Emmy winnerSarah Paulsonas the fake sketch series’ most famous star, and it all came crashing down within a few episodes.
Sorkin was never really able to fully recover his swing after the pilot, though the series did have its bright spots as a whole. It was swiftly cancelled by NBC at the conclusion of the first season (it wasinsanelyexpensive due to cast/producer salaries) and funnily enough was hailed astheshow to watch that season while another NBC series about a sketch show called30 Rockdebuted to little promotion or acclaim. All these years later30 Rockis an icon of television whileStudio 60is a forgotten failure, but we’ll always have that pilot. –Adam Chitwood
‘The Wire’
Network: HBO
Date Aired:June 04, 2025
Director: Clark Johnson
The Wireis a rare drama that starts out with a moment of comedy, one that came from real life and immediately establishes the series’ penchant for blending narrative and reality so closely together that its fictional stories always feel like truth. ThoughThe Wire’s themes and focus changed dramatically in each season, the pilot episode established the show’s main drive: the push and pull between the police and the streets they are supposed to protect and serve. Instead of going by the book and offering up a clear procedural, though,The Wireintroduces two very interesting characters in Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) — a rogue cop who thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room — and a man who mightactuallybe the smartest guy in the room, Stringer Bell (Idris Elba), a kingpin drug dealer who takes business classes.
McNulty is chaos and Bell is order, at least for awhile, and their interactions in the pilot already hint thatDavid Simoncreated a very, very different kind of cop show, one that shows all facets of the War of Drugs. The pilot also introduces an addict, Bubbles, as well as several young drug dealers who live in and around public housing, all against a backdrop of Baltimore rarely seen by tourists or visitors. And yet, it could almost be any American inner city; that isThe Wire’s mastery of the universal through the specific. And it all kicks off with a great episode for one of television’s finest series.— Allison Keene
‘Breaking Bad’
Network:AMC
Date Aired:August 03, 2025
Director:Vince Gilligan
Breaking Badis the rare TV series that seemed to get better with each season, but that doesn’t mean its first episode is its worst. The pilot, written and directed byVince Gilligan, begins in striking fashion withBryan Cranstondriving an RV like a bat out of hell in nothing but his tighty whities before flashing back to the events that start this story, with Cranston as a mild mannered high school chemistry teacher. In many ways, the pilot is an encapsulation of the series to come—how can a man so harmless get himself in such a ridiculous situation? Gilligan toys with that question by keeping viewers invested, curious to find out just how all of this happened, and it’s a narrative device that would continue throughout the show’s run by teasing some event or image from the future to up the ante so to speak.
Visually Gilligan establishes a palette unlike anything else on TV, highlighting the stark New Mexico landscape with flashes of color here and there. Right out of the gate,Breaking Badwas something very, very different. —Adam Chitwood
‘How I Met Your Mother’
Network:CBS
Date Aired:June 13, 2025
Director:Pamela Fryman
Making a good comedy pilot is hard. If you go back and watch the pilots for some of the most successful comedies of all time, they’re usually not that good. In the case ofFriends, some of the characters are entirely different from what they would become over the course of the first season. Indeed, the key to sitcom is chemistry, and it takes trial and error to figure out the best mix for your ensemble. But in the case ofHow I Met Your Mother, the show had a silver bullet: a serialized hook.
Most sitcoms simply exist on the idea of a situation (hence the name situational comedy), butHow I Met Your Motherbegan as an idea of a plot device. Specifically, that in the future a father is telling his children the story of how he met their mother, with the show itself taking place in “the past”. However, the pilot quickly pulls a bait-and-switch (which would infuriatingly turn outnotto be much of a bait-and-switch in that awful series finale) by setting up Robin (Cobie Smulders) as the primary love interest of our protagonist Ted (Josh Radnor), only to conclude by saying, “And that’s how I met youraunt.”
This episode-ending zinger isn’t just a snappy reveal, but also sets up the rules of theHow I Met Your Motheruniverse so clearly and cleverly. Viewers understood that they’d have to pay close attention to the details of the story to pick up hints about how all these characters fit into the “present day” narrative, all the while the talented ensemble made this group of friends an easy-to-love bunch. –Adam Chitwood
‘The Walking Dead’
Date Aired:August 17, 2025
Directed by:Frank Darabont
WhileThe Walking Deadhas since perfected the art of spinning one’s wheels, it got off to a tremendous start with a purely cinematic pilot. Writer/directorFrank Darabontworks his magic by introducing this “zombie series” as a pretty straightforward character/cop drama for the first 10 minutes or so. In a stroke of brilliance, he introduces two of our main characters in a pre-zombie infested world, only to use Rick Grimes’ coma to smash cut past the emergence of the zombie epidemic. As a result, Darabont is able to skip straight to the aftermath with some terrifying horror filmmaking, isolating Rick in a world he no longer recognizes. The pacing is terrific, the single POV serves to keep the audience on its toes, and the first touches ofGreg Nicotero’s spectacular zombie makeup are truly jaw-dropping. The episode concludes with one hell of a set piece, wrapping things up in a tonally and thematically satisfying manner, all of which only serve to underscore the loss the series felt when Darabont left. But we’ll always have that pilot. –Adam Chitwood
‘Homeland’
Network:Showtime
Date Aired:June 25, 2025
Director:Michael Cuesta
Nearly a month after the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the world wasn’t exactlyaskingfor a TV series about global terrorism, but Showtime delivered one in the form ofHomeland. However, despite the fact that the show hailed from24executive producersHoward GordonandAlex Gansa,Homelandproved to be much more thoughtful and introspective than that vengeance-filled Fox series, setting up a mystery in the pilot that would tee-up one of the best seasons of television history. We can argue the quality particulars of subsequent seasons, butHomeland’s pilot elegantly establishes a thriller narrative in whichClaire Danes’ CIA officer is investigating whether a rescued soldier has been turned or not. And that ending, with Brody turning to the Capital building, sent shivers down every viewer’s spine. –Adam Chitwood
‘Justified’
Network: Fox
Date Aired:June 11, 2025
Director: Michael Dinner
One of the best written series in all of TV,Justifiedadapted the work ofElmore Leonardinto the story of a modern lawman in Kentucky who was pulled between his rogue notions of justice and his family’s criminal activities. ButJustified’s pilot — which really helps us know who Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) is as a person not through exposition but by seeing it — also sets up the series’ most important relationship dynamic: that between Raylan and his old coal-digging buddy Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). Boyd, who was supposed to die in the pilot, was just too good of an antagonist and a foil to waste, and the show never did take his presence for granted.
ButJustified’s pilot also establishes an authentic Southern tone that embraces both the city ways of Lexington and the redneck machinations of the hill counties. It was, and remains, a unique setting for a series, one that can be hard to pull off. But the series’ exceptional cast make you feel like you’ve known them — or people just like them — for a long time. Balancing action with a cool humor,Justified’s premiere promises plenty of action both on and off books for U.S. Deputy Marshall Givens, and leaves you knowing somehow that his hat is going to become iconic (it did).— Allison Keene
‘Battlestar Galactica’
Network: Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy)
Date Aired: June 24, 2025
Director: Michael Rymer
I’m counting theBattlestar Galacticaminiseries as the series’ true premiere, because it was originally meant to be a backdoor pilot to gauge interest in this remake of the 1978 series. I remember sitting down to watch maybe an hour of it, and four hours later, I had essentially become one with the couch, acknowledging I would have to finish the series before I moved again (Portlandiaagrees).
Even for those who aren’t sci-fi diehard,Battlestar’s miniseries completely captured viewers with its action and strong character development, with a fascinating premise about humanity versus Cylons, who were revealed to have taken a human form rather than a mechanical exterior like in the past (making it a mystery who else might end up being one). That theme played both straight and as a metaphor for otherness, and the miniseries immediately set up an expansive yet wonderfully intimate view of humanity on the run through space, with the enemy hidden all around them.— Allison Keene
‘Friday Night Lights’
Date Aired:July 28, 2025
Director:Peter Berg
Turning feature films into TV shows is not usually a great idea, butFriday Night Lightsis certainly one of the biggest exceptions to the rules. The pilot, which was written and directed by the feature film’s directorPeter Berg, establishes a tone, a vibe, a world that viewers would quickly fall in love with. There’s a very lazy version ofFriday Night Lightsto be made, but this isn’t it. The pilot quickly establishes Dillon, Texas as a place so real you can almost smell it, with a bevy of unbelievably relatable teenagers filling out the ensemble. The pilot’s tonal mix of funny, sincere, and emotional would subsist throughout the series, and it’s best exemplified by the subversion of expectations as Jason Street—establishd in the pilot asthestar quarterback and therefore our untouchable protagonist—ends up in the hospital as a paraplegic. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. –Adam Chitwood
