For 12 seasons, “The Big Bang Theory” delighted audiences with the antics and misadventures of four nerds and the women who have learned to love them. The CBS sitcom originally focused on a quartet of brilliant, yet socially awkward scientists—Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), and Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar)—as well as their next-door neighbor, an attractive woman with street smarts named Penny (Kaley Cuoco).
Over the years, the gang grew to include three more members: neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch), and comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman). As the cast expanded so did fans’ love for the show. Over the course of its run, the series consistently ranked among the best shows on TV and was nominated for 55 Emmy Awards.
The series’ end also made way for the very successful prequel “Young Sheldon,” the series finale of which aired in May 2024. The spin-off delved deeper into the fascinating character of Sheldon Cooper in his younger years and the events that led to the enigmatic persona we see on “The Big Bang Theory”; The final season of the show also saw Jim Parsons reprising his role as adult Sheldon. Another spin-off, titled “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage,” premiered in October 2024 and follows Sheldon’s older brother, Georgie (Montana Jordan). CBS picked up the series for a full season consisting of 22 episodes, which wrap up on May 15, 2025. A second season of “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage” is expected to kick off in the fall.
“Big Bang” fans may have even more misadventures from the Cooper family to look forward to: another “Big Bang Theory” spin-off series is in the works for Max called “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.” Although it has yet to be greenlit as of May 2025, the show is expected to see the return of four “Big Bang” recurring actors: Sussman as titular comic book store owner Stuart Bloom; Lauren Lapkus as the store’s manager, Denise; John Ross Bowie as Caltech physicist Barry Kripke; and Brian Posehn as Caltech geologist Bert Kibbler. In an April 2025 interview, Warner Bros. CEO Channing Dungey told Deadline scripts for the likely new series “are creative, they are imaginative, and they are, most importantly, very, very funny.”
Whether or not that series makes it to air, audiences have plenty of favorite moments from “The Big Bang Theory” to rewatch—like when the guys go to Vegas, any moment involving sports, Wolowitz getting stuck in a robotic arm, and Sheldon’s rivalry with Leslie Winkle, to name a few. But with almost 280 episodes to choose from, it’s still challenging to pick those favorites out of the bunch. To help drill down to a list of the all-time bests, Stacker has ranked the top 25 episodes by IMDb user ratings as of Jan. 20, 2025, with ties broken by the number of votes.
