I have ranked the top 68 television shows of the '00s, and will be presenting them, one-by-one, starting with 68 and working down. The rankings are more or less based on the show's popularity, it's cult status, it's critical acclaim, and my personal liking of it, with a heavy dose of arbitrariness added in. If a show was a big enough phenomena, I'll keep it on the list - but if I don't like it, I may drop it some spots. One other caveat - these are primetime shows (I apologize if I put a cable show that wasn't, I thought they were all primetime shows - the main point of this is just that no talk shows, no Colbert and Daily show that would be on otherwise).

45: Mythbusters

I gradually became aware of the minor Mythbusters phenomena amongst a certain demographic, notably my demographic - 15-35 year old guys who like to watch people blow stuff up, but feel classy about it, because it's in the name of science - science turned cool, like the Bill Nye of the 00s.

It's a great idea - test popular myths to see if they can really happen - and there's something pleasingly definitive result - Busted, Comfirmed, or the always disappointingly undefinitive Plausible. It started out testing pretty well-known myths - early episodes inlcluded solving "Can Pop Rocks & Soda, when eaten simultaneously, cause the eater's stomach to rupture? "(Busted) and "Will using a cell phone near a gas pump cause an explosion?" (Busted). Of course, most of them are busted - but there's just enough confirmed and plausible to make you hold out hope at every opportunity, just like every once in a while, there will be a not guilty verdict in Law & Order to let you know it could happen, and enjoy the guilty verdicts each even more.

It stars Adam Savage, also known as the cool one with glasses, and Jamie Hyneman, also known as the walrus, the dude with the beret, or simply, the lame one. Adam Savage, it should be noted had a brief acting career before Mythbusters - most not remembered for his appearance as drowning man in Billy Joel's video to You're Only Human (Second Wind). Along to help them out, later on in the show, was their B team who matured and were eventually empowered to work on mythbusting themselves (I assume mythbusting is a verb). They were in - Jamie and Adam were even big enough for a guest appearance on CSI.

The best parts of course, were when they had competitions between the two, such as when they had a hovercraft racing contest.

By now - that they're stretching for myths is clear - 2009 episodes test such "myths" as "Can a person swim faster in syrup than in water?" (Plausible) and "Can popcorn be cooked with lasers or explosions? ," (Busted) myths, that at least in my part of the country I had never heard of - and such clearly non-literal expressions as "Can someone really be knocked out of their socks? "

Mythbusters is one of those shows that gets the benefit of the doubt because it's on a high cable channel, that has maybe four show as flagship programming (Discovery Channel - Deadliest Catch? Dirty Jobs? Man vs. Wild? Maybe Cash Cab?) and can show episodes over and over again to fill up its air time. But, that being said, I have to worry if its fifteen minutes as a minor phenomena is just about up.