The Most Memorable Live TV Moments of the Decade, Ranked

10. “30 Rock” Airs Live Episodes for Both Coasts (October 14, 2010)

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While Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s second live show featured the iconic (and controversial) scene of Jon Hamm in black face, the first show set the standard for how to craft a modern live sitcom — and it still featured Hamm. Set on Liz Lemon’s 40th birthday (that everyone forgot), the episode makes meta references to the challenges of live TV (like censorship violations and actors who are a little too eager to break character) while celebrating them at the same time. Turning a typically pre-recorded program into a live taping is hard, but instead of changing the structure of “30 Rock” or abandoning its fast-flying jokes, Fey, Carlock, and director Beth McCarthy-Miller found new ways to make the jokes land — like when Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Liz in flashbacks. Crackling with energy and embracing its storytelling method, “Live Show” stands as a testament to the series’ creativity, even when watching today. And it was a damn fun night of television at the time, too. —Ben Travers
9. The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (July 27-28, 2012)

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There’s no better event suited to sheer magnitude than the Olympics. For the 2012 Summer Games, Danny Boyle oversaw a gargantuan theatrical kickoff that encompassed the history of the United Kingdom and the very pillars of British culture, society, and industry. From Kenneth Branagh’s Elgar-backed recitation of “The Tempest” to Paul McCartney’s leading a sing-along to “Hey Jude,” “Isles of Wonder” was a jaw-dropping, centuries-spanning display of national pride. Choosing celebration over division, the scale of this endeavor stretched higher than the giant smokestacks seemingly summoned by magic from underneath the Olympic Stadium. An ode to modern institutions, it ticked off all the expected boxes — appearances from James Bond, Mr. Bean, and the Queen’s corgis — and still left room to envelop an entire nation. —Steve Greene
8. Michelle Wolf’s White House Correspondents Dinner Speech (April 28, 2018)

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By 2018, the White House Correspondents Dinner had become the Golden Globes of DC-based journalism award fetes. Sensing that it was probably not a ringing endorsement of what the annual Beltway institution had become, Michelle Wolf set out to torch the thing. Delivering a blistering 19-minute indictment of everyone present, from administration enablers to self-righteous members of the pundit class, Wolf singlehandedly ensured that no comedian would be hosting the event for the foreseeable future. True to form, in the days and months that followed, the hand-wringing over civility overshadowed the meaningful consideration of misinformation and complicity and we were all right back where we started again, proving the point she didn’t want to have to make in the first place. —SG
7. President Obama Announces the Death of Osama bin Laden (May 1, 2011)

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For an event that still has no photo or evidence of the act itself, the finding and killing of Osama bin Laden was still marked by a pair of memorable visual markers: President Obama, delivering a surprise national address directly from the White House, and the subsequent situation room photo with administration officials watching the live feed. In place of violence, the viewing public saw presidential action of a different kind. Obama’s address also became one of the first major social media-to-TV feedback loops. Word spread online in real time, with all news fed by what was happening on screen (and some unexpected, high-placed sources). —SG
6. Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb Announce the Firing of Matt Lauer (November 29, 2017)

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Everything seemed to move faster than ever this decade. In the fall of 2017, after serious sexual misconduct allegations, one of the most recognizable faces in the TV news world disappeared from the network’s flagship show. A day after appearing on an ordinary-seeming, late November edition of the show, Matt Lauer was gone from “Today.” In a cruel twist, it was up to two women who served as his morning show colleagues to deliver the news to the world that he’d been fired. That Lauer would be removed following his conduct wasn’t surprising. Seeing Guthrie and Kotb forced to process, in real time, what was coming off the teleprompter certainly was. It’s a moment so packed with emotion and confusion and uncertainty that it effectively spawned the series that a giant streaming platform would build their original library around two years later. —SG
5. Beyonce Performs at Super Bowl 50 (February 7, 2016)

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Let’s start this out with a reminder that the ostensible headliner of Super Bowl 50’s halftime show was Coldplay. Beyonce just headlined in 2013, so it’s understandable from a marketing standpoint why the NFL gave her a “special guest” second-billing alongside Bruno Mars. Queen Bey, however, was not having it. Six months before San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and oppression of people of color, Beyonce stole the show with a performance of her new single, “Formation”, in a tribute to the Black Panthers. Protests followed, and several police unions and right-wing conservatives blowhards called for a boycott. (Beyonce’s response? To sell T-shirts during her Formation tour emblazoned with “Boycott Beyonce.”) The Super Bowl is the biggest yearly stage to blend art and commerce, and Beyonce powerfully proved that a political statement belongs there, too. —Ann Donahue
4. The Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (May 19, 2018)

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When Prince Harry announced his engagement to Meghan Markle in November 2017, the Irish Times — who, you know, might have a readership with a righteous generations-spanning grudge against the British — headlined the news on Facebook as “American Actress to Marry Retired British Soldier.” Which, yes, fundamentally, that’s what took place in spring 2018. But there was also a ceremony watched by 1.9 billion people that tried to throw centuries of elitist, classist, misogynoir trash into a cleansing bonfire. As the Most Rev. Michael Curry said in his address: “Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way.” By the time the couple left St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle to Etta James’ “Amen/This Little Light of Mine”, there was a sense that this dire decade may actually be the start of something new and wonderful. —AD
3. The Chicago Cubs Win the World Series (November 2, 2016)

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History was going to be made either way, but for one glorious night, luck swung in the Cubs’ favor. The 2016 World Series didn’t just end a 108-year drought for the Windy City’s (former) Lovable Losers: It was the last great thing to happen in America, period. (Cleveland Indians fans might disagree, but then again, some of them are also to blame for Donald Trump’s presidential win six days later, putting an early end to a celebration over a century in the making.) Thankfully, that night — that live game — was like nothing baseball fans had ever seen. With a late-game comeback, extra innings, and even a game-changing rain delay, the 2016 World Series capper offered drama that can’t be captured in scripted movies or television. It would be too much, too far-fetched, too unbelievable, unless you saw it happen live. So many of us did, and so many of us will never forget it — and not only because it was the last time we remember pure, unblemished joy. —BT
2. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh Testify Before the Senate (September 27, 2018)

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The nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was not entertainment television, but it was nonetheless illuminating. The testimonies of Professor Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh made apparent that misogyny and sexual assault are issues not taken seriously by many in the country’s ruling political class. Kavanaugh, who now has a lifetime tenure in the nation’s highest court, referred to the hearings as being “fueled with an apparent pent-up anger about President Trump,” “revenge on behalf of the Clintons,” and financed by “millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.” Such conspiracy-tinged talking points are venerated territory for Republican politicians and pundits, but hearing them from a (since-confirmed) Supreme Court Justice in a setting more sanitized than Fox News or Trump’s Twitter account was nonetheless telling. Though these issues may not surprise those who pay attention to the news, the hearings nonetheless offered some of the decade’s clearest insights into how power actually works in the American political and judicial systems. —Tyler Hersko
1. “Moonlight. Best Picture.” (February 26, 2017)

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Everyone had heard the rumors. That one actress or another had been wrongly awarded an Oscar because a presenter read the wrong name and it was far too shameful for anyone to own up to the mistake. Besides, we’re talking about the Academy Awards. The winners envelopes were always locked down tighter than state secrets, so it was impossible to imagine a scenario in which the wrong winner got announced. And then 2017 happened. And it turned out that all it took to make the impossible possible was a star-struck accountant, a mix-up with the envelopes, and a pair of Hollywood luminaries fumbling headfirst into the greatest gaffe in Oscar history. And so Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, clutching a duplicate envelope containing the name of Best Actress winner Emma Stone, announced that “La La Land” had won Best Picture. Minutes later, after three different “La La Land” producers had given acceptance speeches, one of them finally admitted that there was a mix-up and that the true winner of Best Picture was “Moonlight.” It was the platonic ideal of what we want from a live television moment. There was drama, intrigue, shock, joy, disappointment, and absolute pandemonium. It was a moment so memorable that it was immediately seared into the collective cultural consciousness, making it impossible to forget the most important tidbit of all: That “Moonlight” was the Best Picture of 2016. —Libby Hill

The Most Memorable Live TV Moments of the Decade

10. “30 Rock” Airs Live Episodes for Both Coasts (October 14, 2010)

9. The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (July 27-28, 2012)

8. Michelle Wolf’s White House Correspondents Dinner Speech (April 28, 2018)

7. President Obama Announces the Death of Osama bin Laden (May 1, 2011)

6. Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb Announce the Firing of Matt Lauer (November 29, 2017)

5. Beyonce Performs at Super Bowl 50 (February 7, 2016)

4. The Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (May 19, 2018)

3. The Chicago Cubs Win the World Series (November 2, 2016)

2. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh Testify Before the Senate (September 27, 2018)

1. “Moonlight. Best Picture.” (February 26, 2017)

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