Television has changed quite a bit since a socially awkward genius last knocked three times on his neighbor’s door. Streaming has grown exponentially, entire services have appeared and disappeared, and hundreds of new shows are fighting for attention every week, and yet people can’t help but shake off the feeling that it all started with a big bang.
Seven years after its series finale, The Big Bang Theory is officially the No. 2 streaming program in America, generating an enormous 1.071 billion minutes watched on HBO Max during the week of August 31 through September 6. According to Nielsen, the only show Americans spent more time streaming that week was Prime Video’s Reacher, which finished at No. 1 with 1.246 billion minutes. It pulled ahead of current hits including Beauty in Black, Ted Lasso, Lioness and Outer Banks. Nielsen also ranked it No. 1 among acquired streaming titles, comfortably ahead of Blueyat No. 2.
Created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, the series follows Mensa-fied best friends and roommates Leonard and Sheldon, physicists who work at the California Institute of Technology who may be able to tell everybody more than they want to know about quantum physics, but getting through most basic social situations, especially ones involving women, totally baffles them. How lucky, then, that dashing waitress/aspiring actress Penny moves in next door.
The cast is led by Jim Parsons (Hidden Figures) as Sheldon, Johnny Galecki (Roseanne) as Leonard, Kaley Cuoco (The Flight Attendant) as Penny, Simon Helberg (Florence Foster Jenkins) as Howard, Kunal Nayyar (Spaceman) as Raj, Mayim Bialik (Blossom) as Amy, and Melissa Rauch (Night Court) as Bernadette.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
How Big Was ‘The Big Bang Theory’?
Absolutely enormous. The Big Bang Theory ran for 12 seasons and 279 episodes between 2007 and 2019, becoming one of the defining network sitcoms of its era. By its later seasons, it was regularly among the most-watched entertainment programs on American television, while Parsons won four Primetime Emmys for playing Sheldon.
The franchise didn’t disappear when the original series ended, either. Young Sheldon ran for seven seasons and subsequently spawned Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, while HBO Max has continued developing the universe with Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.
The Big Bang Theory is streaming now on HBO Max in the United States.
