TV's Greatest Season Ever! Was It 2004-05, With Lost, Grey's, Deadwood, Desperate Housewives, 24 And House?

October 2004 invited everyone over to Wisteria Lane for the series debut of ABC's Desperate Housewives (which had a solid lead-in in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Season 2). The primetime sudser led into fellow freshman Boston Legal for the first half of the season, after which the law drama made way for another newcomer, called Grey's Anatomy.Elsewhere, CBS had a strong lineup in 60 Minutes, Cold Case and the Sunday Movie; Fox had a nice blend of animation and live-action comedy with King of the Hill, Malcolm in the Middle,The Simpsons (then only in Season 16!), Arrested Development and Family Guy; NBC paired Law & Order: Criminal Intent with Crossing Jordan; and The WB's slate included Summerland, (the OG) Charmed and gone-too-soon Jack & Bobby.

CBS' Monday slate was arguably the strongest of the bunch, with Everybody Loves Raymond's farewell season leading into Two and a Half Men's sophomore run and then what was the red-hot CSI: Miami. Fox, though, at midseason had American Idol (its Season 4 opener flirted with 34 million viewers!) feeding into 24's famously uninterrupted/non-stop fourth season, which among other things introduced the weaselly President Charles Logan. Also on Fox, Hell's Kitchen in May 2005 kicked off what would be a 20-season (...and counting) run, while Prison Break technically squeezed into this TV season with a late August 2005 series debut.Over on NBC, Fear Factor led into Las Vegas' sophomore run and then the January debut of Patricia Arquette's Medium, while over on The WB, 7th Heaven was paired with Everwood.

On Fox, American Idol led into the freshman season of House, M.D., which averaged north of 13 million viewers and would set Hugh Laurie up for the first of seven lead drama actor Emmy nominations in the title role. Over on CBS, NCIS' second season was followed by two of The Amazing Race's most watched cycles ever, and then Judging Amy.Elsewhere, ABC capped its Tuesday slate with the final season of NYPD Blue, NBC in March 2005 launched its U.S. remake of The Office, and UPN sent out Veronica Mars to crack her very first cases.

ABC's fall schedule by and large kicked off that Sept. 22 with the series premiere of Lost, which with its freshman run alone would rack up a dozen Emmy nods and score six wins (including for Outstanding Drama). Also new to ABC Wednesdays that season, come June 2005, was Dancing With the Stars, whose July finale attracted more than 22 million viewers.Speaking of fancy footwork: Over on Fox, So You Think You Can Dance kicked off what would be a 16-season run in July 2005, while other noteworthy fare included the debut of CBS' CSI: NY, the penultimate season of NBC's The West Wing and Season 2 of UPN's America's Next Top Model.

CBS was an absolute beast on Thursday nights, running back-to-back cycles of Survivor (Vanuatu and Palau), each of which led into the OG CSI and then Without a Trace — all of which were among the Top 10 most watched programs that season.Over on Fox, The O.C.'s sophomore run that spring led into the second/final season of Tru Calling (before the supernatural drama's move to the MIA Network #joke #callback), while NBC's latest stab at keeping "Must See TV" alive paired the Friends spinoff Joey (sad trombone) with Will & Grace and ER Season 11... with something called The Apprentice 🤷🏻‍♂️ also sprinkled in there somewhere.

ABC was still enjoying a semblance of its "TGIF" programming block, with 8 Simple Rules, Hope & Faith and Less Than Perfect, while CBS paired Joan of Arcadia's final season with JAG's own swan song, followed by, alternately, Rob Lowe's Dr. Vegas, CSI: Miami and, come March, the series premiere of Numb3rs.Over on NBC, Third Watch's final season led into the freshman dramas Medical Investigation and Law & Order: Trial by Jury, while UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise would embark on its final mission.

The Sopranos was on an extended hiatus ahead of its supersized farewell run and thus was MIA this TV season, but Deadwood Season 2, The Wire Season 3, The Shield Season 4 and Six Feet Under's final season all did prestige cable proud — as did the Emmys-bound HBO movies Warm Springs (starring Kenneth Branagh, Cynthia Nixon, Kathy Bates and Tim Blake Nelson) and Lackawanna Blues (written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and based on his play of the same name).New, notable cable fare to debut during this TV season included the Battlestar Galactica reboot (on Sci-Fi Channel), Project Runway (Bravo), Attack of the Show! (G4), Deadliest Catch (Discovery), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX) and Showtime's first hit of Weeds.

Everybody Loves Raymond – which tied Will & Grace that year for the most major nominations (with 10 each) — became the first comedy since Barney Miller to have its final season win the Outstanding Comedy Series title.... Newcomer Desperate Housewives amassed the second-most major nods (eight), including for best comedy and no fewer than three lead actress contenders: Felicity Huffman (who wound up grabbing gold), Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher.... Fellow ABC freshman Lost was named best drama... HBO's Empire Falls miniseries and Warm Springs TV-movie each netted seven major nominations.

Other fun facts about the 2004-05 TV season, courtesy of a handy list on Wikipedia:On Saturday Night Live, Amy Poehler succeeded Jimmy Fallon as Tina Fey's Weekend Update co-anchor.An audience of more than 28 million tuned into Fox as the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918, blanking the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 3-0.On Nov. 30, 2004, Ken Jennings' Jeopardy! winning streak ended at 74 games,.In March 2005, Doctor Who returned from a 16-year hiatus, with Christopher Eccleston taking on the lead role of the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper playing companion Rose.Family Guy returned to Fox in May 2005, after having been cancelled (a second time) by the network three years prior.In May 2005, Tom Cruise jumped on talk show queen Oprah Winfrey's couch, in the course of professing his love for future wife (and ex-wife) Katie Holmes.In June 2005, Viacom launched Logo, a TV channel inspired by and for the LGBTQ+ community.

Guys, the 2004-05 TV season was insane. In fact, it quite possibly was the best year-long slate of primetime TV shows ever.

As we come up on 20 years since the prolific season of TV, TVLine is re-upping this look back at its magnificent multitude of iconic offerings.

Now, if I only reminded you that Lost, Desperate Housewives, House and Veronica Mars all premiered in fall 2004, you may be duly impressed and raise an eyebrow. But so, so much more happened that TV season. And while in our current world of 500-plus scripted shows across broadcast, cable and the ever-popular streaming, you may think you don't have to reach back two decades to find TV's apex, one look at the list below at least suggests otherwise.

Review this day-by-day list of what aired from September 2004 to August 2005, including cable-TV highlights and a smattering of other fun facts, and then weigh in on whether any TV season since has served up a more robust combo of buzzy, well-watched, prestige and noteworthy programming.