×

TV's 60 Longest-Awaited First Kisses From NCIS, Arrow, Abbott Elementary, JAG, X-Files, Big Bang and More Shows

By /

TV Longest Awaited First Kisses
Courtesy of CBS (3), ABC and The CW

When it comes to that first kiss, it’s all about the buildup — and our favorite TV shows certainly love to make us wait for that much-anticipated first smooch.

But which small-screen couple waited the mostepisodes before they locked lips?

Well, TVLine did the difficult, arduous math, considering dozens of Will They/Won’t They pairs and tabulating exactly how many episodes it took them to share that first, big kiss. The current results — expanded to a Top 60 (plus ties) and sorted from the shortest to longest wait — are updated with several “firsts” from the past 18 months, the inclusion of a few overlooked oldies-but-goodies (wow, that pivotal JAG peck was hard to pinpoint), and the restoration of three shows that had been squeezed out of the previous ranking.

♦ This is a quantitive, not a qualitative, list, based purely on the number of episodes until that First Kiss was shared. Before you bellow, “So-and-so deserves to be on the list!!!,” do the math.

♦ We limited our list to real and meaningful kisses, so you won’t find fleeting one-offs, “undercover” lip-locks or imaginary/dream smooches.

♦ In the case of characters who were introduced later in a show’s run, we calculated from the destined duo’s first shared episode.

Note: Though we have expanded the list to the Top 60, we nonetheless blow a fond, farewell kiss to the couples who have slipped off the chart over the years: “Avalance,” “Malec,” Parks and Rec’s Leslie/Ben, “LoVe,” The Nanny and Mr. Sheffield, Game of Thrones‘ Missandei/Grey Worm, Moonlighting‘s Dave/Maddie, and, yes, even Cheers‘ Sam/Diane.

Which couple tops our tally, with a whopping 190 (!) episodes before their first kiss? Scroll through the list below to find out, then hit the comments to let us know which wait was the most torturous for you.

Add a Comment
TAGS: , , , , ,
GET MORE: Rankings
ad