The Young Sheldon seasons ranked reveal that none of them were bad, and it was also just a nice chance to further capitalize on the immense popularity of The Big Bang Theory's most popular character. Granted that the idea for the show didn't start as a spin-off for the nerd-centric sitcom, Jim Parsons's involvement made it easier to workshop it to become a prequel show for his fan-favorite character. The original idea for Young Sheldon was for it to be an origin story for Sheldon Cooper, based on his penchant for telling stories about his childhood in Texas.

Young Sheldon evolved into something bigger than Sheldon. While it continues to tell stories about his childhood, the prequel expanded its storytelling to other family . Every Cooper family member had story arcs through the final seventh season. Young Sheldon ended with its popularity at its peak, and it seemed that the show kept getting better and better, especially when the series realized that fans loved Sheldon's family just as much as they loved the future TBBT star.

7 Season 1

September 25, 2017 - May 10, 2018

Thanks to its ties to The Big Bang Theory, there was an immediate interest in Young Sheldon. It was a hit from the get-go, and for a couple of years, CBS had a solid comedy block airing the show back-to-back in their Thursday time slot. Young Sheldon season 1 leaned heavily on its connections to its parent series and stayed true to its original premise. While it was an effective way to establish it, the trade-off was that it felt one-dimensional.

Each episode was about Sheldon, and it barely had any serialized storytelling. The season was mostly about Sheldon feeling awkward and not fitting in anywhere - whether it was school, his family, or just the world in general. Each installment relied heavily on this, and at the time, only cared about making a show about Sheldon Cooper's origin story. No one realized how beloved his family would become, and it wasn't until they began to develop later that the series finally broke out of The Big Bang Theory's shadow.

6 Season 4

November 5, 2020 - May 13, 2021

Two years after it started standing on its own following The Big Bang Theory's 12-year run in 2019, Young Sheldon finally found its own identity. While it isn't known for honoring previously established continuity, the show has also taken advantage of opportunities to reference The Big Bang Theory in several ways. Young Sheldon season 4 featured Amy for the first time and confirmed that Sheldon has a son in the future named Leonard Cooper. This was also the season when Sheldon went to college.

Young Sheldon season 4 was the perfect midpoint between being a The Big Bang Theory prequel and a show on its own.

Later in the year, the sitcom also revealed where Sheldon got the idea for his Mobile Virtual Presence Device (MVPD), one of his most memorable and bizarre creations in The Big Bang Theory. Young Sheldon season 4 was the perfect midpoint between being a The Big Bang Theory prequel and a show on its own. Sheldon's story was compelling—something that the latest seasons struggled with.

5 Season 5

October 7, 2021 - May 19, 2022

Coming from a strong season 4 and functioning as the narrative launching pad for season 6, CBS further diversified its storytelling for Young Sheldon season 5 by paying more attention to other of Sheldon's family. At this point, the show was clearly in a transitional stage, veering away from its original premise of being only Sheldon's origin story. Instead of being a lighthearted comedy, Young Sheldon season 5 also leaned into more dramatic storylines set up in the season 4 finale.

This episode featured George and Mary's fiery argument and the subsequent suggestion of his tendency to cheat. While this never materialized in the series, it was enough to get fans talking. In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon said that he walked in on his dad cheating on his mom, which never happened on Young Sheldon. However, it also showed that Mary had bad feelings about her late husband, and that was also not the case on Young Sheldon. This season started sprinkling in those hints.

4 Season 2

September 24, 2018 - May 16, 2019

Coming from a solid debut year, Young Sheldon season 2 repeated what worked in season 1 and sprinkled in some new things. The show's focus was still on Sheldon, but the rest of the cast were starting to get their respective focus as the show explored how Sheldon's existence impacted the people around him. Meanwhile, it also featured fresh plot lines, with the Cooper parents having to deal with financial issues, getting pregnant, and eventually losing the baby.

Meanwhile, Meemaw and Dr. Sturgis' romance became rocky. All in all, this was the most stable and solid season of the show, without the seemingly rocky twists and turns in quality and storytelling that weighed down some other early seasons. This season had the best stories from start to finish, although it wasn't the best season overall. However, the best thing from the year was the Young Sheldon season 2 finale tribute to The Big Bang Theory.

3 Season 6

September 29, 2022 - May 18, 2023

In Young Sheldon season 6, the show finished its transformation to become a family show. Mandy's introduction in season 5 and the subsequent revelation that she and Georgie were unexpectedly pregnant subjected Sheldon's whole family to a massive crisis. At the same time, Mary and George's marriage undergoes a handful of unexpected twists and turns, which involve rekindling their romance after Mary is kicked out of her church and eventually confronting each other about their special friends.

One of the reasons Young Sheldon season 6 is one of the best storytelling for the show lies in its original storylines, meaning plots that were never mentioned in The Big Bang Theory. Mandy and Georgie's romance was at the forefront of the year, but there was also Paige's rebellion arc and Missy's as well. Young Sheldon season 6 showed it was much more than just being a The Big Bang Theory prequel. This resonated with viewers, with the spin-off posting series-high ratings during the year.

2 Season 3

September 26, 2019 - April 30, 2020

The first two seasons of Young Sheldon stayed true to the show's original premise. Sheldon remained the center of the series' focus, with the season 2 finale coinciding with The Big Bang Theory's emotional swan song. When it returned in 2019 for Young Sheldon season 3, however, there was a gradual shift to its storytelling. At this point, the family comedy was still trying to find the balance between its comedic and dramatic moments.

Young Sheldon season 3, episode 10 "Teenager Soup and a Little Ball of Fib's" pool water was voiced by The Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco.

This included storylines such as Dr. Sturgis's hospitalization in a mental hospital, which impacted Sheldon in various ways, and a more whimsical plot that involved a talking pool water. Young Sheldon season 3's varying plots made its storytelling tumultuous and less cohesive. One episode could deal with a fairly serious subject, and it could be followed by a more lighthearted fare, which resulted in the show seemingly having an identity crisis.

1 Season 7

February 15, 2024 - May 16, 2024

There were fewer episodes in Young Sheldon season 7 than in any other season, with only 14 total. There were still several things that had to happen to both finish the story and to pay off some of the expected occurrences that Sheldon spoke about in The Big Bang Theory. The finale didn't do that but created a brilliant way to show why. Sheldon wrote the entire series as his memoir, so everything that happened on the screen is from Sheldon's first-hand or what he thinks happened.

The series didn't give every Cooper family member a satisfying ending, but it did end Sheldon's story perfectly and left room for more in the future sequel, and it was a great way to end Young Sheldon.

However, what the show did bring to the screen was incredible, including the expected death of George Sr. His alleged cheating was left out of the series, for good reasons, and instead, this allowed the family to mourn in their own ways, while Sheldon finally packed up and moved to enroll in CalTech, like he was fated to do from the start. The series didn't give every Cooper family member a satisfying ending, but it did end Sheldon's story perfectly and left room for more in the future sequel, and it was a great way to end Young Sheldon.