For the past few years now, I’ve had a TV informant with an uncanny ability to scoop Entertainment Weekly and the TV Guide on every “Best Show You’re Not Watching.” Our friend Doug has been able to pick out the gems to follow, that then break out into phenomenons. Then these shows get big. Really big. My favorite shows of all time, Emmy-Award winning, fanatic-fan followings big.

Consider Doug’s track record: In 2008, he brought us Gossip Girl while the CW was still re-running its episodes non-stop, desperately hoping to pick up an audience. Before that, it was Mad Men, which went on to rake in the Emmys MONTHS after the TV Informant put it on our radar. By the first episode of True Blood, the Informant was already a fan on Facebook, and I knew I had to watch it, just because he picked it. I went on to watch the entire season in three school nights, leaving all my other shows by the wayside. Then I watched the whole thing again.

We are still behind on 2009’s prediction: Breaking Bad. The last episode I saw of this show was the most morally heart-wrenching thing I had ever seen on TV. Immediately afterwards, I remember thinking, “Damn you, Doug!” and proceeded to stay awake all night thinking about the show and questioning my morals.

Typically, we have so much to watch between the DVR, Tivo AND Netflix now (worthy of a post of its own), that we are very resistant to picking up new shows. At least not without a lot of research before we give in. But the moral of this story is that if the Informant says not to miss it, the space WILL get made and we convince ourselves that whatever we dropped won’t be worth missing the latest recommendation for.