You Can’t Even Watch The Most Popular Bluey Episode In America
Fans voted on their favorite episodes, and the winner hasn’t even aired in America yet!
Have you ever tried ranking your favorite Bluey episodes? Picking your favorite five or ten might not be too difficult, but try listing one hundred of them! This past weekend in Australia, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) did just that, and held a massive marathon of the top 100 episodes of Bluey as chosen by the fans. Viewers in Australia voted en masse to determine their favorites among the existing three seasons, and the channel then aired the episodes in what they called “Bluey Fest.”
With the third season finale arriving early in 2024, this seems like a great time to binge the previous episodes and battle it out to see which one was most liked. Surprisingly, the #1 pick among fans in Bluey’s home country was an unexpected choice - an episode that hasn’t even aired in other countries yet! There were a few other shocking entrants on this list, so let’s break it down and see which episodes reigned supreme in The Land Down Under!
Which Banned Bluey Episode Made The List?
Looks like Bingo is crowning in a screenshot from the banned Bluey episode, “Dad Baby”
There’s about 150 episodes of Bluey available around the world, although some have still not arrived in other countries yet. There are a handful of episodes which suffered from some censorship issues. Oddly enough, one of the episodes banned in America made it deep into the countdown.
Season two’s “Dad Baby” has never aired in the U.S., and likely never will. This short focuses on the miracle of child birth, with Bandit becoming “pregnant” with baby Bingo and giving birth in the third act. It’s a hilarious episode, and anyone who’s seen it knows it’s an S Tier episode. Unfortunately, it’s a challenge to watch for those living outside of Australia. To Bluey fans curious to see it, there’s a clip of the episode on the official Bluey YouTube channel, making it currently the best way to legally watch a chunk of this banned short.
A few other censored episodes made the list (some censored globally and not exclusively to the U.S.), including “Daddy Robot,” “Army,” and “Flat Pack.” Several episodes from Bluey’s third season which haven’t reached international stores yet also made the cut for the countdown, including the one which earned the center spot on the podium.
What is Australia’s Favorite Bluey Episode?
If this screenshot of Rusty doesn’t look familiar to you yet, don’t worry - it will in another few months!
If you ask most fans which Bluey episode is the best, very few wouldn’t say “Sleepytime.” The Emmy Award winning episode from season two is beloved by all, but ABC’s countdown wasn’t ranking the best. It was about which short was Australia’s favorite, a very different phrase. The champion of this epic Bluey Fest turned out to be an episode that hasn’t even aired outside of its homeland yet, but you’ll instantly understand why it took top honors once you understand what this episode is all about.
Instead, for the number one best Bluey episode, Australian fans voted the most recent episode to air in the third season, “Cricket,” as their favorite. For fans who don’t know the difference between a Golden Duck and a Yorker, “Cricket” is a baffling episode. If viewers can look past some of the terms they don’t understand, it’s on par with any of Bluey’s most evocative episodes. It centers around Rusty and his love and dedication to the UK’s top bat-and-ball sport, and how he learns from his dad (voiced by Anthony Field of The Wiggles) to keep pushing forward in the face of adversity, ultimately passing down that lesson to his sister. Again, “Cricket” is not on Disney+ yet. (Though these will probably hit Disney+ in early 2024. More on that here.)
Even without understanding a lick about the sport, “Cricket” is a fun and heartwarming episode. To Australian fans who grew up with the sport, the episode absolutely demolished the emotions of adults. It’s all about the true spirit of cricket, and loaded with references to real-life famous cricket players to make this inspirational episode resonate even more with its homeland audience. The day the episode air, social media was flooded with Australian’s reacting to it strongly, confusing American fans resigned to have to wait another nine months before seeing it for themselves. It also helped that Australia won a Cricket World Championship the same day the episode aired, but that’s a different story.
Rusty was originally meant to be the star of Bluey, which would have transformed the show from being about a Blue Heeler dog to a Red Kelpie. He’s always been a favorite of the show’s creators, and it’s wonderful to see this under-appreciated buddy of Bluey enjoy a well-deserved moment in the spotlight.
For those curious, “Sleepytime” ranked fourth, just below “Granny Mobile” in third and “Baby Race” in the second position. The full countdown from ABC can be found here. I’d be curious to discover what Americans would pick for their 100 favorites, and think the list would be pretty different from what Australians chose. My greatest lament from the US not having this countdown is that we missed out on this extended Bluey intro, which somehow made the theme song even better than it already was.
Bluey — but not the episode “Cricket” — is available to stream in the US on Disney+.
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