The best TV kisses haven't just satisfied long-simmering will-they-won't-they tension, broken down racial and gender barriers and kickstarted some of the small screen's greatest romances. They've also been very, very hot.
Like the 10 sexiest movie kisses, these televised smooches — pulled from sci-fi classics, beloved sitcoms, acclaimed dramas and sexy TV shows, such as the Shonda Rhimes political drama Scandal and the provocative teen soap Gossip Girl — are lip locks that truly linger in our memory.
The 10 hottest TV kisses we're still thinking about
New Girl: Nick and Jess
There was an inevitability to the long-awaited snog between Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel) and Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), but that doesn't mean the sheer heat of the embrace didn't surprise us just as much as it surprised our New Girl herself.
In the season 2 episode "Cooler," Nick and Jess have been dared to lay one on each other during a round of the gang's signature "True American" drinking game. When Nick yells, "Not like this!," it's not just a way to dodge the drunken make-out, but a potent promise, which he fully delivers on when the twosome is alone later that night. "I meant something like that," he tells her, after leaving her — and us — shocked and breathless.
Fleabag: Fleabag and Hot Priest
"Kneel" — the subversive word that launched one of television's loveliest and unlikeliest romances, that of our titular heroine (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and the fittingly monikered, inordinately charming Hot Priest (Andrew Scott) in Fleabag series 2. In the season's fourth episode, an act of penance shockingly turns into an act of seduction. After Fleabag emotionally lays all of her vulnerabilities bare in the confessional, she pleads, "Just f***ing tell me what to do, Father." When he tells her to kneel, he joins her on his own knees, takes her face in his hands and leans into sin. It is utterly blasphemous — and damn sexy.
Star Trek: Kirk and Uhura
Legend has it that somewhere in the television universe, there's a version of the infamous Star Trek scene from season 3's "Plato's Stepchildren" floating around in which Capt. James Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) do not actually kiss. Of course, thankfully, viewers never had to see that version, as the iconic smooch did air in November 1968 and quickly cemented itself in TV history.
Though not television's first-ever interracial liplock as it's mistakenly called, the kiss between the white actor and the Black actress was still a groundbreaking one, broadcast on a major American program only a year after the Supreme Court declared interracial marriage legal.
Friends: Ross and Rachel
It's actually not the first kiss between Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) on Friends — that would be an excited peck in a laundromat back in season 1 — but it is their most famous. In season 2 episode 7, their slow-burn feelings for each other hit a fever point in the form of a heated fight at Central Perk. Ross storms out of the coffeehouse and Rachel angrily locks the door on him, until both of them soften up — he comes back, she opens up and they finally share their first big kiss.
"His hands started on my waist, and then they slid up, and then they were in my hair...," Rachel later tells Phoebe and Monica about the long-awaited moment. They, like us, are left swooning.
Scandal: Fitz and Olivia
Now, in real life, we'd never condone acts of marital infidelity in the White House. But when it comes to television, it's hard not to root for the steamy workplace affair between political fixer Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and married US President Fitzgerald Grant III (Tony Goldwyn). And the heat was there from the get-go, as proven by the very first episode of the ABC drama. In a "blind spot" of the Oval Office (a.k.a. out of view of the security cameras), Olivia and Fitz unleash all of their feelings for each other, both good and bad: she, frustrated over his marriage and position (that slap!) and he, still very much in love with her (that kiss!).
Schitt's Creek: David and Patrick
David Rose (Dan Levy) was unlucky in the romance department for the first few seasons of Schitt's Creek — until Patrick Brewer (Noah Reid) came in to invest in his burgeoning apothecary business and invigorate his love life in season 3. In the season finale, the duo go to Cafe Tropical after work to celebrate David's birthday, but neither are entirely sure if it's a date or not. After Patrick sweetly gives David a framed receipt from their first sale, David happily realizes the evening is more pleasure than business, and gives his thanks in the form of a long, lush smooch, just one of many swoon-worthy moments between these two. Simply the best, indeed.
Gilmore Girls: Luke and Lorelai
From the pilot episode, the delicious sweet-and-salty chemistry between chatty inn worker Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), the grumpy diner owner who regularly quenched her caffeine addiction, was plenty apparent. For years, fans had to settle for obviously charged but frustratingly unfulfilled moments between the two characters — that is, until the season 4 finale when Luke finally made a move. "Would you just stand still?" he snarks at her, pausing their signature banter long enough to make his feelings physically known. Stars Hollow would never be the same.
The Vampire Diaries: Damon and Elena
It was a rough go of it for #Delena shippers during the first three seasons of The Vampire Diaries, having to watch our human heroine Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) cozy up to "cured" vampire Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) instead of his seductive older brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder). But that all changed 19 episodes into season 3, when Elena and Damon shared a motel room during their road trip to Denver. Those close quarters simply couldn't contain their oversized attraction for one another, leading to an explosive make-out on the motel's balcony.
Orange is the New Black: Alex and Piper
When Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) found herself behind bars at Litchfield Penitentiary, the very same prison as her ex-girlfriend and fellow drug trafficker Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), it was only a matter of time before the two would find their way back to one another. They do so in a fittingly dramatic fashion: after Piper gets out of solitary confinement — having been tattled on by Pennsatucky for "lesbianing together," a.k.a. provocatively dancing, with Alex — she retaliates by marching straight into the bunks and pulling Alex into the chapel for a major same-sex makeout. Revenge never tasted so sweet.
Gossip Girl: Chuck and Blair
If you're going to rebound, it might as well be in the backseat of a stretch limousine with the one, the only Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick). That's just what Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) does after breaking up with her childhood sweetheart Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford). The preppy overachiever goes full bad girl at Chuck's nightclub Victrola, dancing atop the bar and, even more surprisingly, initiating a passionate hook-up with Chuck on the drive home. Given the intensity of their romp, it's no surprise that their first kiss sparked an on-and-off-again relationship that spanned the series' six seasons.
