Title: “Age Appropriate”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a well-known TV show.
Answer: THIRTYSOMETHING
Correct entries: 193 overall, of which 107 were solo solves

Now, I wouldn’t just leave you with a backsolve, would I? It seems that the majority of last week’s successful solvers brute-forced the answer, but there was a subtle, intended path to success as well. Let’s take a look…

Just a wee 12×12 grid, and with one big hint: at 30-D, the clue was [250% of the time our contest answer aired — and a hint to the meta] = DECADE. So we know that we’re looking for a show that ran for exactly four seasons, and that it has something to do with decades. Off many went to the Google mines, but there was one other hint here that was best to linger on for a moment: the placement of the entry. In 99% of crosswords the reveal will be at the last across entry, or, in a recent trend, across the middle of the grid. But at a semi-random down entry like that? Seems mysterious. True, it does intersect the last across entry, but it’s still an unusual enough placement to take a second look at.

And you may have noticed something interested if you did so: DECADE is the word, so we’re thinking in tens, and the clue number there is 30. Are we looking at 30s? Indeed, since the letters in squares 31-39 spell out SOMETHING, leading to the 1980s drama THIRTYSOMETHING.

A short trip if you sussed it out like that, but a brutal one of you tried to backsolve it from the four seasons angle. I’d never leave you wandering in the wilderness like that!

AMAZING HAT-TRICK ATTEMPT THIS WEEK:

My Consigliere has guessed the exact number of correct number of entries (422 and 193) each of the past two weeks, which is incredible. Is 3 in a row even possible? Consig’s guess is 308 for this week. No gaming it! But let’s see how it goes — pizza and Coke for everyone if precisely 308 entries come in.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a 6-letter word.

SPECIAL SOLVING NOTE: The clues to the six theme entries in this puzzle each contain a not equal to sign (≠). These signs exist on the .PDF and .JPZ, but if you are solving on the .PUZ file they will appear as question marks instead due to limitations of the software. So just be aware if you’re solving the .PUZ that those six question marks are, in fact, not equal to signs.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.