New Girl is a former FOX sitcom that ran for seven seasons and came to an end last year. The series followed the hijinks and hilarious antics of Jessica Day and her roommates at a loft in Los Angeles. The show evolved into more of an ensemble comedy after its first season with Schmidt, Nick, Winston, Cece, and Coach, playing bigger roles.
But Jess was always the heart and soul of New Girl. Throughout the series, she has multiple relationships. Of course, at the end of the series she ends up with Nick after their long journey of being on-again-off-again but before that, she dated several other guys. This list explores her five best and five worst relationships.
10. WORST - Jess and Ted
This wasn’t really a relationship, so much as it was a challenge, but it was an entertaining one even if it didn’t add anything to the plot and didn’t result in any kind of serious coupling. Jess meets Ted at a wedding in season four, and she tries to seduce him.
Unfortunately, she has competition in the form of a hot, intelligent woman named Kat, who is played by Jessica Biel. Kat and Jess compete for Ted’s affections but by the end of the episode he still can’t make up his mind between them and both women decide they don’t want him after all.
9. BEST - Jess and Ryan
In season four of New Girl, Jess started to date a charming British guy named Ryan Geauxinue. The two became serious pretty quickly, even exchanging “I love yous.” But it began to move too fast for Jess. Ryan even asked her to move in with him. But Jess got extremely weird about the offer and it spelled the beginning of the end for their relationship.
The final nail in the coffin came from Ryan accepting a new job as headmaster back in England and a long-distance relationship wasn’t in the cards for them. But during their time together, they were pretty adorable and Julian Morris and Zooey Deschanel had nice romantic chemistry.
8. WORST - Berkley and Jess
Berkley wasn’t all that bad of a guy, for one, he was played by the adorkable Adam Brody of The OC fame. But his relationship with Jess was pretty pointless and only added on the show as a plot device for an episode where Nick and Jess were trying to prove they could be friends with their exes.
At first, it appears Berkley and Jess do have the whole “befriend your ex” thing down pat. But as the episode moves along, we find out that Berkley is actually still in love with Jess and has only remained her friend in the hopes of them getting back together at some point.
7. BEST - Jess and Russell
Russell was introduced to New Girl early on in the series and was easily one of Jess’s best romances. He was a mature, older man, who had previously been married. He was a sterling gentleman, who treated Jess with the respect that she deserved.
They dated for a while but ultimately, Jess didn’t feel like they had enough passion in their relationship to continue on. Russell returns in the seventh season to offer Jess a new job, and because he still has feelings for her. But as fans of the show know, by that point, Jess was more in love with Nick.
6. WORST - Matt and Jess
Matt, played by Alan Ritchson, was a short-lived relationship for Jess. He came into the picture during season four when Jess was trying to embrace the single life and began going on a series of different dates with a bunch of different guys.
The reason Jess dated Matt was to prove that she wasn’t shallow because Matt had an issue he publically disclosed. Matt had a micropenis. It was honestly an awkward episode and the joke didn’t come across as funny as the writers clearly intended to be. Plus, we find out that Matt is cheating on his girlfriend with Jess.
5. BEST - Jess and Paul
Played by Justin Long, Paul was the first relationship Jess had after breaking up with Spencer. He was sweet, earnest, and sincere, and everything Jess needed after being treated so terribly by her previous boyfriend. They met at Jess’s place of employment, the school she worked at the beginning of the show, he was the music teacher there.
The problem with Jess and Paul was that things moved too fast. He was essentially a rebound for her. Paul even fell in love with Jess, but when he told her how he felt, Jess did not reciprocate. It led to an awkward exchange and their relationship fell apart not long after.
4. WORST - Jess and Robby
Robby was a very odd addition to the show. While Nelson Franklin is an endearing actor, Robby never felt like a fully-realized character. He always felt like a shallow obstacle to impede Jess and Nick from getting back together. Plus, he initially dated Jess’s best friend Cece, so it was weird altogether for Jess and him to start dating.
But then things got even weirder when Jess and Robby discovered that they were actually third cousins. Discovering they were related, albeit distantly, was enough to end Robby and Jess’s relationship for good. It was honestly, for the best, because they were always pretty boring.
3. BEST - Jess and Sam
Nick and Jess couldn’t have been together for the entire run of the series or it would have sapped away lots of romantic tension in the series. One of Jess’s other best relationships, apart from Nick, is easily Doctor Sam Sweeney. Sam was a sweet and emotionally reserved pediatrician. He and Jess met on a blind date.
Their relationship was good for Jess for a while, but ultimately she cheated on him with Nick. Then the two of them restarted their relationship later on in the show but again, it came to an end because of Jess’s lingering feelings for Nick, and Sam’s feelings for his med school sweetheart, Diane.
2. WORST - Jess and Spencer
Spencer is Jess’s boyfriend before the start of New Girl. They dated for six years and then broke up when Spencer cheated on her with a woman named Rochelle. Even though Spencer was a loser and often used Jess and treated her badly, she still had a difficult time letting him go.
But the relationship between Spencer and Jess is what kick-started New Girl and had Jess move out into the loft and meet the gang we all know and love now. Their relationship was easily the worst out of all of Jess’s romantic relationships, but it makes sense that it was also her first established one on the show that put the plot in motion.
1. BEST - Jess and Nick
Of course, the best relationship for Jess was with her soulmate, Nick. The two began early on in the show with a surprising but passionate kiss. Many people weren’t anticipating the moment between them but the sudden burst of affection grew into a full-fledged romance. Their relationship was certainly tumultuous.
They weren’t always together. Nick and Jess broke up and got back together several times throughout the series but eventually, they found their back to one another. By the final season of the series, Nick and Jess finally get back together, and even better, they do get married. We can assume they went on to live happily ever after.
