ShadowDenizen- you can probably do the entire finals (using the "vote off the one you don't like) method in one step. Just ask everyone to rate all of the episodes 1 (best) to 7 (worst). Then the episode with the most 7s is eliminated. Everyone's preferences will now be 1 (best) to 6 (worst) when you remove the eliminated episode.
Then the episode with the most 6s is eliminated. Everyone’s preferences will now be 1 (best) to 5 (worst) when you remove that episode. Repeating this process should give you a winner in the same way that carrying out 6 rounds of voting would. Let me know if you think this logic is wrong somewhere. Having seen 3 episodes of Buffy in my entire life, I can't really vote for an ultimate episode.
Then the episode with the most 6s is eliminated. Everyone’s preferences will now be 1 (best) to 5 (worst) when you remove that episode. Repeating this process should give you a winner in the same way that carrying out 6 rounds of voting would. Let me know if you think this logic is wrong somewhere. Having seen 3 episodes of Buffy in my entire life, I can't really vote for an ultimate episode.