| 100% | ICLAUDIUS | 9 | Novel with the line "My birth occurred in the 744th year after the foundation of Rome by Romulus" |
| 30% | TIMESSQUARE | 11 | Facebook Status: "10-9-8-7 ... Ringing in the New Year with 1,000,000 of my newest, closest friends!" |
| 30% | ORSON | 5 | With 17-Down, director whose "The Other Side of the Wind" was released in 2018, 33 years after his death |
| 29% | DRAGONS | 7 | "A Dance with ___," fifth novel in the epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin |
| 29% | HAMMER | 6 | "The ___ of God," 1993 sci-fi novel by Arthur C. Clarke that is set in the year 2109 |
| 28% | NIGHTMOVES | 10 | Top 10 song by 46-Across with the lyrics "Out in the back seat of my '60 Chevy" (2 wds.) |
| 28% | CASCA | 5 | Roman soldier in a series of novels by Barry Sadler beginning with 1979's The Eternal Mercenary |
| 28% | LASTSONG | 8 | Novel by Nicholas Sparks about a 17 year old teen who is sent to stay with her father in the summer, "The ___": 2 wds. |
| 27% | THRIFT | 6 | "___ Shop" (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis hit with the line "got twenty dollars in my pocket") |
| 27% | TONYBENNETT | 11 | 2018 AP Coach of the Year who shares his name with the singer of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco": 2 wds. |
| 27% | EMMA | 4 | Classic novel with the line "You must be the best judge of your own happiness" |
| 27% | MEME | 4 | Image with two lines of Impact font, in the early days |
| 27% | CHOLERA | 7 | Novel by García Márquez: Love in the Time of __ |
| 27% | LOVESTORY | 9 | Novel by Erich Segal starts with the death of Jenny |
| 27% | ISMELLTHEBLOOD | 14 | With 50-Down, cry made in [the circled letters] after the starts of 54-, 33-, 30- and 14-Down |
| 27% | LEAHY | 5 | Next in the line of succession after Boehner |
| 26% | CAR | 3 | "I'm In Love With My ___," 1975 song by Queen which is a part of the album "A Night at the Opera" |
| 26% | LOVE | 4 | "___ in the Time of Cholera," novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez |
| 26% | PELOSI | 6 | She's after Harris in the line of succession |
| 26% | BULLDURHAM | 10 | Sports movie with the line "I believe in the Church of Baseball" (2 wds.) |
| 26% | DOG | 3 | "The Curious Incident of the ___ in the Night-Time," novel by Mark Haddon |
| 26% | ALGEBRAIST | 10 | The —, 2004 novel by Iain M Banks set in the year 4034 |
| 26% | ALASKA | 6 | State whose flag, with eight gold stars in the shape of the Big Dipper, was designed by a 13-year-old |
| 26% | AMOSOZ | 6 | Author of novels My Michael and Panther in the Basement |
| 26% | CHOLERA | 7 | "Love in the Time of ___," novel by Gabriel G. Marquez |
| 26% | WEEP | 4 | "Immortality," poem by Clare Harner with the line "Do not stand at my grave and ___" |
| 26% | KUBLA | 5 | "___ Khan," poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge with the line "...and drunk the milk of Paradise." |
| 26% | BELOVED | 7 | 1987 novel with the opening lines “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom” |
| 26% | XANDY | 5 | With 30-Across, what most numbers in the clues of this year's puzzles represent |