If Shakespeare didn't exist, whose works would we have studied in English lessons instead?

I hardly think IMDB is a measure of cultural impact! If it is cultural impact you are measuring... then Dante reigns quite supreme since he flashes out the Christian idea of burning Inferno... and if his Tuscan nature disqualifies him... then Milton's Romantic Lucifer is a close second. Tyndale's Obedience of a Christian man... with its idea of the Godly Prince influenced King Henry and thus planted the seed... alongside a thousand other actors for the formation of the Anglican church. I could go on and on. Dickens is excellent and is impactful. But sovereign? No.