Television Programs and Shows
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TelevisionTelevision - The television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound ...



Television Programs and Shows. Television programs and shows are the content of a television broadcast.


Television Programs and Shows

Television programs and shows are the content of a television broadcast. A program may be a one-off broadcast or, more usually, part of a periodically returning television series. A single instance of a series is called an episode.

Television Programs and Shows, Jerry Springer (Click to enlarge)

The content of television programs may be factual (e.g. documentaries) or fictional (e.g. comedy or drama). A drama program usually features a set of actors in a somewhat familiar setting. The program follows their lives and their adventures.

Many shows, especially before the 1980s, maintained a status quo where the main characters and the premise changed little. If some change happened to the characters lives during the episode, it was usually undone by the end. (Because of this, the episodes could usually be watched in any order.) Since the 1980s, there are many series that feature progressive change to the plot, the characters, or both.

Common TV program periods include regular broadcasts (like TV news), TV series (usually seasonal and ongoing with a duration of only a few episodes to many seasons), or TV miniseries which is an extended film, usually with a small pre-determined number of episodes and a set plot and timeline.

Miniseries usually range from about 3 to 10 hours in length, though critics often complain when programs hit the short end of that range and are still marketed as "minis." In the United States, regular television series have 22 episodes per year.

Dramas usually last 44 minutes (an hour with commercials), while comedies last 22 (30 with commercials). However, with the rise of cable networks, especially pay ones, series and episode lengths have been changing. Cable networks usually feature serieses lasting thirteen episodes.

Many British series have significantly shorter yearly runs. Common formats: TV comedy (typically situation comedy or sketch comedy), TV documentary, TV drama, dramedy, TV talk show, TV current affairs show, TV cartoon, TV infomercial, TV miniseries, game shows, soap opera.



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