The show's format sees Hill take a comedic look towards a previous week's schedule of programming from across terrestrial and digital channels, with episodes often featuring sketches and parodied scenes.

Much of its comedy derived from either taking scenes out of context, mostly in the case for fiction-based dramas, or highlighting comedic moments that occurred in a programme, often from non-fiction programming such as reality TV shows.

It received positive reviews from critics, earning several rewards, and spawning merchandise, including DVDs of compliation episodes featuring highlights of various series.

TV Burp focuses on comedian Harry Hill taking a comedic look over a week's schedule of programming, focusing on scenes from a selection of television shows, both fiction and non-fiction in nature, including soap dramas, documentaries, cooking shows, gameshows, and reality TV.

Production of an episode often involved Hill and his programme's associate writing team, including Brenda Gilhooly, Paul Hawksbee, Daniel Maier, Joe Burnside, David Quantick and Madeleine Brettingham, watching significant amounts of television, much on preview tapes.

[4] In 2008, "The Best of TV Burp 3" included footage originally broadcast in 2004, which lampooned Sky reality series The Real Mrs Robinson.

[5] A 2016 broadcast on Dave, of an episode originally screened by ITV in December 2008, featured a comedic review of a Channel 4 documentary about Thomas Beatie.

Complainants felt the treatment was offensive to the transgender community; Ofcom ruled the complaints had been resolved by way of UKTV voluntarily cutting the entire section on Beatie's film, preventing it from future broadcast on their channels.

[6] TV Burp received positive feedback from critics and viewers; Mark Lawson from The Guardian said it was "The freshest and most original show in mainstream television.

From 2005 to 2011, the biennial BBC One transmission of the Red Nose Day telethon in aid of Comic Relief included a short TV Burp segment.