Television show
A television show, TV program (British English: programme), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platforms.
Modern streaming television allows viewers to watch programming at any time with a subscription to the service.
Televised events such as the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany, the 1937 coronation of King George VI in the United Kingdom, and David Sarnoff's famous introduction at the 1939 New York World's Fair in the United States spurred growth in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war.
The first national live television broadcast in the US took place on September 4, 1951, when President Harry Truman's speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco was transmitted over AT&T's transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets.
Television shows are more varied than most other forms of media due to the wide variety of formats and genres that can be presented.
Before the 1980s, shows (except for soap opera-type serials) typically remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little.
[citation needed] In 2012, it was reported that television was growing into a larger component of major media companies' revenues than film.
"[6] When a person or company decides to create new content for television broadcast, they develop the show's elements, consisting of the concept, the characters, the crew, and the cast.
Many of the most popular British comedies have been made this way, including Monty Python's Flying Circus (albeit with an exclusive team of six writer-performers), Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and The Office.
As with filmmaking or other electronic media production, producing of an individual episode can be divided into three parts: pre-production, principal photography, and post-production.
Pre-production tasks include storyboarding; construction of sets, props, and costumes; casting guest stars; budgeting; acquiring resources like lighting, special effects, stunts, etc.
Once the show is planned, it must then be scheduled: scenes are often filmed out of sequence, and guest actors or even regulars may only be available at certain times.
Live events are usually covered by Outside Broadcast crews using mobile television studios, known as scanners or OB trucks.
Although varying greatly depending on the era and subject covered, these trucks were normally crewed by up to 15 skilled operators and production personnel.
An editor cuts the various pieces of film together, adds the musical score and effects, determines scene transitions, and assembles the completed show.
[citation needed] In the past, the number of 'free to air' stations was restricted by the availability of channel frequencies, but cable TV (outside the United States, satellite television) technology has allowed an expansion in the number of channels available to viewers (sometimes at premium rates) in a much more competitive environment.
This allows the studio to make its money back and earn a profit through syndication and sales of DVDs and Blu-rays.
This system places most of the financial risk on the studios; however, a hit show in the syndication and home video markets can more than make up for the misses.
Although deficit financing places minimal financial risk on the networks, they lose out on the future profits of big hits since they are only licensing the shows.
On rare occasions, a series that has not attracted particularly high ratings and has been canceled can be given a reprieve if home video viewership has been particularly strong.
[20] Until the 1980s, most new programs for the US broadcast networks debuted in the "fall season", which ran from September through March and nominally contained 24 to 26 episodes.
A midseason replacement is a less-expensive short-run show of generally 10 to 13 episodes designed to take the place of an original series that failed to garner an audience and has not been picked up.
[26] During the summer months of June through roughly mid-September, network schedules typically feature reruns of their flagship programs, first-run series with lower rating expectations, and other specials.
Only the public CBC Television normally schedules Canadian-produced programming throughout the year; the commercial networks typically now avoid scheduling Canadian productions to air in the fall, as such shows commonly get lost amid the publicity onslaught of the US fall season.
Australian situation comedy series' seasons are approximately 13 episodes long and premiere any time between February and November.
Recently, US non-cable networks have also begun to experiment with shorter series for some programs, particularly reality shows, such as Survivor.
Actual storytelling time within a commercial television hour has also gradually reduced over the years, from 50 minutes out of every 60 to the current 44 (and even less on some networks), beginning in the early 21st century.
For example, The Family of Mr Shalash miniseries, starring Salah Zulfikar and Laila Taher, was the highest rated at the time.
There are exceptions: subscription-based cable TV channels, such as HBO, Starz, Cinemax, and Showtime, have episodes that are 45–48 minutes long, similar to the UK.
[32] The episode runtime of television shows produced for streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Max, can vary from under 30 minutes to over one hour long.
