'Turn-On' was the shortest lived show in TV history, and one of the most fascinating.
Turn-On is an American sketch comedy series that aired on ABC in February 1969. Only one episode was shown, leaving one episode unaired, and the show is considered one of the most infamous flops in TV history.
Unless you count Sense8's 152-minute finale, which originally aired as a standalone movie, or Norway's “Slow TV” phenomenon, (real-time, marathon broadcasts of train rides, knitting contests, and fishing outings that draw surprisingly robust ratings), that may make it the longest single television episode ever made.
With well over 700 episodes, "The Simpsons" is the longest-running scripted primetime TV series.
As we can see from the top 10 longest binges, Eat Bulaga! in the Philippines is by far the longest show ever, with 13,501 episodes each taking around 150 minutes to finish! In fact, it would take you 3 years and 10 months to watch every episode back to back, with no bathroom breaks.
With a whopping 75 years of runtime, Meet the Press is the longest-running television show in America as well as the world.
Grace and Frankie remains Netflix's longest-running series to date, having concluded its run after seven successful seasons. Grace and Frankie ranks among the best long-running shows, meaning those with at least four seasons.
The most hours on US television is 16,746.50 hours by presenter Regis Philbin (USA) whose career spans 52 years as of 15 September 2011. Regis Philbin's career started in San Diego in 1958.
How Many TV Shows Are Available to Watch Across Streaming and Traditional Television Platforms? According to Neilsen's State of Play report, between February 2021 and February 2022, 817,000 individual TV programs became available to choose from.
"Grey's Anatomy" has 342 episodes across 15 seasons, the longest show on Netflix.
Running time
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. In the United States, dramas produced for hour-long time slots typically are 37–42 minutes in length (excluding advertisements), while sitcoms produced for 30-minute time slots typically are 18–21 minutes long.
“Part of the reason the episodes are a bit longer is that we have a huge ensemble of characters. And by the way, fans love each and every one of them. To give them their due episode over episode, it just means the episodes need to expand to fit them.
Shorter TV seasons are less of a risk for networks. Previously, a TV show could flop and have 15 episodes still to run, forcing the network to either cancel it midway and cut losses, or continue flogging it. With shorter seasons, networks can better respond to fan demands.
Individual seasons have also gotten shorter. Seasons of television used to always be at least 20 to 25 episodes long, but now they usually only have about 10 to 13 episodes (sometimes less like with Squid Game).
Football, of course, remains the dominant story in broadcast and cable. The most-watched program in primetime continues to be NBC's “Sunday Night Football,” averaging 18 million viewers.
The Longest Movie on Netflix
The longest movie on Netflix was "The Irishman," directed by Martin Scorsese. The film has a runtime of 3 hours and 29 minutes and features an all-star cast, including Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci.
Altogether, the whole eight seasons of Game Of Thrones would take 70 hours and 14 minutes to watch or, if watched back-to-back with no breaks, just under three whole days.
The longest career as a TV presenter is 69 years 219 days, achieved by Sir David Attenborough (UK) between 2 September 1953 and 9 April 2023. Naturalist Sir David Attenborough made his on-screen debut on Animal Disguises (UK) on BBC Children's Television on 2 September 1953.
The First Color TV Shows
Two days later, on June 27, 1951, CBS began airing the first regularly scheduled color television series, "The World Is Yours!" with Ivan T. Sanderson.
Television's first drama,The Queen's Messenger, is broadcast from Schenectady, New York station WGY on September 11, 1928. Russian-born, American scientist Vladimir Zworykin demonstrates the first practical electronic system for both the transmission and reception of images in 1929.