This article gives a list of United States network television schedules including prime time (since 1946), daytime (since 1947), late night (since 1950), overnight (since 2020), morning (since 2021), and afternoon (since 2021). The variously three to six larger commercial U.S. television networks each has its schedule. which is altered each year (and usually more frequently), and the introductions and relevant articles provide a comprehensive review for each year, from the 1946 season to the present.
Public broadcasting in the U.S. has often been more decentralized, and less likely to have a single network feed appear across most of the country (though some latter-day public networks such as World Channel and Create have had more in-pattern clearance than National Educational Television or its successor PBS have had). Also, local stations can and have deviated occasionally or frequently from commercial network schedules for a variety of reasons.
| 1946–47 | Prime time | |
| 1947–48 | Prime time | Daytime |
| 1948–49 | Prime time | Daytime |
| 1949–50 | Prime time | Daytime |
| 1950–51 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1951–52 | Prime time | Daytime | No late night schedule during these years |
| 1952–53 | Prime time | Daytime | |
| 1953–54 | Prime time | Daytime | |
| 1954–55 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1955–56 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1956–57 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1957–58 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1958–59 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1959–60 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1960–61 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1961–62 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1962–63 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1963–64 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1964–65 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1965–66 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1966–67 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1967–68 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1968–69 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1969–70 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1970–71 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1971–72 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1972–73 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1973–74 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1974–75 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1975–76 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1976–77 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1977–78 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1978–79 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1979–80 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1980–81 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1981–82 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1982–83 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1983–84 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1984–85 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1985–86 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1986–87 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1987–88 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1988–89 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1989–90 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1990–91 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1991–92 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1992–93 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1993–94 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1994–95 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1995–96 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1996–97 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1997–98 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1998–99 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 1999–2000 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2000–01 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2001–02 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2002–03 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2003–04 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2004–05 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2005–06 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2006–07 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2007–08 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2008–09 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2009–10 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2010–11 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2011–12 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2012–13 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2013–14 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2014–15 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2015–16 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2016–17 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2017–18 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2018–19 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2019–20 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night |
| 2020–21 | Prime time | Daytime | Late night | Overnight | |
| 2021–22 | Prime time | Morning | Daytime | Late night | Overnight |
| 2022–23 | Prime time | Morning | Daytime | Late night | Overnight |
| 2023–24 | Prime time | Morning | Daytime | Late night | Overnight |
| 2024–25 | Prime time | Morning | Daytime | Late night | Overnight |
| 2025–26 | Prime time | Morning | Daytime | Late night | Overnight |
| 2026–27 | Prime time | Morning | Daytime | Late night | Overnight |
A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. The two types of reruns are those that occur during a hiatus and those that occur when a program is syndicated.
A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United States, multichannel video programming distributors. Until the mid-1980s, broadcast programming on television in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of terrestrial networks. Many early television networks such as the BBC, CBS, CBC, NBC or ABC in the US and in Australia evolved from earlier radio networks.
Public broadcasting involves radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing, and commercial financing, and avoid political interference or commercial influence.
Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August 2013. Most households have more than one set. The percentage of households owning at least one television set peaked at 98.4%, in the 1996–1997 season. In 1948, 1 percent of U.S. households owned at least one television; in 1955, 75 percent did. In 1992, 60 percent of all U.S. households had cable television subscriptions.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, during the network era of American television, there were three commercial broadcast television networks — NBC, CBS, ABC — that due to their longevity and ratings success are informally referred to as the "Big Three". The three networks' dominance was interrupted with the launch of Fox in 1986, leading it to join them as one of the expanded "Big Four", while the viewership shares of all the major broadcast networks declined over the following years.
An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast network. As such, it only broadcasts syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered programming, for which a third party pays the station for airtime; and local programs that it produces itself.
Television in Canada officially began with the sign-on of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada, the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by media in the United States, perhaps to an extent not seen in any other major industrialized nation. As a result, the government institutes quotas for "Canadian content". Nonetheless, new content is often aimed at a broader North American audience, although the similarities may be less pronounced in the predominantly French-language province of Quebec.
In the television industry, an upfront is a gathering at the start of important advertising sales periods, held by television network executives and attended by major advertisers and the media. It is so named because of its main purpose, to allow marketers to buy television commercial airtime "up front", or several months before the television season begins.
Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. Most cable viewers in the U.S. reside in the suburbs and tend to be middle class; cable television is less common in low income, urban, and rural areas.
The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present is a trade paperback reference work by the American television historians Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, first published by Ballantine Books in 1979.
In the broadcasting industry, a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or all of the lineup of television programs or radio programs of a television or radio network. This distinguishes such a television or radio station from an owned-and-operated station (O&O), which is owned by the parent network.
A television show, TV program, or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is traditionally broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable. This includes content made by television broadcasters and content made for broadcasting by film production companies. It excludes breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed between shows. Television shows are most often scheduled for broadcast well ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings, but streaming services often make them available for viewing anytime. The content in a television show is produced by one of two production methodologies: live taped shows such as variety and news magazine shows shot on a television studio stage or sporting events The other production model includes animation and a variety of film productions ranging from movies to series. Shows not produced on a television studio stage are usually contracted or licensed to be made by appropriate production companies.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Crystal City, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programs to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Frontline, Nova, PBS News Hour, Masterpiece, Sesame Street, and This Old House.
