Synopsis A television program or television show is a segment of content broadcast on television. It may be a one-off broadcast or part of a periodically recurring television series. A television series that is intended to be broadcast a finite number of episodes is usually called a miniseries or serial (although the latter term also has other meanings). A short run lasting less than a year is known in the United States and Canada as a season and in the United Kingdom and (not necessarily) the rest of the PAL countries as a series.