Guide to TV Genres: 15 Popular Television Genres

In television, a genre is a style that has its own idiomatic types of storytelling, characterizations, dialogue, humor, and visual flair. Some TV series and shows conform rigidly to certain TV genres. Other shows bounce between genres and subgenres. There is no definitive list of every genre that has ever existed on television. However, certain genres recur with great frequency and have solidified popularity over decades.

Nonfiction television ranges from evening news to documentaries. Here are some of the most popular nonfiction genres on television.

1. 1. News programming: News programming includes local evening news, daytime national broadcasts on cable networks, and week-in-review programming that often airs on Fridays or weekends. Some networks run news broadcasts dedicated solely to sports.
2. 2. Talk shows: Talk shows or chat shows are television programs based on back-and-forth discussions between hosts. Daytime talk shows and weekday morning chat shows reach large audiences, but the most famous talk shows air late at night. Most talk shows cover pop culture, current events, and politics.
3. 3. Game shows: On game shows, teams of contestants or participants called from the audience attempt to complete puzzles or answer trivia questions, with prizes awarded if they win.
4. 4. Variety shows: Variety shows highlight the talents of their guests. Variety shows include musical acts, dancing, stand-up comedy routines, and sketch comedy. Variety shows evolved from Victorian era stage shows and had their peak on television in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, though some still continue to this day.
5. 5. Sketch comedy: Sketch comedy showcases a variety of multi-person comedic sketches. Comedic styles on these shows range from goofy slapstick to satirical black comedy.
6. 6. Sports: Sports programming earns some of the highest ratings in all of television. Unlike many other formats, sports are often broadcast live, bringing a sense of immediacy and urgency to the viewing experience.
7. 7. Sitcoms: Short for "situational comedy," sitcoms tend to deal with families, coworkers, or groups of friends. Some are shot on static sets with multiple cameras in fixed positions; these are called multi-camera sitcoms. Other sitcoms are shot more like feature films; these are called single-camera sitcoms. Some sitcoms are animated.
8. 8. Romantic comedies: Closely related to sitcoms, romantic comedies draw their humor from the absurdities of love. Rom-coms enjoy dedicated audiences, although they often lack the sheer market share of sitcoms.
9. 9. Teen dramas: Teen dramas are geared toward teenagers and twenty-somethings. They tend to emphasize heightened situations to the point of bordering on melodrama.
10. 10. Docudramas: A docudrama is a fictional show based on a true story. Sometimes docudramas involve true crime, and sometimes they cover more inspiring subjects.
11. 11. Police procedurals: Police procedurals follow a highly formulaic plot structure. Episodes begin with a crime (whether a crime of passion or a hit by a serial killer) and then cycle through an investigation, an arrest, and some form of judicial justice. Some police thrillers double as courtroom dramas.
12. 12. Sci-fi and fantasy: Science fiction and fantasy shows are popular on cable and streaming platforms. The fantasy genre and sci-fi genre can range from pseudo-historical epics to sci-fi dystopian noirs and can include everything from time travel to sword battles to paranormal alien encounters.
13. 13. Anime: Anime is a Japanese genre that spans comic books, video games, and film media, as well as TV. Some anime manifests as Saturday morning cartoons aimed at children. Other anime centers on edgy subjects that are geared toward teens and adults.
14. 14. Soap operas: Soap operas tend to feature improbable plotlines and melodrama; the name comes from the detergent companies that used to sponsor daytime dramas aimed at housewives in the mid-twentieth century. Some soap operas are medical dramas, while others deal mostly with romance. Primetime soaps enjoy enormous popularity.
15. 15. Reality TV: Reality television tends to emphasize ordinary people rather than big stars. Some reality shows are competitions, while others claim to show slices of real life. Many reality TV shows merge the two, introducing a competitive element to real-life activities like dating or home renovation.

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