Live television
Live television is a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. In a secondary meaning, it may refer to streaming television where all viewers watch the same stream simultaneously, rather than watching video on demand.
Shows broadcast live include newscasts, morning shows, awards shows, sports programs, reality programs and, occasionally, episodes of scripted television series.
Live television was more common until the late 1950s, when videotape technology was invented. Because of the prohibitive cost, adoption was slow, and some scripted television shows remained live until the 1970s, such as soap operas. To prevent unforeseen issues, live television programs may be delayed, which allows censors to edit the program. Some programs may be broadcast live in certain time zones and delayed in others.
Types of programs
From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed programs such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Although videotape was invented in 1956, it cost $300 per one hour reelslowing its adoption. Some genres, such as soap operas, did not completely abandon live broadcasts until the mid-1970s.
In general, a live television program was more common for broadcasting content produced specifically for commercial television in the early years of the medium, before technologies such as video tape appeared. As video tape recorders became more prevalent, many entertainment programs were recorded and edited before broadcasting rather than being shown live.
Morning shows
As of September 2021, television networks provide most live television for morning shows with television programs such as: Good Morning Britain, BBC Breakfast, This Morning, Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel, etc. broadcast live in the UK; Sunrise live in Australia; Your Morning live in Canada; and Today, Good Morning America, and CBS Mornings in the U.S., which air live only in the Eastern Time Zone. The only exceptions are CBS Saturday Morning and Sunday Today with Willie Geist, which air live in the Eastern and Central time zones. Spanish-language morning shows, unlike their English speaking counterparts, air live in across the mainland U.S. except for viewers in the Pacific time zone, which, along with viewers in Hawaii and Alaska, have tape-delayed shows.A few daytime talk shows in the U.S. broadcast live before a studio audience in select time zones. Shows such as Live with Kelly and Mark and Sherri air live in the Eastern time zone only, while ABC's The View air live in the Eastern and Central time zones. A separate program is taped on Thursday afternoon for airing on Friday. Affiliates in the remaining time zones air these programs on a tape delay. Most other daytime talk shows and late night programs are taped before a live studio audience earlier in the day and edited for later broadcast.
Entertainment shows
Major entertainment events, such as award shows and beauty pageants, are often broadcast live in primetime hours based on U.S. East Coast's schedule. In the 21st century, reality competition franchises began to emerge, where viewers could vote for their favorite acts featured in live performances, but American Idol, as of 2025, is the only reality competition series to have broadcast live in all U.S. territories at the same time.Scheduling of live entertainment programming may be complicated in countries that span multiple time zones, such as Mexico, Canada and the United States, where programming is aired live in the easternmost time zones, but may be delayed in order to air in local primetime hours in western markets.
Historically, live global sports and breaking international news programming are usually broadcast live in all time zones worldwide. Several award shows began to air live in all time zones worldwide in order to avert the need to avoid "spoilers" via the internet and social media outlets in the onset of the latter's rise in the late 2000s. For decades, the Academy Awards have continuously broadcast live in Alaska and both U.S. coasts, and are later joined by the Golden Globe Awards since the early 2010s. In recent years, the Primetime Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards and Tony Awards have joined airing live in all U.S. territories.
Some award shows like the Billboard Music Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards have switched annually between delayed and live nationwide telecasts since the mid-2010s as a result of the declining viewership across live event television in the same period.
News shows
Most local television station newscasts are broadcast live in the U.S. as they are an essential medium for providing up-to-the-minute weather forecasts and breaking news stories. Broadcast television networks in the United States typically air their evening newscasts live in the Eastern and Central time zones. A separate "Western Edition" is broadcast to viewers in the Pacific Time Zone to account for latest news updates, and may sometimes be a second live broadcast with the same running time as the original East Coast airing. When a major breaking news event occurs, whether nationally or globally, broadcast television networks will break into regularly scheduled programming and will televise a live "special report" in all time zones. Local television stations break into regularly scheduled programming in the event of severe weather warnings or major local breaking news stories that occur within their viewing area.Cable news outlets air continuous live programming during the day, and air rebroadcasts of earlier live shows during the late night hours, except in cases where breaking news occurs. The PBS NewsHour airs live on PBS stations in the Eastern Time Zone. Sunday morning news programs in the USA such as Meet The Press on NBC, This Week on ABC, and Fox News Sunday air live in the Eastern Time Zone, while CBS Sunday Morning and Face The Nation on CBS air live in the Eastern and Central time zones.
Cable outlets incorporate the word LIVE in their network logo when those networks broadcast live content. Some sports cable networks will opt to insert the word LIVE somewhere on the corner of the screen. With the exception of special breaking news reports and overseas sporting events, broadcast television networks rarely display such a graphic during its live programming.
Local television station newscasts display time and temperature during their broadcasts, and only display the word LIVE when they air a news report or a live shot on location. Some networks have begun to insert the local time of where that news report is originating from, particularly when that report is airing live via satellite from overseas.
Sports
As of the current decade, major sporting events like the World Series, Super Bowl, World Cup, NBA Finals, and Olympic Games have been broadcast entirely live in all U.S. territories, encompassing both prime time hours of both U.S. coasts, simultaneous with the live global telecasts of these events in accordance with the official international broadcasters of such games.Other
Other events that air live all across U.S. territories include multi-network coverage of U.S. presidential and congressional elections, U.S. presidential inaugurations, the State of the Union Address, presidential news conferences, Presidential Addresses to the Nation, the Tournament of Roses Parade, and funerals of major national or international public and religious figures. Local television stations air live local election coverage and special events, such as large scale parades, big city marathons, funerals of major local public and religious figures, inauguration ceremonies of big city mayors and governors, installation masses of cardinals or bishops in a major Catholic archdiocese, and pep rallies for a major sports team. In the UK, events such as the State Opening of Parliament are broadcast live.Uses of live television
Live television is often used as a device, even in scripted programming to take advantage of these often to great success in terms of attracting viewers. The NBC live comedy/variety program Saturday Night Live, for example, has been on that network continuously since 1975 and airs live in the Eastern and Central zones during the show's season which runs from October though May.On September 25, 1997, NBC aired two separate live broadcasts of an episode of ER, which at the time was the most watched U.S. television program overall. Many television news programs, particularly local news ones in North America, have also used live television as a device to gain audience viewers by making their programs appear more exciting. With technologies such as production trucks, satellite truck uplinks, a news reporter can report live "on location" from anywhere where a story is happening in the city. This technique has attracted criticism for its overuse and resulting tendency to make stories appear more urgent than they actually are.
The unedited nature of live television can pose problems for broadcasters because of the potential for mishaps, such as anchors being interrupted or harassed by bystanders shouting profane phrases. In 2015, a female CityNews journalist confronted a group of young men who had used such a phrase; one of them later lost his job after he was identified. Channels often broadcast live programs on a slight delay to give them the ability to censor words and images while keeping the broadcast as "live" as possible.