TV Channels
Note: This is not a list of every channel everywhere, just a list of those most likely to be referenced in Fanlore as housing fannish television. For a full list of television networks by country, see the listing on Wikipedia. Likewise, channels do not include listings of every fannish show they've ever aired, just some of the more notable ones to give a feel for the channel's general influence on fandom (to try to keep this page under control). Where possible, a link is given to a more extensive list on Wikipedia.
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Australia
See Wikipedia's list of Australian tv series for an incomplete list of all Australian programs and the networks they air(ed) on.
ABC
See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by the ABC for a complete list.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
- The Big Gig
- Good News Week (later sold to Channel Ten)
Nine Network
See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by Nine Network for a complete list.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
Canada
CBC
Canada's public television station, focused very strongly on Canadian programming these days. See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by CBC for a complete list.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
CTV
See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by CTV for a complete list.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
Global TV
See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by Global for a complete list.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
Showcase
A Canadian cable specialty channel with mostly scripted content from domestic and international sources. Many fan favorites are included in the shows Showcase has re-aired (Highlander, dueSouth, Queer as Folk (UK))
Notable fannish offerings originally aired on the channel have included:
Space
A Canadian cable specialty channel (see their website) focusing on SF, fantasy, and horror programming. It often uses the subtitle "The Imagination Station" after its name. Space shows both first-run and rerun series. It is noted for showing missing episodes of shows that were cancelled and full versions of shows that are often cut.
Many fan favourites are included among the shows Space has aired, including all Star Trek and Stargate series, Babylon 5 and Crusade, Forever Knight, Firefly, Being Human, Doctor Who and Torchwood, Smallville, and Battlestar Galactica.
See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by Space for (an incomplete) list of shows that have aired on Space.
Germany
ARD
Notable fannish offerings have included:
RTL
Notable fannish offerings have included:
ProSieben
The channel has co-financed several shows. Notable fannish offerings have included:
United Kingdom
BBC One
The BBC's main drama channel. See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by the BBC for a full list (note: combined, not broken out by BBC channel).
Notable fannish offerings have included:
- Blake's 7
- Doctor Who
- Life on Mars and its spin-off Ashes to Ashes
- Merlin
- Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth adaptation), and many other costume dramas
- Spooks/MI5
BBC Three
See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by the BBC for a full list (note: combined, not broken out by BBC channel).
Notable fannish offerings have included:
ITV
See Wikipedia's list of programs aired by ITV for an incomplete list.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
- Agatha Christie's Poirot
- Jeeves & Wooster
- Inspector Morse and its spin-off Lewis
- The Professionals
- Robin of Sherwood
- Sherlock Holmes (the Jeremy Brett adaptations)
United States
ABC
One of the traditional "big three" broadcast networks. It carries news, soap operas, dramas, comedies, reality shows, miniseries, and movies. It tends toward mainstream rather than genre offerings.
See Wikipedia's list of current ABC shows and Wikipedia's list of previously aired ABC shows for a complete listing of all ABC shows.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
- Alias
- General Hospital
- Grey's Anatomy
- Lost
- One Life To Live
- The Real Ghostbusters
- Scrubs
- Sports Night
- Starsky and Hutch
CBS
One of the traditional "big three" broadcast networks. It carries news, soap operas, dramas, comedies, reality shows, miniseries, and movies. It tends toward mainstream rather than genre offerings.
See Wikipedia's list of current CBS shows and Wikipedia's list of previously aired CBS shows for a complete listing of all CBS shows.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
- As the World Turns
- Criminal Minds
- The CSI universe
- due South
- MASH
- NCIS
- Numb3rs
- The Wild Wild West
- The Young and the Restless
The CW
The new network created from the merger of UPN and the WB in 2006. See Wikipedia's list of programs broadcast by The CW for a complete list.
Notable original fannish offerings include:
There also is CWRPS, an RPF subfandom specifically for actors of this network.
Fox
The fourth of the "big three" networks. Especially early on, Fox tended toward edgier, riskier programming as it tried to gain the youth audience away from the staid existing networks.
See Wikipedia's list of Fox shows (current and former) for a complete listing of all Fox shows.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
- 24
- Alien Nation
- Bones
- Dark Angel
- Dollhouse
- Firefly
- Glee
- House
- Space: Above and Beyond
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- The X-Files
HBO
A pay-cable channel; you have to specifically choose to subscribe to it to see it. It originally aired only movies, but eventually began showing original programming, gaining a reputation for gritty realism and high-quality programming. As a pay-cable station, it has fewer limits on topics it can deal with, and on what sorts of things can be shown and said (i.e., more skin, more violence, more sex, and more swearing than broadcast or basic cable stations).
Notable original fannish offerings have included:
NBC
One of the traditional "big three" broadcast networks. It carries news, soap operas, dramas, comedies, reality shows, miniseries, and movies. It tends toward mainstream rather than genre offerings.
See Wikipedia's list of current NBC shows and Wikipedia's list of previously aired NBC shows for a complete listing of all NBC shows.
Notable fannish offerings have included:
- Days of Our Lives
- Heroes
- Homicide: Life on the Street
- The Law & Order universe
- The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
- Star Trek
- Third Watch
- The West Wing
PBS
The only publicly funded broadcast network in the US, PBS has been home to a great deal of British programming, including Doctor Who and many of the Age of Sail shows.
SciFi (now SyFy)
A basic-cable channel, although not always in the most basic tier; a cable or satellite subscriber will probably have access without needing to pay a specific subscription for it. It carries syndicated SF/fantasy/horror shows, original SF shows, original movies, and most recently, reality programming that ranges from paranormal to things like "Scare Tactics" that have nothing whatsoever to do with science fiction.
See Wikipedia's list of SciFi shows for a complete list of programs aired by SciFi.
Notable original fannish offerings have included:
- Battlestar Galactica
- Farscape
- The Invisible Man
- Stargate Atlantis
- Stargate SG-1 (after it left Showtime)
Showtime
A pay-cable channel; you have to specifically choose to subscribe to it to see it. It originally aired only movies, but eventually began showing original programming, gaining a reputation for high-quality programming (and soft-core porn). Like HBO, as a pay-cable station, it has fewer limits on topics it can deal with, and on what sorts of things can be shown and said (i.e., more skin, more violence, more sex, and more swearing than broadcast or basic cable stations).
See Wikipedia's list of Showtime programming for a complete list.
Notable original fannish offerings have included:
UPN
Now defunct; it merged into The CW in 2006 along with the WB. See Wikipedia's list of programs broadcast by UPN for a complete list.
Notable original fannish offerings included:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (after it left The WB)
- Roswell (after it left The WB)
- The Sentinel
- Star Trek: Enterprise
- Star Trek: Voyager
- Veronica Mars (later shown on the CW)
USA Network
See Wikipedia's list of programs broadcast by USA for a complete list.
Notable fannish offerings:
The WB
Now defunct; it merged into The CW in 2006 along with UPN. See Wikipedia's list of programs broadcast by the WB for a complete list.
Notable original fannish offerings included:
- Angel the Series
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (later moved to UPN)
- Dawson's Creek
- Roswell (later moved to UPN)
- Smallville (later shown on the CW)
- Supernatural (later shown on the CW)
