Tuesday, June 05, 2007

How to Find Legal, Full Episode, TV Shows Online


How do you find the TV shows that are online? TV Networks are making shows available online more andmore now, but you have to look all over the web to find them. I'm talking about the shows that are listed legally of course and not those you find on torrent sites around the internet. I've found some sites that compile comprehensive listings of full TV episodes and also review other ways of finding those shows you are looking for.


Trivial TV is a great site where you can find a very comprehensive list of TV shows online with the links to the online TV show videos. It is made up of shows hosted on Apple's Itunes, Amazon Unbox, Netflix Watch Now, Google Video and the various Network sites. This site also has a "reverse lookup" where you can choose a date and find out what aired on network tv that day. Another nice thing trivialtv does is they list new episodes added online each week. This alone makes the site a must-see.

To lookup TV shows online by name, go to Trivial TV's Episode Finder. Here you will find all online tv shows sorted alphabetically by name. For each episode, it lists a link to where that full episode can be found. When there is a full episode online, this site lists each place the shows can be found including free and fee-based video sites. This is seriously the most comprehensive listing of tv shows with links I've ever seen. Very useful. Another site that has some online tv listings is alluc.org. This one is user-maintained and not as comprehensive, but it has a good database of online tv shows.

If you just want to go directly to the TV Networks online video sites, below is a listing of the various TV Network sites where you can find many full TV show episodes online as well.

Main Networks:

ABC Network - One of the better TV Network Streaming Sites. Includes Grey's Anatomy, Desparate Housewives, Lost, Daybreak and more.
NBC Network - Includes 30 Rock, Heroes (entire first season), Friday Night Lights etc
CBS Network - How I Met YOur Mother, Jericho, NCIS, Survivor, Shark and more
CWTV - Everybody Hates Chris, The Game etc

Other TV Networks:
AOL Television - Includes Classics like Gilligan's Island, Growing Pains, Eight is Enough, Babylon 5, Ben Stiller Show
ABC Family - Includes Kyle XY, Falcon Beach and others
Disney - Hannah Montana, That's So Raven etc.
Fox On Demand - 24, Drive, Bones, Standoff and Vanish (only available in certain areas)
Nickelodeon - SpongeBob etc

Pay-Per Download Online Sites:
These sites are obviously, the big three for paid downloads of shows and in some cases, music.

Lastly, you can search for internet tv shows by name at findinternettv.com - powered by treveo. This is a little more difficult to navigate, but it might be useful if you are looking for an episode or clip by name. This site also has a Streaming Internet TV Stations Guide where you can see what streaming TV stations have online at the time. My last resouce for finding entire episodes online is Peekvid. Peekvid has a directory of entire episodes available online via Youtube and other sites.

Of all the places listed, my favorite interface is Netflix's Watch-Now (Click Here for a review of Netflix Watch Now). The quality is good, and I've experienced no breakup in the picture or delays due to buffering like I do with some of the other sites. The problem with Netflix's Watch-Now is it's not free and its selection is very weak.

Well, that should be enough to keep you busy. Remember, online TV shows is only one of the ways to get those old episodes. Don't forget my other suggestions for Catching up on TV shows during the summer.

If I've missed any sites or ways you use to find online TV shows, let me know.