Television has probably never been as popular as it is today. Or to be more exact, TV shows have never been more popular, since many shows do not air on normal TV, instead airing on services like Netflix.
That got me thinking about record breaking shows. Today we're looking at shows that have had or still hold some very dramatic records, in no particular order.
First up The Simpsons holds the record for most guest stars, a record Guinness awarded them in 2010 for having had 555 guests. As of 2020 the number is 891 and climbing. The Simpsons also holds the number two spot for longest running animated show in the west with 694 episodes as of the end of 2020. The number one spot goes to Looney Tunes with 1041 episodes. World wide the number one spot goes to the Chinese cartoon 3000 Whys of Blue Cat with 3057 episodes.
Of course this depends on what your criteria for an animated show is. The German stop motion show Unser Sandmännchen has produced an eye-watering 22,200 episodes, starting in 1959.
Impressive numbers but lets look at the king of non animated longevity, the soap opera. The crown for most episodes goes to Guiding Light (1952-2009) with 15,762 episodes, followed by General Hospital with 14,557 episodes and Days of Our Lives with 13,927 episodes. Both shows are still going strong so they will probably bury Guiding Light soon.
Coronation Street is the longest British soap with 10,169 episodes starting in 1960. Imagine starting now and trying to catch up...
Actually you don't have to imagine it. Mental Floss has calculated that it would take 1398 hours (474 days, 22 hours) to watch all of General Hospital.
Longest running Talk show is The Tonight Show which started September 27, 1954 and has amassed 12,400 episodes.
The longest sci-fi show is Doctor Who which ran from 1963-1989 and then from 2005-present with 862 episodes as of January this year.
Longest running game show is the French Des Chiffres et des Lettres which started in 1965 and is still popular. In the UK it is called Countdown if that name is more familiar.
The longest live broadcast of one event goes to the British charity event Penny Appeal that stayed on air 11 days, 11 hours and 11 minutes without pause. That's 182 hours straight.
In 2016 Game of Thrones took the crown for biggest Simulcast, that is airing an episodes in several countries at the same time. The episode 'The House of Black and White' (S5E2) was shown in 173 countries beating out CSI: Crime Scene Investigation with its previous record of 171 countries. Some rumors claim that The Walking Dead beat it, but I can't find any verification.
Now some special facts about the immensely popular M*A*S*H (1972-1983). This war comedy-drama show set in the Korean war ran over three times longer than the war it portrays, even though technically the war never officially ended. It's finale, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen (S11E16) grabbed the record for most simultaneous viewers with 121.6 million viewers. It crushed previous record holders like the Dallas episode “Who Shot J.R.?” It was finally beaten in 2010 by Super Bowl XLIV, but since that is a sporting event, M*A*S*H still holds the record for scripted television.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!
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