TV Show Search via TVMaze

What does this actor do?

TV Show Search via TVMaze is an Apify actor that search TV shows worldwide with ratings, genres, schedules, and network info via TVMaze API. It runs on the Apify platform and delivers structured data in JSON, CSV, or Excel formats that you can easily integrate into your workflows. For each item found, the actor extracts key data fields including name, type, language, genres, and more. All results are stored in an Apify dataset that you can download or connect to via the Apify API.

Why use this actor?

Manually collecting this data would be extremely time-consuming and error-prone. TV Show Search via TVMaze automates the entire process, saving you hours of manual work. This actor is ideal for data analysts, researchers, marketers, and developers who need reliable, structured data. You can schedule regular runs to keep your data fresh, integrate results directly into spreadsheets or databases, and scale your data collection without any coding required. The actor handles pagination, rate limiting, and data normalization automatically.

How does it work?

This actor connects to the API to fetch structured data directly. It processes the responses, normalizes the data into a consistent format, and stores everything in an Apify dataset. The API-based approach is fast and reliable, with built-in error handling and retry logic.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Default
query	string	TV show name to search	"breaking bad"
maxResults	integer	Maximum results to return	25

Output fields

Each item in the output dataset contains the following fields:

Field	Description	Format
name	Name	text
type	Type	text
language	Language	text
genres	Genres	text
status	Status	text
runtime	Runtime	text
premiered	Premiered	text
ended	Ended	text
rating	Rating	number
network	Network	text
summary	Summary	text
imageUrl	Image Url	link
officialSite	Official Site	text

Example output:

{
  "name": "Sample Name",
  "type": "Sample Type",
  "language": "Sample Language",
  "genres": "Sample Genres",
  "status": "Sample Status",
  "runtime": "Sample Runtime"
}

Cost and performance

This actor runs with a default memory allocation of 512 MB. As an API-based actor, it is very efficient and typically costs around $0.05-0.15 in Apify platform credits per 1,000 results. A typical run completes in under 1 minute. You can reduce costs by limiting the number of results with the maxResults parameter and by scheduling runs during off-peak hours.

Tips and best practices

• Start with a small number of results to test your configuration before scaling up.
• Use the Apify scheduling feature to automate regular data collection runs.
• Export results in the format that best fits your workflow: JSON for APIs, CSV for spreadsheets, or Excel for reports.
• Connect this actor with other actors on the Apify platform for more comprehensive data pipelines.

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