TVMaze Scraper — TV Show Data API (Shows, Episodes, Cast & Schedule)

A TVMaze scraper and structured TV show data API in a single Apify actor. Search TV shows, pull full show details and ratings, complete episode lists, cast and characters, people, and a whole country's daily TV air schedule — powered directly by the free, open TVMaze REST API. No API key, no login, no App Store Connect, no headless browser — just fast HTTP and clean, flat JSON you can export to CSV, Excel or JSON.

This TV database API is built for data teams, TV and streaming analysts, recommendation-engine developers, machine-learning practitioners, journalists and AI agents who need reliable, structured TV show metadata on demand. Seven modes share one input form, and every result is tagged with _mode so you can mix modes in a single dataset and filter later.

What you get

• Show index — crawl the entire TVMaze catalogue, 250 shows per page, paginated through the full result set. The fastest way to build a complete TV shows dataset.
• Ratings — the TVMaze rating average on every show and episode.
• Show details — name, type, language, genres[], status, premiered/ended, runtime, network, officialSite, imdbId, thetvdbId, poster image, and an HTML-stripped summary. Optionally embed the cast.
• Episodes — every episode of a series with season, number, airdate, airtime, runtime, per-episode rating and summary.
• Cast & characters — each cast member (actor) mapped to the character they play, with self/voice flags and photos.
• Schedule — a full day of TV airings for any country, joined to the show that airs (network, genres, rating).
• People — name, country, birthday, deathday, gender and photo, by free-text search or by ID.
• Universal — clean url back to TVMaze, plus _mode and scrapedAt (ISO 8601) on every item.

Export everything as CSV, JSON, Excel (XLSX), HTML, RSS or JSON Lines. Six pre-built dataset views (Overview, Shows, Episodes, Cast, Schedule, People) let you slice the data with zero post-processing.

The 7 modes

Mode	What it returns
showIndex	The whole TVMaze catalogue, 250 shows/page, paginated (highest volume)
searchShows	Free-text search for TV shows by name
showDetails	Full details for one or many show IDs (batch), optional cast embed
episodes	Every episode of a series, with season/episode numbers and ratings
cast	Cast members and the characters they play, for a show
schedule	A full day of TV airings for a country (100+ across the US)
people	Free-text people search, or details for one/more person IDs

Use cases

• TV & streaming analytics — build a TV shows dataset with genres, networks, premiere years and ratings, then chart trends in a BI tool.
• Recommendation engines & ML — bulk-ingest shows, genres, ratings and cast to train content-based or collaborative recommenders.
• EPG / what's-on apps — pull a country's daily TV schedule to power an electronic program guide or "what's on tonight" feature.
• Catalog enrichment — enrich your own media catalog with TVMaze metadata, posters, runtimes, networks and IMDb/TheTVDB cross-IDs via showDetails.
• Market & competitor research — track which networks air the most shows, benchmark a series' episode ratings, or monitor a genre's back catalog.
• AI agents & RAG — wrap the actor as a tool so an LLM can answer "what sci-fi shows air on the BBC?" or embed show summaries for retrieval.

How to use

1. Open the actor and pick a Mode.
2. Fill the fields that mode needs — the input form shows which apply:
   • showIndex: optionally set startPage and maxResults — that's it.
   • searchShows / people: set query (a show or person name).
   • showDetails / episodes / cast: set a numeric showId like 169 (showDetails also accepts a batch, plus embedCast).
   • schedule: set country (e.g. US) and optionally date (YYYY-MM-DD).
   • people (by ID): set personId or a batch of personIds.
3. Optionally set maxResults.
4. Run the actor and export results as CSV, JSON or Excel — or pull them via the Apify API.

Example — crawl the catalogue for a big TV shows dataset:

{
  "mode": "showIndex",
  "startPage": 0,
  "maxResults": 500
}

Example — every episode of a long-running series:

{
  "mode": "episodes",
  "showId": "83",
  "maxResults": 2000
}

Call it from your stack via the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items), the JavaScript/Python clients, or no-code tools like Make, n8n and Zapier.

FAQ

Do I need a TVMaze API key or account?

No. TVMaze offers a free, open REST API and this actor reads it directly. You only need an Apify account — no TVMaze API key, no OAuth, no login.

Is this a TVMaze API or a TV database API alternative?

Both, effectively. It works as a convenient wrapper over the TVMaze API and as a practical TV database API for teams who want structured JSON, ready-made CSV/Excel exports and dataset views without writing their own pagination and flattening.

How do I scrape TV episodes without an API key?

Pick episodes mode and set the numeric showId (for example 83 for a long-running animated series). The actor returns every episode with season and episode numbers, air dates, runtimes, per-episode ratings and summaries — no key or login required.

How do I get a TVMaze show ID or person ID?

A show ID is the integer in a TVMaze show URL (tvmaze.com/shows/169/... → 169). A person ID is the integer in a person URL (tvmaze.com/people/1/... → 1). Use searchShows or people search first to discover IDs, then feed them into showDetails, episodes, cast or people.

How do I export TV show data to CSV, JSON or Excel?

Run any mode and download the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel (XLSX), HTML, RSS or JSON Lines from the run page, or pull it via the Apify API. This makes it a simple TV show data export and TV dataset tool.

How do I get a TV schedule / what's-on-tonight API?

Use schedule mode with a country code (e.g. US, GB) and an optional date. A single US day returns well over 100 airings, each joined to its show (network, genres, rating) — perfect for an EPG or "what's on" feature.

How much data can the show index return?

showIndex paginates the entire TVMaze catalogue at 250 shows per page. A single run can pull thousands of shows in one dataset — just raise maxResults. It's the guaranteed high-volume mode and the default.

Does it cover cast and characters?

Yes. Use cast mode with a showId to get every cast member mapped to the character they play (with self/voice flags and photos), or set embedCast: true in showDetails to attach a compact cast list to each show.

Can I get IMDb and TheTVDB IDs too?

Yes. Every show row includes imdbId and thetvdbId cross-reference IDs from TVMaze's externals, so you can join TVMaze data to IMDb or TheTVDB datasets.

Support

Open an issue on the actor page for bugs, feature requests, or custom modifications. Responses typically within 24 hours.

📝 Changelog

2026-07-01

• Initial release: seven TVMaze modes (show index, search shows, show details, episodes, cast, schedule, people) over the open TVMaze REST API — no key, no browser.