🎬 TVMaze TV Shows Scraper

🚀 Search TV shows or browse the entire TVMaze catalog of 80,000+ titles.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-06 · 📊 35 fields per record · 80,000+ TV shows · poster, cast, episodes, IMDB/TheTVDB IDs, network, schedule, ratings

The TVMaze TV Shows Scraper searches TV-show metadata or browses the full TVMaze catalog of 80,000+ titles. Output includes name, poster, type, language, genres, status, runtime, network, country, premiere and end dates, IMDB/TheTVDB IDs, summary, and rating. Optional embeds add full episode lists, cast, and alternate-region titles.

Beyond search and browse, the Actor includes a Schedule mode that returns every episode airing on a given day in a given country, and a Streaming Schedule mode for web-only releases. Four modes in one Actor cover discovery, deep cataloging, and real-time TV scheduling.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Streaming app developers, TV recommendation engines, content marketers, journalists, TV researchers	Building TV discovery apps, recommendation engines, content marketing on shows, TV researcher workflows, data enrichment

---

📋 What the TVMaze TV Shows Scraper does

Five filtering workflows in a single run:

• 🔍 Search by name. Find shows by title (capped at 10 results per query).
• 📚 Browse mode. Paginate the entire 80,000+ TVMaze catalog.
• 📅 Schedule mode. Every episode airing on a date in a country.
• 🌐 Web schedule. Streaming-only releases per date.
• 🎭 Optional embeds. Episodes, cast, and AKAs per show.

💡 Why it matters: clean, server-side filtering removes the parser-and-pagination work from your team and keeps your dataset fresh on every run.

---

🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon: a 3-minute walkthrough showing how to go from sign-up to a downloaded dataset.

---

⚙️ Input

Input	Type	Default	Behavior
maxItems	integer	10	Records to return. Free plan caps at 10, paid plan up to 1,000,000.
mode	string	"search"	`search`, `browse`, `schedule`, `webSchedule`.
query	string	"breaking bad"	Show name (search mode).
scheduleCountry	string	"US"	ISO country code (schedule mode).
scheduleDate	string	""	YYYY-MM-DD (schedule mode). Empty = today.
browseStartPage	integer	0	Start page (browse mode, 250 shows/page).
includeEpisodes	boolean	false	Embed full episode list (extra API call).
includeCast	boolean	false	Embed cast list per show.
includeAkas	boolean	false	Embed alternate-region titles.

Example: search Breaking Bad with cast.

{
    "maxItems": 5,
    "mode": "search",
    "query": "breaking bad",
    "includeCast": true
}

Example: browse 1,000 shows from page 0.

{
    "maxItems": 1000,
    "mode": "browse",
    "browseStartPage": 0
}

---

📊 Output

Each record contains 35 fields. Download the dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

🧾 Schema

Field	Type	Example
🖼️ imageUrl	string	null
🆔 showId	number	169
📛 name	string	"Breaking Bad"
🏷️ type	string	"Scripted"
🌐 language	string	"English"
🏷️ genres	array	["Drama","Crime","Thriller"]
🟢 status	string	"Ended"
⏱️ runtime	number	null
📅 premiered	string	"2008-01-20"
📅 ended	string	null
🌐 networkName	string	"AMC"
🌍 country	string	"United States"
⭐ rating	number	9.2
🆔 imdb	string	"tt0903747"
🆔 thetvdb	number	81189
📝 summaryText	string	"A high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with..."

📦 Sample records

---

✨ Why choose this Actor

	Capability
📚	Full TVMaze catalog. 80,000+ shows including streaming-only and international titles.
📅	Schedule modes. Get every episode airing today, in any country, for any date.
🎭	Rich embeds. Episodes, cast, alternate titles in a single run.
🆔	Cross-platform IDs. IMDB and TheTVDB IDs included for joins.
⚡	Fast. 100 shows in under 30 seconds.

---

📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Cost	Coverage	Refresh	Filters	Setup
⭐ This Actor	$5 free credit	80,000+ shows	Live per run	mode, query, schedule, embeds	⚡ 2 min
TMDB API	Free + key	Larger movie + TV	Live	Yes	🐢 API key
OMDb (IMDB-based)	$15/year	Movie-leaning	Stale	Limited	🐢 Account
Custom HTTP scraping	Free	All	Live	DIY	🐢 Days

Pick this Actor when you want broad coverage, server-side filtering, and no pipeline maintenance.

---

🚀 How to use

1. 📝 Sign up. Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 Open the Actor. Go to the TVMaze TV Shows Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 Set input. Pick your filters and maxItems.
4. 🚀 Run it. Click Start and let the Actor collect your data.
5. 📥 Download. Grab your results in the Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded dataset: 3-5 minutes. No coding required.

---

💼 Business use cases

📺 Streaming Apps Catalog enrichment with posters and ratings Recommendation engine inputs Schedule grids and EPGs Cross-platform ID resolution	📰 Content Marketing TV-show roundups and "what's new" newsletters Curated genre lists Episode-airing alerts for fan sites Season-finale countdowns
🤖 Recommendation & ML Train similarity embeddings on cast and genres Build show-discovery models Cross-train with IMDB/TheTVDB joins Predict show longevity	🎬 TV Research Track network programming patterns Survey international TV Compile show metadata for research Period studies of TV trends

---

🔌 Automating TVMaze TV Shows Scraper

Control the scraper programmatically for scheduled runs and pipeline integrations:

• 🟢 Node.js. Install the apify-client NPM package.
• 🐍 Python. Use the apify-client PyPI package.
• 📚 See the Apify API documentation for full details.

The Apify Schedules feature lets you trigger this Actor on any cron interval. Hourly, daily, or weekly refreshes keep downstream databases in sync automatically.

---

🌟 Beyond business use cases

Data like this powers more than commercial workflows. The same structured records support research, education, civic projects, and personal initiatives.

🎓 Research and academia TV-studies research Cross-cultural programming research Reproducible catalog snapshots Course materials with show metadata	🎨 Personal and creative Personal watchlists and dashboards Side projects on TV data Newsletter content Hobbyist TV trackers
🤝 Non-profit and civic Public-broadcasting research Cultural-content cataloging Subtitle/translation projects Open metadata contributions	🧪 Experimentation Train show-recommender models Prototype EPG-aware agents Build genre classifiers Test discovery UI concepts

---

🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Open a ready-to-send prompt about this ParseForge actor in the AI of your choice:

• 💬 ChatGPT
• 🧠 Claude
• 🔍 Perplexity
• 🅒 Copilot

---

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🧩 How does it work?

Pick a mode (search, browse, schedule, webSchedule). The Actor queries TVMaze and emits one record per show, optionally embedding episodes/cast/AKAs.

🔍 Why does search cap at 10 results?

TVMaze's search endpoint limits any single query to ~10 results. For more, use browse mode (250 shows per page, paginated).

📊 How many fields per record?

Up to 35 base fields, plus optional embeds for episodes, cast, and alternate titles.

📅 What does schedule mode return?

Every episode airing on the given date in the given country, with the parent show metadata for each.

🌐 Does it include international shows?

Yes. TVMaze covers shows from 100+ countries, with original-language titles and AKA entries.

🔁 Can I schedule recurring runs?

Yes. Use Apify Schedules to track new shows, refresh ratings, or build daily EPGs.

⚖️ Is this data public?

Yes. TVMaze publishes its API under a permissive license. Only public catalog data is collected.

💳 Do I need a paid Apify plan?

No. The free plan covers preview runs. A paid plan unlocks higher item counts and scheduling.

🆘 What if a run fails?

Apify retries transient errors. Partial datasets are preserved.

🎭 Does it return cast photos?

Yes when includeCast is true. Cast records include personImage URLs.

---

🔌 Integrate with any app

TVMaze TV Shows Scraper connects to any cloud service via Apify integrations:

• Make - Automate multi-step workflows
• Zapier - Connect with 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get run notifications in your channels
• Airbyte - Pipe data into your warehouse
• GitHub - Trigger runs from commits and releases
• Google Drive - Export datasets straight to Sheets

You can also use webhooks to trigger downstream actions when a run finishes.

---

🔗 Recommended Actors

• 🎙️ iTunes Podcast Search - Apple Podcasts catalog (5M+ shows)
• 🎌 AniList Anime/Manga - Anime, manga, light novels
• 🎨 Openverse Media - 800M+ openly licensed images and audio
• 📰 Hacker News Search - Every HN story since 2007
• 🌐 Wikidata Entity Search - 100M+ open knowledge-graph entities

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection for more reference-data scrapers.

---

🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form to request a new scraper, propose a custom data project, or report an issue.

---

⚠️ Disclaimer: this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by TVMaze or any television network or production company. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Only publicly available open data is collected.