List of longest-running television shows by category

This is a list of the 25 longest-running television shows by category. The criterion for being the longest-running show is by the number of years the show has been on the air and not the number of episodes produced.

The Brazilian show Programa Silvio Santos is the longest-running television show of all time hosted by the same person.

Rank	Years	Category	Show name	Country	Duration	Channel/Network	hideEpisodes
1	77	Sports outside broadcast	The Championships, Wimbledon[1]	United Kingdom	1937,[2] 1939, 1946–present	BBC Television Service, BBC One/Two
2	76	Outside broadcast	Lord Mayor's Show	United Kingdom	1937–1938, 1946–present (not broadcast during WW2 1939–1945)[3]	BBC Television Service, BBC One
3	74	News show	Meet the Press	United States	1947–present	NBC	4,946+
4	73	Newscast	CBS Evening News	United States	1948–present	CBS	16,400+
5	72	Soap opera	Guiding Light	United States	1937-2009	NBC(1937-1946) CBS Radio(1946-1956) CBS(1952-2009)	18,262
		Religious program	Le Jour du Seigneur	France	1949–present	TF1 (1949-87) France 2 (since 1987)
6	69	Sports show	Hockey Night in Canada	Canada	1952–present	CBC, City/Sportsnet, CTV
7	68	Sports magazine show		Italy	1953–present	RAI	3318 (as of 10 May 2020)
		Music talent show	NHK Nodo Jiman	Japan	1953–present	NHK	2,900 (as of 2012)
		Current affairs series	Panorama	United Kingdom	1953–present	BBC One
8	67	Talk show	The Tonight Show	United States	1954–present
9	66	Song contest	Sanremo Music Festival	Italy	1955–present	RAI (radio broadcast since 1951, tv broadcast since 1955)
		Annual live international beauty pageant	Miss Universe	United States	1955–present	CBS, NBC, FOX	64
		Annual live national beauty pageant	Miss America	United States	1955–present	ABC, CBS, NBC	63
10	64	Science show	The Sky at Night	United Kingdom	1957–present	BBC One, BBC Four	804 (as of September 2020)
		Cooking show	Today's Cooking	Japan	1957–present	NHK
11	63	Historical drama	Zenigata Heiji	Japan	1958–present
		Children's show	Blue Peter	United Kingdom	1958–present	BBC One, CBBC	5,000 (as of 1 February 2018)
12	62	Animated	Sandmännchen	Germany	1959–present	Deutscher Fernsehfunk	22,200
13	61	Soap opera	Coronation Street	United Kingdom	1960–present	ITV	10000+
14	60	Comedy	KVN	Russia	1961–present	Channel One Russia, KVN TV
		TV feedback show	Points of View	United Kingdom	1961–present	BBC One, BBC Two
		Quiz show	It's Academic	United States	1961–present[4]
15	59	Medicine talk show	Trupi dhe Shëndeti	Albania	1962–present	RTSH	1000+
		Variety show	Sábado Gigante	Chile United States	1962–1986; Univision: 1986–2015	Canal 13	2,800+
16	58	Variety Show	Programa Silvio Santos	Brazil	1963–present	SBT	3000+
17	57	Music chart show	Top of the Pops	United Kingdom	1964–2006; Christmas shows only 2006–present	BBC One, BBC Two	2,219
18	56	Documentary	Teleenciclopedia	Romania	1965–present	TVR1	2500+
		Game show	Des chiffres et des lettres	France	1965–present	France 2 (1965-2006) France 3 (since 2006)	20,000 (as of October 2012)
19	55	Agriculture Information	Country Calendar	New Zealand	1966–present [5]	TVNZ 1	1,100+
		Children’s show (preschool)	Play School	Australia	1966–present	Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)	4,500+
20	54	Agriculture Information	Krishi Darshan[6]	India	1967-present	DD National DD Kisan	16,780+
21	52	Anime for kids	Sazae-san	Japan	1969–present	Fuji Television	2,500+[7]
22	51	Police procedural	Tatort	Germany	1970–present	Das Erste	1,136 (as of 6 September 2020)[8]
23	49	Sketch comedy show	Sábados Felices	Colombia	1972–present
		Charity show	The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon	United States	1966–2014	Various	48
		Sports variety	Grandstand	United Kingdom	1958–2007	BBC One, BBC Two	3500
24	47	Film review	Film	United Kingdom	1971–2018	BBC One
25	45	Satire	Extra 3	Germany	1976–present	Das Erste

See also[]

• List of longest-running United States television series
• List of longest-running UK television programmes
• List of longest-running Australian television series
• List of longest-running Philippine television series
• List of longest-running U.S. cable television series
• List of longest-running U.S. primetime television series
• List of longest-running U.S. first-run syndicated television series
• List of television series canceled after one episode
• List of television programs by episode count

References[]