The Longest Running TV Shows In History

The 21st century has brought with it many shifts in the landscape of television as a medium. The rise of streaming has meant that broadcast networks have suffered declining ratings, and the age of "Peak TV" means that there are more shows to watch across various platforms than ever before. That has several implications, but one of the most prominent is that shows simply don't last as long as they used to.

That's not true across the board, but in many cases these days, five seasons of a series is considered a good run. In the past, a show could easily run for ten years and still press on into a second decade. Even then, though, it was still rare for even the biggest hits to make it all the way to the 20-year milestone. These are the shows that beat the odds. From scripted series that managed to log more than 30 seasons to talk shows that have persisted longer than some human lifespans, these are the longest-running TV series of all time (mostly) in the United States.

One of the great things about Dick Wolf's Law & Order franchise, from a network executive's perspective, is the potential for endless adaptation. The basic concept of the original show — episodes generally devoting half of their time to the cops and half to the prosecutors — meant that any number of stories could be told within its framework, and if an actor grew tired of the TV grind they could simply be replaced by another character within that same framework. In that spirit, the first Law & Order spin-off, Special Victims Unit, arrived in 1999, and has since become a TV powerhouse even bigger than the original show.

In September of 2019, SVU, a show focusing on the investigators who tackle "sexually based offenses," debuted its 21st season, and in the process surpassed Gunsmoke to become the longest-running live-action primetime scripted series in U.S. history. And SVU is still not done — it's already been renewed for three more seasons, which means if everything holds together, the show will rack up at least a three-season lead in the record books. Even with that in mind, though, it'll probably never catch The Simpsons.

There was a point in TV history when it really started to feel like Law & Order would never go off the air. The Dick Wolf-produced crime procedural series premiered in the fall of 1990 and, by the end of the decade, had become a revered TV institution that managed to keep going thanks to a malleable formula and a revolving door of stars in both lead and guest roles. It was a show that seemed custom built for a long life, as evidenced by the many spin-offs and international adaptations of the series that made it into a media franchise.

A season 1 episode of Law & Order doesn't look like a season 10 episode, and a season 10 episode doesn't look like a season 15 episode. Despite the show's evolution, though, something about the format of the series made it a reliable, even comforting presence for many fans both in terms of new episodes and constant syndication, and by the late 2000s the show seemed poised to break Gunsmoke's record for longest-running live-action primetime series in the United States. Then word came down in the spring of 2010 that season 20 would be its last, and Law & Order wrapped up its run in a tie with the legendary Western series, only to have both shows be overtaken by Law & Order spin-off Special Victims Unit a few years later.

For a little while there, it seemed like Family Guy was destined to be an animation cult classic rather than a pop culture juggernaut that just keeps going with no end in sight. Seth MacFarlane's story of a loudmouth New England dad and his family of wacky characters first premiered in January of 1999. It ran on FOX for three seasons before a rather unceremonious cancellation in the spring of 2002.

For a while, it seemed like that might be it, but then Adult Swim came along. Cartoon Network's late night programming block picked up the series for reruns, and the show's brand of absurd cutaway humor drove it to become a ratings hit in syndication. After a couple of years on the bench, Family Guy returned to FOX with new episodes in 2005, and the show has never looked back. It's spawned a merchandising empire, launched one spin-off, and made MacFarlane one of the most powerful people in TV comedy. It's also still on the air — the 18th season of the series began in the fall of 2019.

Doctor Who is not mentioned in the rankings of longest-running U.S. TV series, because it's not produced in the U.S. — and because until fairly recently new episodes of the show didn't even air in the U.S. When you're talking about the longest-running shows of all-time, though, Who demands to be part of the conversation, because it's a classic case of a show beating the odds.

The series began all the way back in 1963 as a BBC program aimed at children through a mixture of sci-fi adventure and education. When it became clear that original star William Hartnell couldn't continue in the role, the show built in the idea of "regeneration," meaning new actors could step in as the show's hero, The Doctor, changed their face. The show went through seven Doctors across 26 seasons before its cancellation in 1989, but Doctor Who never died. The franchise continued through books, audio dramas, and even a TV movie in 1996. In 2005, the BBC finally gave it a chance to return to primetime. Since then, Doctor Who has added 12 new seasons and several movie-length specials to its run, bringing its total up to nearly 40 seasons across nearly 60 years.

There are some shows that feel unique in the TV landscape in part because, to some viewers, they seem like the kinds of things that should have disappeared years ago. Saturday Night Live is not the only sketch comedy series around, as illustrated by various Comedy Central hits and the one-time popularity of MADtv. It's not the only show to mix comedy and music, as late night hosts do that all the time during the week. What's become increasingly clear over the show's very long life, though, is that that Saturday Night Live is the only show that seems capable of doing what it does for as long as it's done it.

Lorne Michaels' sketch series arrived in 1975 as a place to do a kind of timely, edgy comedy that no one else on television was really practicing at the time. Since then, SNL has evolved from a rebel show to an establishment one, but its pop culture footprint continues. Hosting or serving as a musical guest on the series remains a lifelong dream for many entertainers, and the show's cast continues to produce comedy stars. In 2019 SNL began its 45th season, with no sign of slowing down.

Though formats, faces, and equipment have changed drastically over the decades, there are a few TV show concepts that have lasted since pretty much the inception of television as a medium, right up until today. One is the news show (Meet the Press remains the longest-running TV institution in history), and another is talk shows. The idea of a late night talk program makes perfect sense if you're a budding TV network — get one set, a charming host, and invite a bevy of celebrity guests into the living rooms of America. It worked in the 1950s, and it still makes sense today.

While a great many of our modern late night TV institutions, including The Late Show on CBS and Late Night on NBC, weren't conceived until the 1990s, The Tonight Show is a TV icon with a history dating back to the '50s. The show launched in 1954 with Steve Allen as the original host. Allen was replaced by Jack Parr, who led the show into the 1960s, and then the most famous era of The Tonight Show began with the arrival of Johnny Carson in 1962. Carson hosted the show for 30 years, becoming an American icon in the process, before handing it off to Jay Leno. After Leno came Conan O'Brien, then a short second tenure for Leno again, before the show landed with current host Jimmy Fallon. Fallon is now steering The Tonight Show as its approaches its 70th anniversary with more than 12,000 total episodes.