GET /search/shows

tvmaze.com:tvmaze-api

Summary: Search shows
Operation ID: searchShows
Auth: none

Search for TV shows by name. This is the primary way to find shows in the TVmaze database. Returns a list of matching shows with relevance scores and basic show metadata. Use this when you want to find shows matching a search term, rather than fetching a specific show by ID. Results include the show's name, language, genres, status, and a relevance score indicating match quality.

Original spec description

Search through all shows in the database by show name. Returns an array of shows ordered by relevance.

Usage Tips

- The 'q' parameter does partial matching on show names - Results are sorted by relevance, most relevant first - If you need the single best match, use /singlesearch/shows instead

Parameters (1)

q (string, query, required)

The search query string

Examples (6)

TitleTypeURLAction
Search TV shows openapi-spec https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=game of thrones
Search shows by name doc_extracted https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=stargate
Search shows (Arrow) doc_extracted https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=Arrow
Search shows (lost) doc_extracted https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=lost
Search shows openapi-spec https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=Breaking Bad
Search shows probe-gate https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=Breaking+Bad

Probe History

Latency

Status Codes

TimeStatusLatencySize
2026-03-23 10:42:26.184800 200 116ms
2026-03-23 10:32:13.015890 200 95ms
2026-03-23 09:34:21.156200 200 84ms
2026-03-23 09:20:48.111317 200 132ms
2026-03-23 09:11:52.249012 200 106ms
2026-03-22T09:42:55.431782 200 183ms

Response Changes

WhenOldNew
2026-03-23 09:11:52.249012 6a25b603e31d 72171783fecf
2026-03-23 09:20:48.111317 72171783fecf 979603286825
2026-03-23 09:34:21.156200 979603286825 d107481fd7fb
2026-03-23 10:32:13.015890 d107481fd7fb b1c271f4f679
2026-03-23 10:42:26.184800 b1c271f4f679 e7b0e04c5f83