Episode

For other uses, see Episode (disambiguation).

An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption.

Etymology

The noun episode is derived from the Greek term epeisodion (Ancient Greek: ἐπεισόδιον).^[1] It is abbreviated as ep (plural eps).

Taxonomy

An episode is also a narrative unit within a continuous larger dramatic work. It is frequently used to describe units of television or radio series that are broadcast separately in order to form one longer series.^[2] An episode is to a sequence as a chapter is to a book. Modern series episodes typically last 20 to 50 minutes in length.^[3]

Narrative sub-units

Narrative sub-units of episodes are called segments, bounded by interstitials, such as commercials (Radio advertisements and Television advertisements), continuity announcements, or other segments not direct continuations of the prior segment.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]}

Carpool Karaoke is a television show segment that is now a spin-off television series.^[14]

Stacking a show is a phrase newscast broadcasters use to describe putting segments together for a newscast episode.^[15]

Other contexts

The noun episode can also refer to a part of a subject, such as an "episode of life" or an "episode of drama".

See also

• Serial (radio and television)
• List of most-watched television episodes