MacMost Now 47: Finding Full Episode TV Shows for Free

Gary Rosenzweig looks at the Web sites where you can find full episodes of new television shows that you can watch for free on your Mac. Check the post at MacMost.com for a list of links.

Video Transcript: Hi this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost Now. Now you know your Mac can almost completely replace your TV at this point. I mean it's got a DVD player in it, and you can go and download and rent movies and TV shows at Itunes. You can also go to places like YouTube and subscribe to video podcasts and see lots of other content. But did you also know that you can go to a lot of the networks' home pages and watch full episodes of some of their best TV shows. Let's go and take a look. There's going to be a lot of links here, so instead of putting them in the video, I'm actually going to put them in the post at MacMost.com. So just go there to click on the links and find them all. Now let's start with ABC. ABC has a lot of shows online, and this should be no surprise, since ABC is owned by Disney, and the largest shareholder in Disney is of course Steve Jobs. So you go click on the full episodes link and you get to a full episode player, and they've got lots of shows including all of the episodes of Lost from all of the different seasons, some oldies, and some current shows that are really popular. Next up is NBC. Now NBC gained some headlines in the Mac world this year when they pulled their shows from Itunes, but you can still watch a lot of them for free online. There's just a list right here on the front page, so for instance you can watch full episodes of 30Rock. CBS is next. CBS only has a few shows online. You scroll down the page and you can click on and watch full episodes here and it will open up a video player. Now, the video player has one neat feature the others don't have, it has a boss button. So if you're in the middle of watching an episode of CSI or Big Bang Theory, you can simply click this button very quickly, and it will look like you're sending an e-mail, although it looks like you're sending an e-mail from a PC. Not to be left out, FOX also has shows online. There's a link right at the top of the FOX page. Click on that, and it will take you to a player that includes lots of different shows, including The Simpsons and Bones. So you just click on one of these and you'll get to watch it. Well the last major network is the CW, and you can watch full episodes there as well. There's a link on the front page and there's a small number of shows, none of which I've ever heard of, that actually are right here. Now it's not all about the major networks. A lot of cable channels also have some full episodes online. Let's take a look at those. At the moment, the Discovery Channel only has a small selection of full episode shows online. For kids, there's the Disney Channel. Click on the TV section of the Disney site, you go to the Disney Channel homepage, and from there you can watch some full episodes of few programs, there's only a few available, things like Hannah Montana and Kim Possible. You'd think the SciFi network would have everything online, but they only have a few episodes, but it is some of the best shows on their network, such as Battlestar Galatica and Eureka. Now between cable TV and the big networks is PBS, and PBS of course hosts Nova, great documentary series and all of their most recent episodes are available as full episodes online as well. Now you find that most of these videos online have advertisements around them and sometimes commercials in them, sometimes cleverly put in as part of the flash player. Well, it's still less commercials than what you get on regular TV, and of course you get to watch it on demand. Matter of fact there's enough out there that you can get rid of your TV completely and still find plenty to watch every single night of the week. Now most of these players are in flash, but you may need something additional to watch some shows in some sites. You want to go to flip4mac.com. What flip4mac is is a free plug-in for Quicktime that allows you to play wmv, windows media files, inside of Quicktime. There's some websites that still use wmv for their shows, and this will allow you to see them even on a Mac. Until next time, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost Now.

To find the full episodes of TV shows, follow this links:
ABC
Go to http://abc.go.com and click on the Full Episodes button at the top left. Then select a show from the left.
Shows include: Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Lost, Pushing Daisies and Ugly Betty.
NBC
Go to http://www.nbc.com/ and look for the list of shows titled “Watch Video Online Now” in the middle. Look for the shows with the “Full Episodes” icon in the list. Select a show and then you can view a list of episodes.
Shows include: 30 Rock, Chuck, Celebrity Apprentice, Heroes, Medium, My Name Is Earl and The Office.
CBS
Go to http://www.cbs.com/, scroll down and look for the Watch Full Episodes link in the midle of the page. That will open a new window.
Shows include: Big Band Theory, CSI, Rules of Engagement, Survivor amd How I Met Your Mother.
FOX
Go to http://fox.com/home.htm amd click on the Watch Full Episodes Online link at the top. THe next page will allow you to choose the show.
Shows include: House, Family Guy, Bones, The Simpsons, MadTV and King of the Hill.
CW
Go to http://cwtv.com/ and click on the Full Episodes link at the upper right. Then pick your show from the interface to thr right.
Shows include: Bad News Blair, Let’s Get Girlicious, America’s Next Top Model and Mystery Spot.
Discovery Channel
Go to http://video.discovery.com/ and click the bug Launch the Player button. This will bring up a full-screen window that lets you select a show.
Shows include: Flip That House, Smash Lab, and Dirty Jobs.
Disney Channel
Go to http://disney.go.com and click on the TV tab. Then click on the Watch Full Length Episodes button which will launch the player. You can then select a show.
Shows Include: Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and Kim Possible.
SciFi Network
Go to http://www.scifi.com/ and click on the Video tab. Scroll down and look for the Full Episodes column.
Shows include: Battlestar Galactica, Ghost Hunters International, and Eureka.
PBS, Nova
Go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/programs/
If you know of another network that also has full episodes online, be sure to mention it as a comment!

Comments: 11 Responses to “MacMost Now 47: Finding Full Episode TV Shows for Free”

Ian

16 years ago

Hello! I thought this is fantastic so I've just spent ten minutes trying to find a show to watch, unfortunately none of them can be watched by people outside of the U.S.

In the UK, Channel 4 has 4OD (www.channel4.com/4od) and programmes can be downloaded... if you're on a PC. There is also the highly controversial BBC iPlayer, which despite Mac users also paying the licence fee and it having an "i" in front, it has only just recently become Mac compatible, and Mac users still can't download programmes like Windows XP users can (but not Vista).

Oh to be an American!

Nevermind, I can stream Doctor Who and Two Pints while Americans have to wait months!

Piotr

Does these "full episodes" play on the iPhone?
Thanks

rosenz

No, these are all Flash Web-based players. They don't play on the iPhone because the iPhone doesn't support Flash.

machoo

however, NBC has full episodes of the office and 30 rock on their mobile site (a.k.a, for iphone)

Kieth Kleeb

14 years ago

anyhow have more details on this ?

joshr

Sure everybody knows by now but just for the sake of due diligence,
http://www.hulu.com

All kinds of episodes and a good way to discover newer website channels.

STEVE

In response to Ian above, I live in Poland and watch US shows by using a VPN account, which masks your IP into a US one. It works for all of them except the SciFi Network, but as joshr rightly says you can watch all the shows on HULU.
This VPN also has the option of switching to a UK IP so I get all the UK TV as well with Zattoo, along with all the catchup services.

15 years ago

hey steve, can you tell me which VPN you are using? I live outside the US and have tried a couple of different VPN's but the speed is too slow for smooth streaming. thx

Jeffrey Ostermiller

13 years ago

Great article. Saved each link to my TV folder. Looking forward to exploring all that online TV content has to offer. Thanks!

Leslie

I am unable to view full episodes from CBS site. I have a black screen with red writing "The video you requested is either unavailable or is being blocked by an ad blocker installed in your browser." I turned off the ad blocker and get the same message. Any ideas? Thanks!

Gary Rosenzweig

Maybe try uninstalling the adblocker completely and restarting your browser or Mac. Maybe there is a content blocker on your router or ISP? Maybe you need to reinstall the latest version of Flash. Try that first.

Comments Closed.

MacMost Now 47: Finding Full Episode TV Shows for Free

Comments: 11 Responses to “MacMost Now 47: Finding Full Episode TV Shows for Free”

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