Longest Running TV Shows by Episode Count

The list of the world's longest-running television programs is dominated by daytime soap operas, daily religious or educational segments, and long-running animated series. Topping the list is Germany's Unser Sandmännchen, a stop-motion children's show that has aired daily since 1959 across multiple German networks, amassing over 22,200 episodes. Close behind are Guiding Light, which transitioned from radio to television to reach a combined total of 18,262 episodes, and India's agricultural program Krishi Darshan, which has served rural communities since 1967.

American soap operas like General Hospital and Days of Our Lives continue to grow their counts with daily broadcasts, both having surpassed the 15,000-episode milestone. International soaps also feature prominently, including the United Kingdom's Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as Australia's Neighbours and Home and Away. While variety shows, news programs, and game shows like The Price is Right often have high broadcast counts, they are typically excluded from episodic rankings in favor of scripted or segmented narrative content.

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb, soapcentral.com, Statista, BBC, ITV, and ABC.