Television Facts

A famous comparison claims radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users, television took 13 years, and the World Wide Web just 4 years—though these widely-cited numbers from a Morgan Stanley report lack precise methodology, they illustrate a real trend of accelerating technology adoption.

One in every 6 Americans has appeared on television at some point in their lives.

The first video aired on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles in 1981.

Judge Judy makes $45 million a year.

Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister.

The first programme shown on BBC2 was Play School

The Queen's Christmas speech was first televised in 1957.

Blue Peter pet, Petra the mongrel puppy, died two days after being introduced. A replacement was found.

The Simpsons are responsible for popularizing the word 'meh'.

It costs around 2.75 million dollars to make an episode of The Walking Dead, and it pulls in 11 million in commercial revenues for a profit of 8 million an episode

A TV reporter in the Philippines brought her puppy to the studio because no one was home to watch him. During the live broadcast of TV Patrol Southern Mindanao, she kept the sleeping puppy hidden at her feet — with only her upper half visible on camera. Behind-the-scenes photos later surfaced and went viral, showing the little golden pup curled up on the studio floor while she delivered the news without missing a beat.

Michael Larson was an unemployed ice cream truck driver who recorded episodes of Press Your Luck on his VCR and played them back frame by frame. He discovered the "random" game board only had 5 repeating patterns. He memorized them all. On the show, he hit 45 consecutive winning spins without a single Whammy and walked away with $110,237. CBS investigated and couldn't do a thing.

Australian Today show host Karl Stefanovic wore the exact same blue suit on air every single day for a year. Not a single viewer, colleague, or critic said a word. Meanwhile, his female co-host Lisa Wilkinson was criticized for her outfits daily. When he finally revealed the experiment, Stefanovic said: "I'm judged on my interviews. Women are judged on what they're wearing."