An episode is a narrative unit within a larger
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
tic work or
documentary production, such as a
series intended for
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
,
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
or
streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
consumption.
The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning the material contained between two songs or
odes in a Greek
tragedy
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...
. It is abbreviated as ''
ep'' (''plural'' eps).
An episode is also a narrative unit within a ''continuous'' larger
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
tic work. It is frequently used to describe units of television or radio
series that are broadcast separately in order to form one longer series. An episode is to a sequence as a
chapter is to a
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
. Modern series episodes typically last 20 to 50 minutes in length.
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
*
List of most-watched television episodes
This page lists the television broadcasts which had the most viewers within individual countries, as measured by ratings and research agencies in those countries. The research methodology and choice of statistics varies between sources, and is ex ...
References
Ancient Greek theatre
Television terminology
{{Tv-stub