Shows that are regularly broadcast directly as they happen, rather than prerecorded. Both Radio and Television were regularly broadcast live when those media were new, and as a consequence much of both early radio and early TV is lost. Quite a bit of radio programming is still broadcast live, while most of TV isn't, although sports and news are still live.
For the most part actually a few seconds behind, both for technical reasons (the signal only goes so fast) and legal ones (you need to be able to bleep things that offend the Moral Guardians)
If this only happens with select instances, it's a Live Episode.
For in-fiction examples of live broadcast, often when it makes no sense, see Always a Live Transmission.
Examples:
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Live-Action TV
- Saturday Night Live
- The National Lottery Live
- Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
- Big Brother Live
- American Idol (and other countries' versions).
- America's Got Talent (and other countries' versions).
- "New.Music.Live" on MuchMusic: a music video program which sometimes featured live performances in addition to interviews
- So You Think You Can Dance.
- Strictly Come Dancing - the main shows. Results shows are recorded after the live show for broadcast the following night.
- The Sunny Side Up Show
- What's My Line? (Most of the CBS episodes)
- Most early US Variety Shows, such as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour. The latter was the first show to be broadcast live from coast to coast in 1951.
- Most news broadcasts; they might have taped/filmed segments but the anchor is usually live, and often the segments are too.
- Most sports events.
- The 40th Anniversary episode of Coronation Street
- The remake of The Quatermass Experiment
- WWE Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro. The former went live after Eric Bischoff thought it would be a good idea for WCW to spoil their events, though this ended up leading into the Finger Poke of Doom.
- Late night talk shows (The Tonight Show et al) are generally broadcast live-to-tape; i.e., the show is recorded earlier in the day than its actual air time, but is brought to air without subsequent editing.
- 10 O'Clock Live a British news/satire show that, oddly enough, goes out at 10pm.
- Let Loose Live, a hilariously unfunny Australian sketch comedy show, pulled after two episodes.
- Playhouse 90 was a live theatre program during its first year, afterward switching to videotape.
- Probe's "Black Cats Don't Walk Under Ladders (Do They?)": Backstage for the Show Within a Show, The Marty Corrigan Show, Sabrina Stillwater challenges the Daytime Talk Show host to let her cast a hex on him while the whole country is watching him. It's a Ratings Stunt because they both need the publicity. Things go wrong when the hex actually kills Marty Corrigan.
Film
- The 2000 live broadcast of the remake of Fail Safe
Radio
- Lux Radio Theatre
- The 1938 Orson Welles program The Mercury Theatre on the Air, including the famous adaptation of The War of the Worlds.
- Emphasized frequently on The Brewing Network, as it allows people to ask questions of the guests either via the chat room or Skype, as well as making the overall experience more interactive than a pre-recorded podcast would be. At the beginning it was the main aspect used to sell the BN as being better than competing podcasts.
- Like above, the "Preston & Steve" show makes a point about how they're live and love the interaction they have with their fans.
- Up until the late 1940s, CBS and NBC had rules against airing recorded material on their networks, barring a few exceptions e.g. , making this an Enforced Trope for many old-time radio shows. Mutual, on the other hand, was much more permissive with recordings. ABC was the first U.S. radio network to air programs that were recorded and edited before broadcast starting with Bing Crosby's Philco Radio Time in 1946. CBS and NBC's "no recordings" rules were abolished by 1949.
Web Original
- In-Universe in The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air) the eponymous fictional radio variety show broadcasts live in front of a Studio Audience from a ballroom at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
- Casters & Castles is broadcast live on Twitch.
Web Video
- fishtank.live is a 24/7 broadcast similar to Big Brother, where eight contestants attempt to outlast one another within a Reality TV Show Mansion. All events shown are happening live.
