TV Guide (magazine)

TV Guide is an American biweekly magazine that provides television program listings information as well as television-related news, celebrity interviews and gossip, film reviews, crossword puzzles, and, in some issues, horoscopes. The print magazine's operating company, TV Guide Magazine LLC, is owned by NTVB Media since 2015. The magazine was spun off from TV Guide in 2008 by then-owner Macrovision to OpenGate Capital for $1 and a $9.5 million loan.

TV Guide Magazine has a license to use the TV Guide name and distinctive red and white logo in print publications only; it is prohibited from using the branding or logo online. While the TV Guide trademark and other intellectual property is owned by Fandom, Inc., the TV Guide name and editorial content from the magazine are licensed by Fandom for use on the magazine's promotional website and mobile app.

The prototype of what would become TV Guide magazine was developed by Lee Wagner (1910–1993), who was the circulation director of MacFadden Publications in New York City in the 1930s – and later, by the time of the predecessor publication's creation, for Cowles Media Company – distributing magazines focusing on movie celebrities.

In 1948, he printed New York City area listings magazine The TeleVision Guide, which was first released on local newsstands on June 14 of that year. Silent film star Gloria Swanson, who then starred of the short-lived variety series The Gloria Swanson Hour, appeared on the cover of the first issue. Wagner later began publishing regional editions of The TeleVision Guide for New England and the Baltimore–Washington area. Five years later, he sold the editions to Walter Annenberg, who folded it into his publishing and broadcasting company Triangle Publications, but remained as a consultant for the magazine until 1963.

The first national issue of TV Guide was released on April 3, 1953, with a circulation of 1,560,000 copies in ten U.S. cities. The inaugural cover featured a photograph of Lucille Ball's newborn son, Desi Arnaz, Jr., with a smaller inset photo of Ball in the corner under the headline: "Lucy's $50,000,000 baby". The magazine was printed in digest size, a format it kept for 52 years. From its debut until July 2–8, 1954, listings ran Friday through Thursday. The July 9–16 issue ran Friday through Friday. Beginning July 17–23, 1954, issues ran Saturday through Friday, a format kept until April 2004.^{[citation needed]}

TV Guide grew out of Triangle Publications’ purchase of several local listings magazines, including TV Forecast (first published May 9, 1948, in Chicago, the first continuously published television listings magazine), TV Digest (in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, originally called The Local Televiser), and the New York-based Television Guide (renamed TV Guide on March 18, 1950). Each of these cities became part of TV Guide's initial rollout.

The launch was an immediate success, but circulation soon declined even as the magazine expanded to Pittsburgh, Rochester, Detroit, Cleveland and San Francisco. By mid-August 1953, sales had fallen 200,000 below the first issue. The September 4–10, 1953, "Fall Preview" issue reversed the trend, selling 1,746,327 copies. Circulation then grew steadily, and by the 1960s TV Guide was the most widely read magazine in the United States. The cover price was 15¢ (equivalent to $1.76 in 2024; by as of 2014^[update], it was $4.99). In addition to subscriptions, TV Guide was sold in grocery store checkout lanes nationwide. Until the 1980s, feature stories were also advertised in television commercials. Under Triangle, TV Guide became recognized as the leading authority on television, publishing articles—most in the color section—by staff and contributing writers.

The TV Guide logo evolved with the television screen itself. It shifted to a widescreen style in September 2003 and a flatscreen style in September 2016. Slightly different versions are used for the magazine and for the CBS-managed digital properties. Early logos had backgrounds in various colors until the red background became standard in the 1960s, though special editions sometimes varied.