How to keep track of the TV shows you've watched
Keep one list with three piles: what you're watching now, what's up next and what you've finished. For anything you're in the middle of, note the season and the next episode, and tick episodes off as you watch them. When you finish a show, or give up on it, log it with a rating and a line, the way you would a film.
Why is TV harder to track than films?
A film is one sitting. A series can take months, spread across seasons that come out a year apart, often on different services. You watch three episodes, a busy fortnight goes by, and when you come back you can't remember whether you saw episode five or only the start of it.
So a TV log has two jobs. It keeps your place in the shows you're watching now, and it keeps a record of the ones you've finished. Most people need a little of each.
What should you note for each show?
- The title and the season you're on.
- The next episode to watch, not the last one you saw. It saves a moment of doubt every time.
- The date you finished, or gave up.
- A rating for the show, or for each season if it changed a lot.
- One line: a character, the episode you'd send a friend to, why you stopped.
You don't need to rate every episode. Mention the standouts in your line, and save the rating for when you can judge the whole thing.
How do you keep your place, episode by episode?
Update the next episode as soon as the credits roll, before autoplay decides for you. It takes a few seconds, and it's the habit that makes everything else work.
Keep the "now" pile short. Three or four shows on the go is plenty. Anything you haven't touched in a month goes back to "up next", so the list you see is the list you're really watching.
For shows between seasons, log the season you finished and move the show to "up next". When the new season lands, it's there waiting for you.
How do you keep track of shows you've already watched?
You won't remember every show from the last ten years, and you don't need to. A few places help:
Your streaming history. Most services keep a list of what you've watched in your account settings, sometimes going back years.
Your old tracker. If you used another app, look for an export before you leave it, and keep the file even if you're not sure what you'll do with it yet.
Your favourites. Start with the shows you'd recommend without thinking. Leave the dates off if you don't know them: an undated entry is better than a made-up one.
Films work the same way, and the film diary guide covers them.
What happened to TV Time?
TV Time, one of the most popular show trackers, shut down on 15 July 2026. Before it closed, users could request an export of their data. New exports can't be made now, but a file you saved before then still holds your watch history, so keep it somewhere safe, with a backup.
If you're looking for a TV Time alternative, check three things first: that it tracks the next episode, not just whole shows; whether it can read your export, if you have one; and whether it covers the other things you watch, or only TV. Serializd is built around TV, and Trakt tracks both TV and films. There's a wider round-up in Is there a Letterboxd for books, music and TV?
What about shows you gave up on?
Log them, with the season and episode where you stopped and a word on why. A list of dropped shows is more useful than it sounds. It stops you starting the same show a third time, and when a friend swears it gets good in season two, you'll know exactly where you'd be picking up.
Where does artsvibe fit?
artsvibe treats series as one of five types, next to films, albums, books and gigs. On your shelf, a show in the Now pile shows the next episode, and you check each one in as you watch. When you finish, you log the show like anything else, with a half-star rating, a line and the date, and it lands in your diary on that day.
It can't read a TV Time export, so if you're moving over, start with the shows you loved and log forward from there. The FAQ covers the rest, and one app for everything looks at when a single log suits you better than a dedicated TV tracker.