TV Guide: Streaming & Live TV Reviews

The update has changed and taken away features and options in an attempt to streamline, but has really just made everything less usable. Looking at listings, it’s harder to read the times and see the lines indicating time slots. The watchlist now displays the upcoming shows airing in a slideshow that you have to manually scroll through and does not list the times or other airings of the show, even if you tap on it. It used to be you could read a list of upcoming shows at a glance organized by day, now it’s clearly meant to be a flashy design choice. I even sent an email asking about this feature and received no response, even though it’s been over a week. I can’t adjust the settings much anymore either, for example, choosing a different start page. You can set your streaming apps, which would be nice if there was any purpose to it. Some people have said they are included in the Discover section, but I have yet to see anything related to it. Streaming shows should have their own section to begin with. Overall a pointless update that removed the features and elements that were most useful.
Update: to find the airings of a show in your Watchlist, you have to tap on the show, scroll down to “Where to watch” then tap on “More.” I shouldn’t have to take three steps to view information that used to be available at a glance or just one step

I had more or less happily used TVGuide for years, which I would have rated four stars until the recent rewrite. Why rebuild an app from the ground up when it was already working quite well? All I can imagine is the overhaul being called for by upper management and handed off to people who have never before written a software specification, then developed by a contractor, without user input, without usability testing, who, when “finished”, simply dumped it off, took their money and ran. The low-level project managers can now report, “There, fixed it!” and move on to their next task. I don’t mean to impinge the integrity of anyone involved; I’m just guessing—you know how this works, don’t you?—they didn’t have the direction, resources or skills to pull off this project, whatever it was meant to accomplish (unless it was meant to drive users away). I mean, can’t you even see that the details screen of a program that’s showing *today* says it played YESTERDAY?

I’m not going to list all that’s broken about this new version (that’s what usability testing is for!) But … if TV Guide really wants to fix this thing, they can simply reinstate the old app. …

I’ve now switched to the 5-star TV Listings Plus app instead of the new, dysfunctional, TV Guide app. TV Listings Plus incorporates all (and even more!) of the functionality of the old, properly functioning, TV Guide app.

Update(April 6, 2021): The listing are back! They’re actually better than before. Easier to read and access information. You can set preferences so it launches straight in to the listings at the current time. More clearly organized descriptions and information about the shows/movies when you select them. Thanks for listening and bringing back the features that matter most. Now it is a true TV Guide again. Even supports 24 hour clock.

Previous Review: Wow! They had an okay app for checking television listings. Then, one update and it is all gone. I thought I had opened the wrong application. Need to find another app. So much for “TV Guide”? Who would even think what they just did was a good idea? Now Useless. Uninstalling. (Cannot rate this with no stars. Don’t want to give it one. It isn’t even the same app!)

I’ve submitted an “unsubscribe” request to TV Guide almost every day for two months, generally three or four times per day, yet this email continues to spam me every day despite these repeated attempts to discontinue receiving something I no longer wish to receive. Every other “unsubscribe” I’ve ever submitted has always honored my request, but not TV Guide. I generally do not make assumptions, but after nearly two months of pushing the “unsubscribe” item at the bottom of the page and receiving the notice I’ve been “unsubscribed” with a caveat it will take at least twenty four hours to stop receding my preferences, I can’t help but wonder if their staff doesn’t care, can’t read, or they can’t tell the difference between 24 hours and 24 YEARS.

I don’t know about this, but it also begs the question if TV Guide has moved their support operation out of the USA and hires foreigners instead of providing jobs for American citizens who purchase their product(s) as so many other big corporations have. If this is true, and I’m not saying it is, perhaps there is a translation, language, cultural, or some other issue. Regardless, they have a support or technical issue that needs to be fixed.

I would say to anyone thinking about using TVGuide, think again if you don’t want to receive this email for the rest of your life because you canNOT unsubscribe.

Initially I was upset and confused by the new update, deleted it and reinstalled it after I couldn’t find another TV App with features I wanted. Once I took the time to maneuver my way around the new site, instead of complaining about it, and made sure my favorites and Watchlist were still there, I really began to like it. It was helpful to read the FAQ’s also. I selected my satellite cable Provider (Direct TV), and my most watched channels which are saved to favorites with the red heart. The channel numbers and channel logo are on the left. All my favorites appear at the top of the page. My Watchlist programs are still shown after the update, and those with new episodes are marked New. I can also search a specific program in my Watchlist to see future dates it will be on TV. I still have the push notifications, which is good to remind me which programs in my Watchlist are coming on, and it’s convenient to see which of my Watchlist programs are airing or streaming. I have happily used and enjoyed the TV Guide App on my iPad for several years, and glad it’s back!

I would give this new app zero stars, but that choice is not available. SOME OF THE NEW PROBLEMS WITH THIS NEW APP that the old app didn’t have: Individual listings no longer have program descriptions, so one has to blindly select a show without knowing what that particular episode is about and the fact that they’re labeled NEW is not always true ‘cause many have often aired before. When you click on a daily listing, you’re taken to a page with NO program details, but with “latest programs” listings which often include shows that have aired DECADES ago and have no relation to the present. Also, current listings under “SEE ALL” are often listed/dated as airing the day before, even though one arrives at this page directly from the present-day listings page. ALSO, There is no home page or account page where one would adjust, edit, revise one’s personal or provider information . ALSO, the Spanish-language Univision listing (Miami Channel 29/WLTV, Comcast Channel 9), has been erased and labeled as “no longer broadcasting”, which is incorrect. This is the country’s largest, most important national Hispanic network AND IT HAS NEVER GONE OFF THE AIR. I can’t imagine why TV Guide has allowed all these errors to continue. If they’re not corrected soon, you’re going to lose many viewers. PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THIS!

Final edit: After deleting and reinstalling all day, FINALLY it picks up my location. But now my account no longer exists - but funnily enough, when I try to sign up anew it tells me my account already exists. Finally start from scratch with a new made-up email and what do I immediately notice? THE GRID IS STILL OFF BY AN HOUR. I have finally decided TVGuide is just a phenomenal piece of junk. There’s a reason it has only a few stars average rating. Sadly, I liked it because I don’t watch enough TV to remember when the few shows I watch come on and really made use of the reminders feature. But I also don’t watch enough TV to fool with such a piece of crap app. Deleting for good!
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Despite there having been no update, suddenly my grid and all my alerts were off by an hour. I made sure my provider had not been changed, but I couldn’t even pull it up as TVGuide said there were no providers, despite the fact that I live in the heart of one of the largest metropolitan areas in the US. So I deleted TVGuide , cycled my phone, and reinstalled TVGuide . It STILL says there are no providers in the area and will not go past that screen. I am stuck, cannot go any further. My previous rating was only 3 stars so I never thought it was a great app but now it’s a virtual paperweight on my home screen.

I love that I can jump directly to the day and time I want and see a star next to my watchlist shows and the word new indicating new episodes. It’s great to be able to follow actors and get notifications whenever something they starred in is on. The notifications 15 mins before a show airs are perfect for me. I read these reviews and can’t believe them! It’s a free app so totally understandable that revenue has to come from somewhere. I’m perfectly happy to scroll past a few ads if that’s what it takes to keep it free. I’ve used TVGuide everyday for well over a year, haven’t had a single pop up ad nor have I had any loud ads. As far as the other complaints, they’re all user error, not the apps fault! Duh if you don’t want to get a notification for every single episode then set it for “new episodes only”. All of them were like that. If I can sort out how to use the many convenient features and tailor it to fit my needs, everyone should be able to.

I have used the TV guide app for years on my iPad mini 2 which runs iOS 12.5.1 and is not upgradeable to iOS 13. There are lots of us out here with perfectly good iOS devices that cannot be upgraded to iOS 13.

Yesterday when I opened TVGuide a pop up appeared saying the new app is here and directed me to TVGuide store with an update now link. There was no option to not update. So I updated, followed by a message that said I needed iOS 13. But TVGuide no longer started at all so I deleted it. Back in TVGuide Store a message said TVGuide was compatible with this iPad, but when I started the download it said it wasn’t and gave me the option to download the most recent compatible version. I did that and TVGuide started, but now you can return to the top of this comment and read it again. My only option is to update which I’ve already learned doesn’t work. And even when it was working I could not sign in so I didn’t have access to my favorites listings.

Today TVGuide Store tells me immediately that I must upgrade to iOS 13. Not even an option for those of us with older devices. It’s not clear to me why TV Guide would knowingly choose to reduce their customer base.

You have made what USED to be an easy to use and useful app into an unusable mess. Same complaints as many other reviewers, the primary issue for me are 1) the inability to easily search for a show and 2) once located, the inability to just tap the listing to learn about the specific episode.
Tried to find out what time the Golden Globe Awards were on, I got 20 listings for various shows about the Golden Globes (pre-show , post-show, fashion wrap ups) from 2003-present, even Joan & Melissa Rivers shows...and Joan Rivers has been dead since 2014. But no listing for tonight’s show. I finally gave up after searching four different ways with no success.
Tried to find out the guests/topics on an episode of CBS Sunday Morning, and initially just got a generic description that it provides news and features on multiple subjects. When I clicked today’s show, I got one sentence lifted out of the initial generic description, and still no specifics about the episode. This is typical of the show descriptions.
The guide accessed on my TV has all sorts of specific information about the topics and guests and episodes. TVGuide USED to have that information and was easy searchable as well. It’s basically useless now.

I’ve had TVGuide for years and loved it. I loved the watchlist I could set where a star displayed by those shows we liked. I could see where our favorites were at a glance on the listings. Now the watchlist is giving me banners on my Lock Screen as a reminder 30 minutes prior to the show (not helpful). At least I think what’s what I’m seeing. I also used to LOVE the personalized alerts I could set. I had some favorite shows that were at random/obscure/changing times. This alert would give me an audio signal 5-10 minutes in advance (my choosing) that they were coming on. Great help! Now since the big update, my favorites don’t have stars on the listing, and the alerts I had set have completely disappeared!!! Even sometimes I pull TVGuide up and the “listings” don’t even show up in the lower bar. I have to close it and open again, hoping they show. Please bring back those features I loved. I hope this is just some bugs that need worked out. In the meantime, I will try some other apps. (I use this solely for antennae tv.)

The main feature I used the previous version was for listings for OTC. I made specific use of the Listings features in using it only to see what I had as a Favorite & not list extra channels from outside the Cleveland & Greater NE Ohio broadcast area. With the new format, I’m now seeing networks that aren’t even remotely close. I also HATE the monster long listings because they include streaming media that I don’t want to clutter my reading but have no way to remove them. If I had known that these were the “improvements”, I’d never had updated TVGuide . This newest version strips too much user controlled functionality that were of extreme usefulness in the previous release. TV Guide has once again reaffirmed my belief in several famous Murphy’s Laws: “Every solution breeds new problems.”; “If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.”; “Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will use it.”; and finally, the most important... “If you fool around with a thing for very long you will screw it up.”. In the latter, TV Guide’s app development team took screwing it up to universal extremes.

that this new version works at all, based on what others have said. I only got the new version just now, and held out as long as I could. Until now an older version still worked, on my older device.

Took forever to load, but finally did. Difficult to navigate, but the listings are there. I know they’re correct for the two shows I checked, because they confirmed the TitanTV app I usually use. I had originally chosen not to sign in, but had to sign in (I used email.) to get the listings. My favorites were still there, too, so hope they’ve been working to fix things.

I’m giving it two stars because the info I need (listings, show summaries, and favorites) is still there, but more difficult to find. Before I could set listings to show up when I opened TVGuide . Unless it does that automatically, I don’t see how to set it. Just seems like everything is more difficult now, but grateful it’s still there. The previous version wasn’t as “fancy”, but who cares about that? I could get the info I needed quickly, without having to take a lot longer to do the same thing.

I’m not going to enumerate all the things wrong with this new version because plenty of others already have. What I do want to say is that pretty much all the issues are simply a result of LAZY & CARELESS programming and design. For example, something as simple as showing the time of day as 1:3 instead of 1:30 is JUST PLAIN STUPID, and there is no acceptable reason for it under the sun. It’s obvious there was ABSOLUTELY NO QA throughout the entire process. I’m not even sure there was a design. (Maybe you just had a big party where everyone got high & improv’ed it.) And that is just the tip of the iceberg in this excuse of an “improved version”. It is amazing and appalling to me as an IT professional that a company the size TV Guide with the resources available to you would have the hubris to release something a junior programmer would be ashamed of. No wonder so many people are unhappy. Even those who aren’t professionals know better. How is it you don’t?

It seems there is potential with the redesign idea ... if only you had hired people who had actually seen a computer before. Regardless, it looks like you’ll need a complete re-do to fix all the issues.

The much-anticipated return of CourtTV has already occurred in nearly every planned area; yet, the TV Guide app, even when refreshed wherever possible, does not show my channel that it is on right now at all in the broadcast TV listing. However, another app I have that is nowhere near as sophisticated or bloated as TV Guide, immediately alerted me via a pop-up that there was a new channel added to my broadcast area, CourtTV, and asked if I wanted to add it to my channels list. The whole process took three seconds. It’s times like this when you start to realize that apps that splash videos, articles, excessive advertisements, and flashy notifications at the users don’t necessarily have the capability of performing the most basic function that you needed it to when you downloaded it in the first place. I have had two apps on my phone for nearly 3 years, and it’s mind-boggling that TV Guide can’t even perform the most basic function of displaying accurate TV listings, even though the technology obviously exists because my plain Jane TV listings app found the new channel instantly without my even having to lift a finger.

Frustrating! Took 3-4 tries to get it installed and opened on my ipad (after the failed attempt to install the “upgrade” from the old app). Then a lonnnngggg wait while the new app downloaded guide information. After burning my first (and apparently only) chance to select a provider I deleted and reinstalled TVGuide . This time I got my provider info in and waited for the channel listing and guide to populate...and waited, then waited some more. Finally got the populated guide up and nearly all of the channels were listed twice! Could not find a way to reload or reset the guide and resigned to deleting TVGuide , again. Hard reset my ipad, and loaded TVGuide , again... Once everything loaded, again, the same problems were still there. Tried several different things to get to some kind of setup or profile page and could not find anything. Searched online for help, still nothing meaningful, not even a hint of where to get help.

I’m done. Could not get it to work for me. Wasted too much time messing around with it.

Way to go backwards for those of us that watch over the air TV. We stream as well, but you’ve absolutely messed up for OTA things. First, you can no longer click on a station to see what their broadcast lineup is for the day, a feature you’ve had for as long as I can remember. Secondly, you’ve eliminated the Sports tab at the bottom of the opening screen. Just gone. There is no way to get a view of sports broadcasting for the day on over the air channels.
Apparently TV Guide has a way of not caring about their users. I purchased a TV (first flat screen) and paid more for it because TV Guide Listings were built in to it. Not long after, they abandoned the service, making the TV harder to use than if it never existed. Now they remove the very basics of a guide in TVGuide. If there was a way to go back to the previous version, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Streaming services already have their guides. They don’t need yours as well. That seems to be your push on this update. In my opinion, a waste of time and resources. Now, I’m off to find a replacement.

App works well again. Got an email from developer after having issues with new version and posting low review. Developer said in email they were working on the issue. Seems something was changed and is working as intended now. That means it is a nice TV channel listing app. We use It for OTA and it is 5 stars for content which is accurate and an easy to navigate interface and read on small screen iPhone 12 mini as well as ipad.

Prior review - App used to work well. The latest update seemed to have caused the listings tab to not show all channels on ipad and iphone. Channels toward bottom of the listing view are no longer viewable. You can scroll down and see them while holding your finger down, but then spring out of view when you lift your finger.

I had previously given a 5-star review but I am downgrading one star. TV Guide is still a very good and convenient tool for finding new shows of interest 14 days in advance. Only rarely do I detect flaws. I jot down shows of interest, to guide my recording, into a small notebook. (Utilizing my Comcast On Demand service.) In many cases, you need to know the episode number to keep your recordings straight and to not miss an episode.

Unfortunately, TV Guide frequently gets the episode numbers wrong. More and more I find the need to double-check against web searches for a show, or compare to what the “Next Episode” app says. Episode numbers are wrong enough of the time lately that I cannot grant the full 5 stars. I will continue to rely heavily on TVGuide but with more cross-checking labor than I used to undergo.
4stars

I used to use TVGuide all the time but now it’s just awful. I had to switch to a different app which is not as good as TV Guide before you changed it. I have no idea why it was changed but it entirely unusable now. No descriptions of series episodes, so you have no idea if you have seen it or which episode of a show it might be. It’s sad. I used to use TVGuide all the time, now it’s just useless and I’ll probably just delete it.
I have no idea of what goes on behind the scenes so maybe there’s a reason this went from awesome to unusable overnight but right now, TVGuide is pointless. So, my question is, why bother?
I mean, if you want listings that provide no information but, for example, something like South Park, will give you the description of the series premise but for each episode just says “no information available”, so no idea if it’s an episode from 20 years ago or this year. Very very annoying.
I’ve never seen an app go from 5 stars to 1 star so fast. Actually, I would give 0 stars if I could.

I have an iPhone X and TVGuide worked fine before. But since the update three weeks ago that was supposed to improve TVGuide , it's now much worse. It has stopped automatically jumping to the current schedule, and it no longer goes back to the present schedule if you have looked at upcoming programming. In both situations, it has to be manually moved to the current spot rather than just tapping the listing icon. Hugely inconvenient! I had hoped it was a temporary glitch but three weeks on it hasn't been fixed.

Also, now, the schedule is very wrong, very frequently. Often a half day behind. And even more wrong. As a matter of fact, there hasn't been one day since the update that it's been right. And most days it's wrong several times. Kinda defeats the whole purpose of a TV schedule.

I dumped TVGuide. It's too awful these days. The other option for iPhone isn't great, but much better than this one. These folks need to put TVGuide back to how it was before the recent "improvements".

I love being able to check the program listings with the tap of a finger, but in the older version, I could tap athe name of a show in the listings, and that would open a one-or-two line description of the episode. That was very useful. Now, that tap brings up a video window that shows an ad followed by a trailer. That takes up too much space and too much time without sufficient information. I hope they will change that back to the old way, at which time I will come back and give it five stars.

Needs some serious updating. TVGuide keeps cutting out.
Though I have used TVGuide for quite some time, it has serious problems that needs fixing

The developer has updated TVGuide and now seems to be working much better. My initial response was typed quite fast since TVGuide would only work for a short time, it would shut off and then I would have to begin again. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to type a response fast enough to the developer before TVGuide would reset so the developer could know there was a problem to look into. Thanks for the update, this has been an excellent app and I look forward to using it for the foreseeable future.

iPhone 6S, iOS 13.1.2

I’ve been using TVGuide for 3-4 years. When it works, I really like it. Every couple of months it would lose my favorite channels and I would have to add all my favorites again. No rhyme or reason that I could deduce. Now, I cannot select favorites at all. When I am at the screen to select favorites and tap on a channel, after I remove my finger I can see a check mark on the right side of the channel for about a 1/2 second, but it doesn’t stick. I have seen at least one other review that mentioned this exact issue. I haven’t been able to use TVGuide for a couple of months now and I really miss using it. I keep hoping for an update that might fix this, but the last update was 4 months ago. :-/ I just updated to iOS 13.1.2 yesterday, but that had no effect on this issue.

Please fix this!

TVGuide makes my quality of tv watching so much less frustrating. I have only an antenna. There is listings as were on my att screen. I was really flying blind and it was very frustrating. The channel listing function on my my tv didn’t have much other than numbers. I had no clue. Once I got TV guide I began to learn that my antenna had so much to offer. With TV guide I get a glance of what’s on and decide whether to watch Netflix or not. I don’t have to miss anything anymore. I have had absolutely no technical issues. My gosh! Laugh In is on and it’s jokes are still current today. Rod Serling was on disco cavett and The Rolling Stones’s first US appearance was on Ed Sullivan. Historically excellent. I urge anyone to get this. It’s great.

I check my Watchlist regularly so I can tell when new episodes of my favorite shows are on. But if there are more than a dozen or so episodes of a show in my Watchlist, the list of episodes by date only lists the first dozen or so. For a show in syndication (e.g., Law & Order SVU) there's so many episodes over the next two weeks that the one new episode doesn't show in the list because only the first dozen or so episodes are shown.

This is not a problem when searching in the Listings. If I search for Law & Order (even without the SVU designation), it returns with dozens and dozens of episodes for the entire two weeks.

Please remove the limitation on how many episodes are shown in the Watchlist so that all episodes in the next two weeks can be shown.

Where do I start! My main complaint is that when I set a timer to notify me of shows/ movies I get notified EVERY time it's on WHY would I want to watch / notify anything 10 times???!!! I tried the one time notification thinking oh that must be the answer but no it's JUST the 1 time !! I keep loosing my favorites channels and then have to start all over setting them up! The ads are so many my wifi has a hard time connecting!!!! I don't know why if developers are going to make apps why they have to make it so I'm notified EVERY time a show is on! DEVELOPERS FIX IT GET IT TOGETHER OR DON'T BOTHER WITH A THIRD CLASS APP!...

Update Nothing's changed I've tried the notify 1 time but then I have to reset every week TVGuide is basically useless when in order to get notified 1 time only I have to RESET WEEKLY MIGHT AS WELL USE PEN AND PAPER AND SAVE RESOURCES ON DEVICE FIX IT OR THE APPS USELESS !!! I'LL GO BACK TO PEN AND PAPER DON' T NEED MULTIPLE NOTIFICATIONS NO POINT!!!

I used to love TVGuide to the point I created an account and interacted with TVGuide i.e. mark shows I’d be watching and all that. Now I rarely open it and never sign in because I can’t stand an app that has excessive ads especially those that don’t provide the means or steps to remove them. Ads that you HAVE TO WATCH to watch a video that’s not even as long as the ad. You watch an ad then stop the “free” video cause 10 seconds in cause it’s not what it’s advertised to be about or you’ve seen it before but didn’t remember till you saw the first 10 seconds & so move on to a different video and even though you didn’t finish the video and barely any time has based but a new ad has to be watched. It’s almost as if TVGuide is set to give you an ad every other tap. I’ll stick with the digital cable box’s menu to see what’s on tonight

I just want to say thank you for the people that designed TVGuide🙏😍 I can’t live without TVGuide! Every morning when I drink my coffee that’s the first thing that I do! Check on my Tv Guide app what’s is new on the Tv today. Because the Tv doesn’t promote a lite of programs that interest me like the new season of Van helsing on Syfy and the new show Goest wors on syfy! Or evil things on Tlc the Tv network doesn’t care about us people liking those cubs if programmers😩 and without the Tv Guide I couldn’t know about them! So I want to say thank you again and again🙏😍💋 please continue the good work we love you guy’s❤️😍 Ruth Wells.

Time to update my review: The number of ads is still ridiculous. The video ads have stopped, but now there are flashing blinking ads in between the listings AND ads inside the listing when I’m trying to read a a show’s description. The amount of ads have increased to the point of ridiculousness. A few I can understand but not this many and not this obnoxious. Time to dump TVGuide.
The horrible video ads that I can’t stop for a full 30 seconds are the last straw. The pop up ads are bad enough as are the many glitches in TVGuide , but now TVGuide just isn’t worth using. All I I want is to see a show’s info quickly and I shouldn’t be made to watch a 30 second video or wait to close a pop up ad. May times the listings are wrong or totally blank. Time to dump TVGuide.

***UPDATE****

After still no response to change my email address on my TV Guide account, I decided to make a new account instead. Just write down your favorite shows/channels beforehand so you can remember to add alerts to them on TVGuide . Smh.

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I don’t watch TV as much as I used to but I do use TVGuide often to see when some of my favorite shows are airing.

However, customer service seems to be something that’s of little priority to you. I recently changed my email address and wanted to change that on my TV Guide app/web account. I went on the website (which constantly crashes when you go to the help/faq section) and there is no direct email address to contact anyone about my issue. I sent a direct message on Facebook and received no answer back and TVGuide support just redirects you back to the website help/faq section.

TV Guide for the digital age (and TVGuide) has the potential to be really great but if you keep ignoring customers, it’s going to drive people away.