Everyone is rebooting IP these days, but it can sometimes be hard to understand if you should continue a show with a new season, years later, or start an entirely new entry.

While it's been hard to nail down, we've decided on a few items to look for from a content perspective to help with this decision.

New Series vs. Continuations

In order for an unscripted series or game show to be considered a new entry, it must meet two out of three of the following criteria:

1. New network: The new series must be on a different network than the original series.
2. Cast/Host change: The series must have had a complete cast change (or, at least the majority of the cast must have changed), or a change of host.
3. Multi-year gap: There must be at least 5 years between the end of the original series and the beginning of the rebooted content.

If the new series does not meet two out of three of these criteria, it should be considered a continuation of the original series.

Notes: 

• Generally, the above rules apply to scripted, unscripted, reality competition, and game shows.
  • Unscripted series and game shows that have a format change may also warrant a new series record.
• News and Talk shows will rarely meet the above criteria, as they are continual and experience frequent host changes (ex: The Daily Show, late night talk shows, etc.). However, they should be exempt from this criteria except in very special circumstances.

Important caveat:

• If the broadcaster uses continued episode numbering for a revival, that trumps the above rules. For example, Robot Wars came back after 12 years with a new host on the original network — but the return was called "series 8." In this case, we would call the revival a continuation.
  

Here are some examples of various pieces of content and how they are listed. Keep in mind that a lot of these decisions were made before implementing the above 2/3 criteria rules:

CONTINUATIONS/REVIVALS (Same series record on TVDB)

• 24 — however, 24: Legacy (sans Jack Bauer) is its own series as it is a spin-off.
• Veronica Mars
• Prison Break
• Mad About You
• Will & Grace
• Tales of the City
• American Idol
• Roseanne
• The X-Files
• Arrested Development
• Twin Peaks
• In Search Of …
• Murphy Brown

REMAKES for Series with the same name (New series record on TVDB)

For remakes with new series entries please append the year of the remake to the end of the series to differentiate it from the original.

• MacGyver
• Charlie's Angels
• Charmed
• Melrose Place
• Dynasty
• Dallas
• Battlestar Galactica
• One Day at a Time

REMAKES with a Different title (New series record on TVDB)

• 90210 (The CW, 2008)
• Fuller House (Netflix, 2016)
  
• Hawaii Five-0 (as opposed to the original Hawaii Five-O)
• Magnum P.I. (as opposed to the original Magnum, P.I.)

Ongoing News and Talk Shows

For ongoing news and talk shows, a new show record should NOT be created when the host of the program changes. If the name of the program changes, the new name should be added as the title of the series, and the old name(s) should be added as aliases of that series. Example: The Morning Show, currently known as Live with Kelly and Ryan. We recognize that The Tonight Show is not listed this way and is a victim of past oversight.