Sonny Corinthos

Seinfeld for me.

PeMo

24 for me. I couldn't stand waiting week to week during season 1 so I bought the DVDs for subsequent seasons and binge-watched each whole season.

Groucho

This appears to be the first reference on this forum to "binge watching". 2/8/2012.

IDrinkMolson

For me, it was South Park. Somewhere around the 5th-6th seasons a couple of my work friends came over and we watched several episodes all day long. I had them recorded on VHS as they aired.
Granted we didn't watch every episode or in order. But we probably watched for around 11-12 hours.

A few years later we did it again, but now I had several seasons on DVD too.


I should add Lost. Starting with either Season 2-3, I rewatched the series before (or shortly after) the new season started airing. Back then I used to work 3, off 4. 7 out of 8 weeks.

Jay G.

Here's the first reference to "binge watch", 4/19/2011:
There's earlier references to people "binging" shows though. From 2007:
2006:
2004:
It's probably not surprising that DVDTalk posters were binging shows long before the act, or the term, became mainstream.

davidh777

OldBoy

But that was a weekly, per year, many years show. No way to binge watch back then. So how could it be?

OldBoy

I was thinking BB too. I think the meaning in my title is there has to be a particular show that started the trend and had to be from a streaming service. Binge watching stuff on your own (whether digital or physical) which we all do and love, is not what I mean. I just think there has to be one that started it all. HoC or BB, I seriously think.

Jay G.

DVD season box sets. People binged as each season came out on TV (such as people do per-season binging on Netflix as it releases new seasons of a show), or waited until the show ended and watched all the seasons at once (as people might do for some Netflix shows).

Lillyhammer was the first show that Netflix released all the new (to the US) episodes of a season at once, back in 2012. House of Cards was next, in 2013, with Netflix's all-at-once release of a season was the first time any of those episodes had been seen anywhere in the world. Shortly after its release (the next month), the term "binge watch(ing)" took off in popularity. So if you're talking about new episodes, and the show that popularized the term, it's House of Cards.

Of course, binge watching on Netflix was possible before even Lillyhammer, as they had complete runs of many shows that people could binge, if they wanted. People didn't even necessarily have to binge House of Cards, just because all the episodes came out at once. But old shows didn't have viewers feeling like they had to either "catch up" or "keep up," and it was only with House of Cards where, since other people were binging it, people felt a pull to watch it as fast as possible so as to be involved in the conversation and avoid "spoilers." The fact that it was heavily serialized with cliffhangers and lead to people to want to watch "just one more" after each episode helped make binging the most common viewing method. LOST had the same serialized pull, but its weekly release schedule meant that it was relatively easy for anyone to keep up, and most people were watching the episodes once a a week and staying current, so not much binging occurred as it aired (even though people could record to their DVR and binge the episodes after they all aired).

Red Dog

Lillyhammer and HOC were certainly the first 2 'new' shows that I binged watched.

But I remember spending full Labor Days or Memorial Days years ago watching L&O marathons on TNT.

I didn't start watching Breaking Bad on AMC until the 4th season I think. I binged the first 2-3 seasons on DVD (didn't have Netflix at that point).

mrhan

I wouldn't really call it binging but when Comcast started their On Demand service there would be blocks of episodes for some of the series' I watched regularly. With On Demand I didn't have to watch them weekly but waited a bit until 3 or 4 episodes were available. I remember that CBS was basically one of the first stations that was offered on On Demand and they allowed you to fast forward the commercials. This was before Comcast had their DVR service.

PerryD

TV on DVD definitely encouraged binge watching. I had finally got around to watching the Shield some 10 years back, and got all of the seasons from the library on DVD and burned through them. What was fascinating was that the show flowed so well over the course of the 6 years. I can't imagine how people could watch the show in real time and have to wait a week between in season episodes and a close to a year for the next season, especially with the cliffhangers.

SteveA

Well, when they first came available, I bought all the seasons of Start Trek:TNG and my wife and I watched from beginning to end, two or three episodes a night. Not sure if it counts as "binge" watching, but it sure was fun fast-forwarding through the years.

Giantrobo

Yes, Thanks.

bunkaroo

The Cow

Bill Needle

Bought a DVD player, borrowed the first couple season of Sopranos on DVD, and made acquaintance with binge-watching.

Shannon Nutt

If we really want to get technical (and as a few posters have already pointed out), TV stations used to do marathons of shows long before DVD came out. Of course, we didn't call it binge watching back then...just "marathon viewing."

johnnysd

This is true. Local stations would sometimes show every Honeymooners episode or an entire weekend of Abbot and Costello movies. The first show I personally binged was Breaking Bad. I thought it was a sequel to Breaking Away and about bicycles, the first shot in the shot disavowed me of that, and I watched every second of the first 4 seasons over the next couple days.

milo bloom

Yeah, the syndication TV series are the earliest contenders. Like Twilight Zone on SciFi channel and whatnot. And of course, if any cable network got the rights to multiple movies in a franchise and played them in a row, that was certainly binge worthy.

Heck, I remember some network used to play Interview with a Vampire over and over and on lazy weekends my wife and I would just leave it on in the background for 3-4 viewings worth.

In the late 90s when The Simpsons had several seasons worth to syndicate, I know some networks would play multiple eps in a row.

PhantomStranger

All-day marathons started showing up on cable in the 1990s. It's how I first got into First Wave, one of my favorite sci-fi series ever on what we now call SyFy.

Rex Fenestrarum

Well, Twin Peaks came out on VHS (season 1, season 2) and I 'binge watched' the entire series in one sitting with friends when I was in college... so, 1993 or 1994. And, as others have said, cable networks started running all-day marathons in the 90s, too. But that's the thing: they were called "marathons" back then. As I remember it, "binge watching" didn't enter pop culture as a specific thing or term until House of Cards.

stvn1974

The X-Files when it started airing on FX is when I first noticed large blocks of episodes showing back to back to back five days a week. I had originally taped all of the episodes on VHS when they originally aired but I made copies of the FX versions too as back ups. If I remember correctly they started airing the reruns on FX around the time season Seven started. It was one of the reasons that pissed Duchovney off and helped with his departure. They weren't getting paid for the shows to air because FX was owned by FOX.

Michael Corvin

24

Easy answer and I'm glad I'm not the first to mention it. A friend had been talking it up so I blind bought it on DVD. A week or so later I was buying season 2 and even starting over on season 1 so my wife could watch(I binged when she was at work). That caught me up so I could watch season 3 "live in 2003. That's the first time I recall ever watching 4-5 episdoes at a time of a single show.

After I finished with my season 1 set I lent it out to 3-4 other friends over the next few months. Every single one of them returned the set within a week or two having also binged the whole thing.

TGM

24 S1 I think