TV Shows in GTA IV

Grand Theft Auto IV introduced the ability to watch television shows in most safehouses, although this feature is largely useless in actual gameplay and is more of a minor feature used to pass time.

Description

Each Television allows the player to watch up to three simultaneously running channels (Weazel, CNT, and the Public Broadcasting Corporation); however, the channels are not numbered, so finding a show is more or less coincidental. Most of the shows are running time-shifted, so while "I'm Rich" may be almost over on one channel, for example, it may just start on another.

The feature is carried over to its episodic titles, including The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, with new shows and advertising added in. However, depending on whether the player opted for downloading episodic DLC or obtaining Episodes from Liberty City, the availability of shows and ads from GTA IV in both episodic titles, like radio stations, varies between DLCs and Episodes from Liberty City:

  • In DLCs, existing programming and advertising from GTA IV and a DLC purchased earlier will be present in the new episodic title, and vice versa.
  • In EFLC, only programming and advertising from TLAD and TBOGT will be available in both episodic titles, as much of GTA IV's content is not included in the stand-alone compilation.

While there is one television for each safehouse in GTA IV, the player can only watch TV at the Lost MC Clubhouse in The Lost and Damned until "Get Lost", to which point the player has no legal means of watching television; in The Ballad of Gay Tony, one TV is available in Luis' safehouse.

GTA IV alludes that two other television networks, CCC and MeTV, exist in the in-game universe, but they are unviewable.

Viewable programs

Weazel

Weazel is a parody of Fox Broadcasting Company.

CNT

CNT is a play on CNN or TNT, possibly a combination of both as CNT also has a news program.

CNT is a refererence to "cunt", a term for vagina.

Public Broadcasting Corporation

The Public Broadcasting Corporation is a parody of PBS, or possibly the BBC, as the latter is an acronym for British Broadcasting Corporation

Notes

  • There is a glitch in The Lost and Damned that allows you to watch the TV even after the end of the game. Take a helicopter and land on the roof of Lost MC Clubhouse. Walk around to where the TV would be inside just under the roof, and you will be prompted to watch the TV. If you do this there is only 2 ways to get outside of the clubhouse: kill yourself, or reload an old save file. This glitch is fixed on Episodes from Liberty City.