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The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows is a trade paperback reference work by the American television researchers Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh , published by Ballantine Books. First published in 1979, the eighth edition came out in 2003 (ISBN 0-345-45542-8). According to the authors, it is an attempt to list all commercially-broadcast network series ever shown in the evening or nighttime hours (defined as 6:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time or later) in the United States. It also lists programs which were widely syndicated in the U.S., and, effective with the seventh edition in 1999, cable television series if, at the time they were aired, the cable network carrying them was available in at least 50% of U.S. homes.

Other criteria for inclusion, again according to the authors, include:

• The series must have been carried on a commercial network. Programs produced for and by public broadcasters such as National Educational Television and the Public Broadcasting Service are excluded unless at some point in their existence they had a prime time network or commercial cable television run.

• The series must have run for at least four weeks on the same night of the week at the same time, or at least have been planned to do so in the event that it was cancelled prior to this. Thus, "specials" and "miniseries" presented on consecutive nights are excluded, with an exception being made for the seminal miniseries Roots and miniseries like North and South, Book II, which was originally presented in a nightly format but then subsequently rerun on a weekly basis.

This work is a credible source of information for many U.S. television programs and also has grown over its publication history to include many other features such as season-by-season schedule charts, list of Emmy Award winners season-by-season, and, in recent editons, trivia quiz games.

When first published, it was one of the only reference books available on the medium, and as such errors contained in it were subsequently repeated in other works to the point where they became established "fact".^{[citation needed]}