How do I add an episodic credit?

Updated 1-February-2022

Quick links: 

• Overview
  
• Adding credits for a single episode 
• Adding credits to multiple episodes 
  
• How TV Series credits are displayed
  
• Exception to the credits on Parent Series rule
  
• Known issues
  
• Why does IMDb say "No existing data"
  
• Adding evidence
• Tracking your contribution
  

Overview

Credits on episodic TV shows must be submitted as additions to individual episodes of the show, rather than to the main parent listing for the series. In other words, even if someone worked on several episodes of a show or even for one or more seasons, they should be added to the cast or crew of each episode in which they were featured (see Exception to credits on Parent Series rule at the bottom of the page). 

If the episode(s) you worked on are NOT present in the database, you will need to add them as new episodes first. Go to the main title page for the television show, and select "add new episode".

You'll be prompted to enter in the basic information about the episode (title, air date, episode number, etc), and after you've added that information, you'll be given the opportunity to enter in other credits (such as cast, director, writer, plot summary, etc). You can and should add your credit on the episode at the same time.

For more information on how to add new episodes, please see our guide here.

IMDbPro members can submit credits to their claimed name page via the IMDbPro app by clicking the button on their IMDbPro App page.

Adding credits for a single episode

Note - You can also add credits to individual titles (including episodes) using a new interface on IMDbPro (membership required). For more instructions please see our guide here. 

1) start at the main title page for the television show. (For example, see the television show "Vikings" here.) 

2) Look to see if the episodes that you worked on are already in the database by looking at the episode list - select it by clicking Episode Guide. (See episode list for "Vikings" here.)

3) Go to the specific episode and click the Edit page button at the bottom of the episode's title page. From there, select "add 1 item" next to the Cast section (or whatever credit you're adding).

4) Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Continue. 

5) Enter the actors name (you will be prompted to click the correct one). 

6) Add the character name and remember to include any necessary attributes with the credits. For example - if you or they are not listed in the episodes end credit sequence, you should include the attribute (uncredited) to reflect this. More information on attributes can be found here.

7) Scroll to the bottom and click Check these updates. 

8) Correct any problems you are prompted with. 

9) Scroll to the bottom and click re-check these updates. 

10) If all is now green, scroll to the bottom and click Submit.

Adding credits for multiple episodes

1) start at the main title page for the television show. (For example, see the television show "Vikings" here.) 

2) Scroll to the bottom and select Edit page. 

3) Next to cast (or whatever credit you're adding), select the drop down and choose "Add 1 credit". 

4) Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Continue. 

5) Enter the actors name (you will be prompted to click the correct one). 

6) Click on the small black symbol to the right of the episode field. 

7) Select all of the episodes you were involved in. 

8) Enter the characters name and any attributes required. 

9) Scroll to the bottom and click Check these updates. 

10) Correct any problems you are prompted with. 

11) Scroll to the bottom and click re-check these updates. 

12) If all is now green, scroll to the bottom and click Submit.

How TV Series credits are displayed

On TV series pages, the credits displayed are an aggregation of all of the episode credits for that series. The number of episode appearances is added up and the original air dates of those episodes combined to create a year range, resulting in a credit like this:

Craig Charles .... Dave Lister (52 episodes, 1988-1999)

Series-level credits are also rolled in. So if we also had a series-level credit for Craig Charles on the same series with a 1991-2001 year range, the year range would be expanded thus:

Craig Charles .... Dave Lister (52 episodes, 1988-2001)

If we only had the series-level credit and no episode credits, then the credit would be displayed like this:

Craig Charles .... Dave Lister (unknown episodes, 1991-2001)

Note: Attributes are stripped during aggregation, and episode credits with "archive footage" attributes are excluded altogether.

Exception to credits on Parent Series

A series-wide credit is permitted if both these conditions are true: you specify a year range (in the character field for cast credits, or the attribute field for crew credits) and we don't currently list any episodes for the start or end year of that range. We would much prefer you to tell us which episodes we're missing or add these yourself using the "Add Episode". You can add your credits to the new episode at the same time. Further instructions on how to do this can be found here. 

If some episodes are missing and for any reason it's not feasible for you to tell us about all of them, then you can still tell us the correct year range but you may need to use a combination of episode and series credits to do it.

E.g. if you submit a year range of "(2004-2006)" but we already list a 2006 episode for that series, your credit will be rejected. For your credit to be accepted, you should change it to just "(2004-2005)" and submit your credit separately for the relevant 2006 episode(s). This will result in "(2004-2006)" being displayed in our filmography listings.

This workaround will not give you the correct episode count (e.g. "24 episodes, 2004-2005"). The only way to achieve that is to tell us about each individual episode credit.

Adding evidence with your request

To help a member of the data editing team review your request, it may be beneficial to include evidence with your submission. You can find out more about how to do this in our additional credit verification article. 

Why does IMDb say "No existing data" when I try to update a credit on a TV-series?

The data you are trying to update does not exist on the series-level page; please be aware that the credit is stored on the individual episode pages but populates the series page to provide a more complete overview. This is why submitting a change on the series page will return the error “No existing data”.

To update this data type, please use the “Edit Page” on the episode page that the item is located on.