When Discovery-owned cable network TLC first launched in 1980, its focus was on educational programming—”TLC” originally stood for “The Learning Channel,” after all, but the network has since moved away from that branding. Starting in the late ’90s, the network began to air reality shows, which now make up the bulk of its programming.
Although the focus has shifted away from education, much of TLC’s programming offers a glimpse at lifestyles different from those of most of America, from large families to unique professions, from the run-of-the-mill to the over-the-top with sometimes polarizing reactions from audiences. Still, the network has had major successes over the years. Several shows have had long, successful runs, and some of the biggest hits have made household names of their stars and secured their place in pop-culture history, with some still making headlines long after their shows have ended.
10 Trading Spaces
Early home-makeover show Trading Spaces featured neighbors swapping houses and giving one room a massive makeover in two days with the help of professional designers and contractors. It originally ran from 2000 until 2009, then again from 2018 through 2019.
Trading Spaces is a relic of a simpler time, when TLC was just getting started with reality TV but was focused on more lifestyle-oriented content. Still, it had its fair share of tense moments—while tame in comparison to the explosive fights and shocking moments reality TV has become known for, there were some memorable reveals gone wrong.
9 Long Island Medium
Among TLC’s roster of unique stars was Long Island Medium’s Theresa Caputo, who claims she can communicate with the dead. Episodes often featured Caputo meeting privately with clients for readings, as well as Caputo speaking with strangers in public as she channeled their deceased loved ones.
Long Island Medium ran for 14 seasons, and although the show ended in 2019, it has returned for some specials. Caputo also still makes appearances on talk shows and at live events around the country, and she does virtual readings on her podcast, Hey Spirit.
8 What Not to Wear
On What Not to Wear, hosts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly helped overhaul the wardrobes of unsuspecting guests nominated by friends and family—along with a full makeover, plus a $5,000 shopping spree to buy pieces that fit within their given guidelines. The show was based on a British one with the same title.
London and Kelly were often challenged not just by subjects’ sense of style but also their unwillingness to cooperate, butting heads over the rules and struggling to stick to them when sent shopping on their own. Still, many were often surprised and excited by the reveal of their final look, with plenty crediting the hosts for a newfound sense of confidence.
7 Say Yes to the Dress
Say Yes to the Dress centers around Manhattan bridal salon Kleinfeld and its clientele—brides from around the country in search of the perfect dress for their wedding day. The show began in 2007 and has run for 22 seasons.
Say Yes to the Dress is fun to watch not just for the showcase of gorgeous dresses. It also has plenty of drama, from hard-to-please brides presenting a challenge for Kleinfeld employees to brides butting heads with opinionated relatives.
6 Sister Wives
First premiering in 2010, Sister Wives has followed Kody Brown and his polygamist marriage with wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn—the only one he’s legally married to—as well as their combined 18 children. The show has been running for 17 seasons, the most recent of which has detailed the disintegration of the marriages between Kody and three of his wives. Season 18 is currently filming.
Sister Wives is an interesting look at the polygamist lifestyle, due in large part to the Brown family’s honesty and openness, even in the midst of the splits. In addition to the ups and downs every family goes through, the show also presented a compelling look at challenges unique to their lifestyle, from societal pressures to interpersonal drama and even legal issues.
5 90 Day Fiancé
For nine seasons, 90 Day Fiancé has shown the struggles of international long-distance relationships, with couples meeting in person in America for the first time. The show’s title comes from the specific visa used to enter the country, which imposes a 90-day deadline for the couples to marry, and it has spawned numerous spinoffs, including 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, featuring Americans traveling overseas, and Pillow Talk, which features some of the show’s most notable couples from past seasons watching and commenting on current episodes.
In addition to the usual obstacles most couples face, those on 90 Day Fiancé also deal with everything from cultural differences to disapproving family and friends. Some couples from the show have gone on to have long-lasting relationships, while others have been much more short-lived and have made headlines as tumultuous ups and downs have played out publicly.
4 Jon & Kate Plus Eight
Jon and Kate Goesslin—already parents two twins—welcomed sextuplets and allowed TLC cameras into their home to film their everyday lives. It was later retitled Kate Plus 8 following the couple’s divorce in 2009, and was on the air from 2007 until 2017.
Viewers got a look at hectic life with eight children, from the time the kids were babies into their teen years. As a result, the Gosselins became one of the most famous reality-TV families, and they still make headlines today.
3 Little People, Big World
Little People, Big World introduced TLC viewers to the Roloff family—parents Matt and Amy, who both have the most common form of dwarfism, Achondroplasia, and children Molly, Jacob, Jeremy, and Zach, who also has Achondroplasia. The show has run for a total of 24 seasons and over 300 episodes and now includes the next generation of Roloffs, with Zach, his wife, Tori, and their three children.
The show has featured the family’s ups and downs, from the same struggles most families face to those unique to dwarfism—including health issues Matt and Amy’s divorce. When the show’s viewership was at its peak, it was among TLC’s highest-rated shows, and the Roloff family farm was a popular tourist destination.
2 Toddlers & Tiaras
Toddlers & Tiaras took viewers backstage for an inside look at competitive child beauty pageants, showcasing not just the young children working to impress judges but also their parents. The show aired for seven seasons, the last of which came in 2016 after a three-year hiatus.
Toddlers & Tiaras is perhaps the most notorious of TLC’s reality shows. Parents focused on winning sometimes had outbursts that rivaled that of their young children. Toddlers & Tiaras: Where Are They Now, a three-part special which aired on Discovery+ in 2021, revisited some of the show’s most notable contestants.
1 19 Kids and Counting
One of TLC’s most famous reality shows—if not the most famous—is 19 Kids and Counting, which focuses on parents Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar and their large family. Originally titled 17 Kids and Counting, the show was renamed twice as the family continued to expand. It also highlighted the family’s strict Christian fundamentalist beliefs, such as a dress code that requires the women and girls to wear skirts, not pants, and a more involved dating process called courtship.
The show is also among TLC’s most controversial. In 2015, reports surfaced that the eldest Duggar child, Josh, sexually assaulted a few of his sisters, and he was later convicted of possessing and receiving child porn. As a result, TLC canceled the show but released spinoff Counting On, which focused on some of the adult Duggar children as they got married and started families of their own and ran for 11 seasons, ultimately ending in 2021.
