A television special is a television program, typically a short film or television movie, which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a special TV telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments.

The term originally applied especially to major dramatized presentations of an hour or two which were broadcast during times normally occupied by episodes of one or more weekly television series, thus replacing the(se) series for a week. In the 1960s, multi-part Specials, over several days in a week, or on the same day for several weeks, evolved from this format, though these were more commonly called miniseries. At the same time, the designation "TV Special" for single-episode dramatized presentations was dropped in favor of Made-for- TV-movie, as a publicity gimmick.

Other forms of TV specials are one-time comedy or musical events, one-shot seasonal programs (e.g. Christmas television special), irregular documentary events (usually of a sporting nature, e.g. the Olympics; or for live coverage of a popular cultural event, such as the Academy Awards), or spontaneous interruptions of active programming to cover an important news event (election coverage, however, is generally scheduled).