Template talk:Episode table

Converting to Episode table

Starting a discussion here about working through {{Convert to Episode table}}, and the lists detailed at User:Alex 21/sandbox/No episode table and Category:Articles lacking Episode table templates. -- Alex_21 _TALK 05:56, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

Pinging @Ajheindel @X201 @Favre1fan93 from my talk page. -- Alex_21 _TALK 05:57, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

Came across this one in the category, Family Guy season 23, looks like it was tagged with the template even though it already uses episode table (albeit in a way I have never seen). Maybe we should convert it or maybe you need to add a condition to your bot, just wanted to bring it to your attention @User:Alex 21. Ajheindel (talk) 18:54, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Nothing seems off about that article to me. Also, just clarifying, Alex himself doesn't have a bot. His list is just run through AWB checks I think. User:RustyBot is the one who has the task to go and tag articles with the convert template. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 19:15, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Ah I see, I just assumed Alex was the one running it, didn't bother to actually check. Yeah I agree that the article appears to be fine, just wanted to check since I hadn't seen it implemented with the invoke command like that. Ajheindel (talk) 19:21, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

I actually did ask about the addition of the template to articles that already appear to use the correct templates; you can see the short discussion here. -- Alex_21 _TALK 20:10, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

I understood the purpose of the bot, but I always felt using your list Alex (though unwieldy) was the best approach going forward for standardization, and then we figure out unique cases where there are neither the table or list templates and should be. The comments from Rusty seem to justify my thinking. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 22:42, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Alex's page is hidden away to all but you 3 editors. That is obviously not the best approach to anything. Unless of course you are planning on clearing 3.7k pages in any reasonable short time. A banner on the other hand makes this issue public to every single editor reading the page. That has a proven (with numerous other maintenance tags) to get things done faster. Gonnym (talk) 12:29, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

I supported the category creation and adding the banner, it just seems the bot has not produced the desired result. I chip away at Alex's list when I can, and when I do, I sometimes don't see the banner/category on some of those pages, which I thought was the whole point of the bot. Not blaming you/anyone here, just stating an observation. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 18:36, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

The banner is also being added to articles that have functioning episode tables and lists. The list I created ten years ago and have maintained since (and have posted to WT:TV multiple times) is easily accessible via AWB (even if someone doesn't have AWB flags), by using the list comparer and finding all articles that don't use the episode table but do use the episode list. I'm thankful for the bot adding the required tags, but there are always better ways as well. -- Alex_21 _TALK 23:16, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

There are instances, though, where users may add the banner for an article not even using the templates and should. So that's a function your AWB check can't do Alex. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 14:47, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

Manual addition of the template, sure. All articles that were tagged with the bot were done through my episode list, which was made via AWB. That doesn't change that the banner is still being added to articles that have functioning episode tables and lists. -- Alex_21 _TALK 22:05, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

Was looking at The Anthropocene Reviewed article, which was tagged recently. In the podcast, everything revolves around the host reviewing two topics, and in the table they give (quite neatly I think) the two ratings for each episode. Based on the documentation, I didn't see a way to merge the table header across two columns of the episode list (like using in wikitables colspan="2"). Is this possible? I think creating two "Ratings" header columns would make it look worse, and the article is already at good article status. Ajheindel (talk) 02:56, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

This to me feels like an instance where a plain wikitable would be best. The intent of this template is for television episodes, and isn't really meant to be co-opted by other mediums for their use. A change to wikitable for this article would probably be beneficial. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 15:48, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

Add "AltTitle" parameters

@Alex 21: Can |alttitleT=/|AltTitleT= and |alttitleR=/|AltTitleR= be added so the column can add additional information to these titles in the lists? These parameters wouldn't work without the use of |title= and it wouldn't need |alttitle=/|AltTitle= because the width would be set by |title=. Here is an example of what I think it should look like:

No. overall	No. in season	Title This would be the alt title	Original release date	Viewers (millions)

Cases where this could be used could be:

No. overall	No. in season	English title Japanese title	Original release date	Viewers (millions)
1	1	"Weird Ninja" (Japanese: 変な忍者の段)	2000	1.15

No. overall	No. in season	Broadcast title Streaming title	Original release date	Viewers (millions)
1	1	"Hello World" "World, Hello"	2000	1.15

Thanks. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 13:43, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

I could certainly look into this. -- Alex _talk 00:29, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

@Favre1fan93  Done Documentation and testcases updated at Template:Episode table#Episode with multiple titles and Template:Episode table/testcases#AltTitle headers; I then implemented them at Daredevil: Born Again season 2#Podcast. -- Alex _talk 01:52, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

@Alex 21: Fabulous! And you totally read between the lines of why I wanted this to use with Born Again. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 15:51, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Parameter airdateT

For anyone visiting after my recent cleanup, please note that we should not be using |airdateT=Original airdate, and instead stick with the default heading. "Original release date" covers all forms of episodic release; broadcast, airing, streaming, web – there is no need to customize it further. -- Alex _talk 00:26, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Just noting, it's in the back of my mind once we go through the category/your list of articles that need to switch over to this template, we should make tracker categories for all the "T" parameters to see where ones are being erroneously. I know when I come across some recently changed articles, some will use for example |overallT=No. which obviously isn't necessary and defeats some of the use of the table. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 15:53, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Did I miss a memo?

What's behind the sudden trend for people changing the layout of episode table code from being in a single line like:

{{Episode table |overall= |season= |title= |director= |writer= |airdate= |episodes=

And changing it to one parameter per line, like:

{{Episode table
|overall=
|season=
|title=
|director=
|writer=
|airdate=
|episodes=

Did I miss a discussion or a memo? - X201 (talk) 14:09, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

I have not certain knowledge of this, but my guess is it could be related to editors adding/adjusting it with the TemplateData through VisualEditor. If I recall way back when VisualEditor was introduced, it gave a certain syntax formatting to templates. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 15:28, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

a weird thing i found recently.

recently i was converting things to episode tables and noticed that the table will always visually appear right before the first wikitable that comes after it in the wikitext. not sure what causes this but it should be fixed because as wikitables are often used, it seems that the only "solution" as of now feels like placing a wikitable right after the episode table, which is something that shouldn't be needed for it to not appear (sometimes much) further down than it should. User "Oreocooke" (speak of the sun and it shines) 09:09, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Do you have an example? - adamstom97 (talk) 09:52, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

the example, when i was working on making episode lists for the seasons of Project Runway Philippines, they would randomly appear just before the first wikitable after them. if you want to see it in action, here's a demonstatory example made for the sake of having a tangible one. User "Oreocooke" (speak of the sun and it shines) 06:53, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

This is a user error and not a bug. Not sure why you added |dontclose=y to the table. Gonnym (talk) 07:12, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Exactly as Gonnym said. You can't use both |dontclose= and |episodes=, only one – either dontclose, and all episode lists must be after and outside the table template, or episodes, where all episode lists must be inside the table template. -- Alex _talk 08:03, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

didn't know that User "Oreocooke" (speak of the sun and it shines) 14:50, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

i figured out why the parameters switch sometimes

i believe it's because of |guests=, because i believe i figured it out recently that when i put |guests= it happens but when i put|aux1=|aux1T=Guest(s) it doesn't happen. i thus reccommend fixing the guests parameter to allow it to be usable (or if it's beyond fixing, (proper) deprecation so it isn't accidentally used) User "Oreocooke" (speak of the sun and it shines) 07:08, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for reporting this. The parameters are all usable, they are just in a different order to what you would expect. In {{Episode list}}, |aux1= and |guests= cannot both be used, as they're aliases, but they're in different locations of the episode table (|aux1= comes before the credits, whereas |guests= comes after the dates, in both the tables and lists).

I see here that you're using |Aux1= in the list and |aux1= in the table. This is good! What you can also do is use |Guests= in the list and |guests= in the table. What you can't also do is use |Guests= in the list and |aux1= in the table, or |Aux1= in the list and |guests= in the table (this last scenario is exactly what you've attempted to do). -- Alex _talk 09:08, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

ok my main thing is that i don't think |Guests= in the template data for {{episode list}} so even if it makes more semantic sense it makes more technical sense to just use |Aux1= User "Oreocooke" (speak of the sun and it shines) 00:17, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

It is, under Aux1: General purpose parameter. The meaning is specified by the column header. The |Guests= parameter is an alias of Aux1, both parameters cannot be used at the same time. -- Alex _talk 00:28, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

technically what I meant is it isn't there in its own right, so it can't be put in there when inserting the template through the toolbar. User "Oreocooke" (speak of the sun and it shines) 20:22, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

Edit request 21 May 2026

• Requested Change:

  −

  +

  {{#invoke:Check for conflicting parameters|check||template=Episode table|cat={{Main other|Category:Pages using episode table with conflicting parameters}}|dontclose; episodes}}

• I believe it should be changed because it has been shown previously that problems occur when these params are used together, thus i would like them to be more officialy considered conflicting.

User "Oreocooke" (speak of the sun and it shines) 07:18, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: This is already presented in the template documentation. As described above: this is a user error and not a bug. -- Alex _talk 09:10, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Table created without any column headers

I noticed at Trotro#Season 1 that a table can be created without any column headers. Lets not allow this and add pages like this to a tracking category as this isn't valid table syntax. Gonnym (talk) 07:20, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Completely agreed. The template needs at least one column parameter called. Category:Articles using Template:Episode table with no column parameters? -- Alex _talk 09:26, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Should the category only look at uses in the mainspace? - Favre1fan93 (talk) 14:36, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

 Done -- Alex _talk 21:11, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Module refactoring + sticky header support

Hi. I've done a full refactor of the module, see Module:Episode table/sandbox. In short, the code has simply been cleaned up and made more systematic, while the rendered output, parameter names, and validation checks remain unchanged, except for the addition of optional {{sticky header}} support. More specifically:

• Refactored the module into a clearer "config + logic" structure.
• Moved column definitions, parameter names, labels, widths, templates, categories, and checks into a single config block.
• Separated parameter aliases from displayed column labels.
• Made unknown-parameter checks automatically generate the list of allowed parameters from the config.
• Grouped check exceptions in one place instead of scattering them throughout the code.
• Added clearer comments for future maintainers.
• Added optional sticky-header support.
• Kept the default output compatible with the current enwiki behavior.

I'd be interested to hear whether there are any objections, suggestions, or requests for additional changes before updating the live module. A separate ping to the original module author: @Alex 21. Solidest (talk) 18:00, 29 June 2026 (UTC)

Haven't tested it but looks good. A few notes from me:

• defaultColor should be defined in the css file
• 100% seems something that belongs in the config
• season and series strings can maybe be moved to config so anyone wishing to translate this has the option
• EpisodeTable.reference has some stuff that belongs in the css file and some in the config
• EpisodeTable.part has some stuff that belongs in the css file and some in the config
• EpisodeTable.new has some stuff that belongs in the css file and some in the config
• The functions in the rest of the article could also probably use documentation

Gonnym (talk) 07:00, 30 June 2026 (UTC)

Done. Solidest (talk) 16:16, 30 June 2026 (UTC)

I found a small issue with the sticky header - using the normal sticky-header class from Template:Sticky header/styles.css causes a Firefox repaint issue: the header appears while scrolling, but disappears or flickers when scrolling stops. I do not seem to see the same issue in Chromium-based browsers.
The issue seems related to Template:Sticky header/styles.css applying position: sticky to the first table row (tr). Applying sticky positioning to the header cells (th) instead fixes the problem in my testing.
Current sandbox state: Module adds a custom wikiepisodetable-sticky-header class when sticky headers are enabled. Module:Episode table/sandbox/styles.css then applies position: sticky to the first-row header cells (th), not to the whole header row (tr).
I also tried using sticky-header-multi with a real thead, but MediaWiki sanitizes/escapes <thead> in module output, so it renders visibly as text and does not work.
A possible clean solution may be to add an opt-in cell-based sticky mode to Template:Sticky header/styles.css, which Episode table could use without duplicating sticky-header logic locally. Alternatively, we could just keep this specific class in this module's CSS. Solidest (talk) 16:18, 30 June 2026 (UTC)

Or alternatively, this bug could simply be ignored. If CSS workarounds are not used and the template's sticky header class is used instead, the header will occasionally (quite rarely) flicker while scrolling and, in some cases, disappear if scrolling stops at the exact moment of a flicker. In Firefox only. I assume this is an issue within the sticky header implementation itself and should be fixed there in any case. Solidest (talk) 18:09, 30 June 2026 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 21 July 2026

Two changes are needed so that references placed in coloured column headers are shaded to match the header background instead of appearing inside an opaque white box (see List of Malcolm in the Middle episodes, where every season header shows a white box around the "Original release date" reference).

Change 1 — in Module:Episode table:

Change this (the entire EpisodeTable.reference function):

function EpisodeTable.reference(reference, background)
	local link1_cr = contrast_ratio{'#0645AD', background or '#CCCCFF', ['error'] = 0}
	local link2_cr = contrast_ratio{'#0B0080', background or '#CCCCFF', ['error'] = 0}

	local refspan = mw.html.create('span')
		:wikitext(reference)

	if link1_cr < 7 or link2_cr < 7 then
		refspan
			:css('color','black')
			:css('background-color','white')
			:css('padding','1px')
			:css('display','inline-block')
			:css('line-height','50%')
	end

	return tostring(refspan)
end

to this:

function EpisodeTable.reference(reference, background)
	-- Keep the header/part-cell background shading visible *behind* the
	-- footnote: leave the background transparent and colour the reference to
	-- contrast with it. The stylesheet makes the reference link inherit this
	-- colour (links don't inherit their container's colour on their own).
	local refspan = mw.html.create('span')
		:addClass('wikiepisodetable-ref')
		:wikitext(reference)

	if background then
		local black_cr = contrast_ratio{background, 'black', ['error'] = 0}
		local white_cr = contrast_ratio{'white', background, ['error'] = 0}
		refspan:css('color', black_cr > white_cr and 'black' or 'white')
	end

	return tostring(refspan)
end

No other lines in the module change: existing callers already pass the background as the second argument.

Change 2 — in Module:Episode table/styles.css:

Add the following rule to the end of the file:

/* Footnotes in coloured headers / part rows: let the header's background
   shading show through the reference, and make the link adopt the reference
   span's contrast-checked colour instead of the default blue link colour. */
.wikiepisodetable-ref a {
	color: inherit;
}

Both changes should be made together: applying Change 1 without Change 2 would leave the reference link blue and illegible on dark headers. Please test against Template:Episode table/testcases (the "AltTitle headers" section already includes references on a dark background which demonstrate the problem). Reference links in coloured headers will no longer be blue — they will take the header's contrast-checked text colour, which is the intended effect.

This change was requested at mw:Parsoid/Feedback#enwiki:List_of_Malcolm_in_the_Middle_episodes. C. Scott Ananian (he/him) (talk) 11:44, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

Perhaps I'm not understanding fully the issue, but having the references with a white background when the table header color would create a contrast issue with the blue (or light purple when clicked) color of the reference was intentionally. List of Malcolm in the Middle episodes is appearing as intended to me. Courtesy ping to Alex 21 about this. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 14:51, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

It would be helpful for someone to put this code in the sandbox so that it can be tested. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:06, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

@Jonesey95: I made the Module sandbox edit here, and the style css sandbox here, plus a change in the Module sandbox to (I think) look at the sandbox CSS here. Let me know if that's helpful to go about testing. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 15:38, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

If I've done the sandbox editing correctly, I've set up a refs in headers test here Template:Episode_table/testcases#Refs in headers and used the background color of Malcolm in the Middle season 1. Again, assuming I set the sandboxes up correctly, the ref tags get hidden against the background so this should not be implemented. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 15:43, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

@Cscott: can you review the sandbox and test cases and clarify? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 10:36, 24 July 2026 (UTC)