Dramatic programming in the UK, or television drama and television drama series in the United States, is television program content that is scripted and (normally) fictional along the lines of a traditional drama. This excludes, for example, sports television, television news, reality show and game shows, stand-up comedy and variety shows. Also, by convention, the term is not generally usually used for situation comedy or soap opera.

Most dramatic television programming falls within other standard categories such as miniseries, made-for-TV movies or certain rather circumscribed dramatic genres. One major category of dramatic programing, particularly in the United States, is Crime Drama.

Drama series are watched on public television by people who relate their lives to what they see, eastenders for the city people, corrie for the country people and emmerdale farm for the people who live with animals. Pobly cwm is aimed by S4C at the welsh, as a welsh speaking drama series.

Some examples of BBC dramatic programming would be the serials The Six Wives of Henry VIII or Our Friends in the North.