Sometimes you just can't be home to watch your favorite network tv shows when they air, or there's another show you'd really prefer to watch. Fortunately, several of the major networks (ABC, Fox, NBC and the CW) are now streaming their most popular televisions shows online for you to watch for free, usually as soon as the day after their broadcast airing.

Watch TV Shows Online is a brief guide to what each of the major networks have to offer. I get into my more specifics, including links directly to show pages, on my other hubs.I also break out show descriptions in links to "current" tv series and "cancelled" series because I think it helps to prioritize what you are going to watch. My recommendation is that if there is a cancelled tv series that piques your interest, you should watch that first because they could disappear at any moment.I would definitely try to watch cancelled shows before the regular 2007 Fall season begins because I'm sure the networks will move some shows offline to make way for their new cancellations (lol).

Before we get too far into this, I just want to warn upfront that the US Broadcast Networks who do air their tv series online have restricted access to their streaming tv shows to US viewers due to syndication and distribution agreements. So most international viewers are out of luck.

However, if you live in Canada, you can watch many of these shows on Canadian websites.Check my hub for Hulu Canadian Alternatives and you will find plenty of places where you can stream US shows from within Canada.

Watch Fox tv shows online

Fox debuted their Fox on Demand service last year with a limited number of tv shows streaming online, but since then they've added a substantial number of series to their online tv series roster and primarily use MySpace to host the service

Fox on Demand is an HD Streaming Video service that requires a brief download of the Fox Full Throttle Player. The player downloads very quickly and does not require any installation and so far I have not noticed it doing anything weird with my computer, so I highly recommend it. Currently, the Fox Full Throttle Player only works on Windows systems.

Fox far and away offers the best online streaming experience for the viewer. Not only do you get a crisp and beautiful high definition picture with no lagging, pauses or stuttering, there are no commercials or breaks during the episode. The fact that there are no commercials almost makes watching Fox shows online better than watching them on tv. NO COMMERCIALS! How awesome is that?

Visit Fox on Demand at MySpace

My hub, Watch Fox TV Shows Online, lists the full roster Fox Tv Shows available to watch online for free, including links to each show's landing page, how many episodes are available to view and what night each show airs so you know when to look for the uploaded episode.

Like Fox, ABC also has a proprietary plug-in that you need to download in order to watch ABC tv shows online in full-screen mode. Again though, it's a quick and painless download and doesn't require any kind of registration to use.

I think there are clear advantages to the proprietary plug-ins that both of these networks use because they offer a superior viewing experience when it comes to streaming video. ABC's offering doesn't quite match Fox's though because you do have to watch some commercials (though far less than you would watch on your tv at home). Also, their website isn't quite as user friendly because you cannot bookmark the episode landing page for individual shows, but instead must always start at their gateway page to launch the Full-episode player. I find that quite annoying.

Visit ABC Full-Episode Player

My hub, Watch ABC TV Shows Online, provides a complete rundown of what's on offer from ABC, along with some additional information about the player.

NBC shows can be watched online in either half-screen or full-screen mode without any kind of special download. Because they aren't using a proprietary plug-in however, the picture quality is not as crisp as what Fox and ABC have to offer.

I think NBC makes up for it though by offering the most generous episode selection available. For most of their hot shows, they don't just stream the most recent two or three episodes, they stream the entire season! Right now, you can watch the full seasons of Heroes, Friday Night Lights and 30 Rock online. And if you are not watching Heroes, I recommend you load up the NBC website and start from the pilot and don't stop until you've caught up :)

Visit NBC Video Here

My hubpage, NBC TV Online, gives a complete rundown of what shows NBC has to offer, both current and cancelled, as well as links directly to each show's landing pages for the streaming episodes.

CBS offers my least favorite online tv streaming service. This is what happens when you don't develop your own software. CBS offers a choice of either Real Player or Windows Media Player to stream their episodes and neither of them are that great.

Visit CBS Innertube

For a complete rundown of what CBS shows you can watch online, visit my hub Watch CBS TV Shows Online. It includes links to the individual landing pages for each show.

The CW, formerly known as The WB, also streams full episodes of most of their shows online. However, their website tends to load very slow (though video works just fine) and their "full-screen" player is a total joke. It isn't even remotely full screen. The "full-screen" mode means that the video player expands to the size of your browser window (not your monitor) and the video itself doesn't expand at all. It's about half the size or so of the screen. Stupid. That said, video quality is quite good and the playback is smooth.

Visit CWTV to watch CW Shows online

I'll create a hubpage soon for The CW.

One other great place to watch video is on AOL's In2TV website. They have an enormous library of older and classic tv shows that you can either watch for free on the website or you can download their software to get higher definition picture. The software is used to actually download episodes however so it's not the solution if you want to watch something right now. Each episode of a full hour show is generally at least 300mb or so.

Some of the shows at In2TV that I've enjoyed are Lois & Clark, Veronica's Closet and La Femme Nikita and my favorite scific show, Babylon 5. All of these can be watched for free and most of them have full seasons available. In2TV also has lots of unaired pilot episodes, including the unaired pilot for Gilligan's Island (featuring different actors playing Ginger, MaryAnn and the Professor) and the unaired pilot for Aquaman (which I think was supposed to be a Smallville spin-off, but was never picked up.

So be sure to check out In2TV. Like iTunes, they sell tv episodes as well (usually $1.99 a download), but there's enough free stuff there to keep you busy for a year or two :)