The Big Bang Theory aired 279 episodes during its original run. The American sitcom premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007, and concluded on May 16, 2019, spanning 12 seasons.
The series was created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady and initially followed physicists Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, their neighbor Penny, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz, and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali. Later seasons expanded the ensemble with Amy Farrah Fowler and Bernadette Rostenkowski.
A common mix-up is confusing the 279-episode total with the number of seasons, or with related programs such as Young Sheldon. The 279 figure belongs only to the original CBS sitcom. It also excludes the separate prequel series and the 2019 retrospective special Unraveling the Mystery: A Big Bang Farewell.
The show’s episode titles usually begin with “The” and refer playfully to a scientific idea, experiment, or principle. Its long run made it one of the most prolific multi-camera sitcoms of the 2000s and 2010s.