Television is getting harder to keep track of. Let's face it, there are just too many great shows out there. Between shows like House, Breaking Bad, and Lost wrapping up their seasons, the return of shows like True Blood and Entourage, and the introduction of new shows like Persons Unknown and Rubicon, my calendar has been full as of late. Is there not a better way to keep track of all my favorite TV shows?

You'll be pleased to learn that there are two great ways to manage your favorite TV shows online. In this article, I will cover the two best web applications I've found to keep track of what would have otherwise been a daunting task.

I'll admit, I wrote this article out of necessity. I used to rely on the Two Ways To Never Miss A Television Episode for all of my television needs, but lately they're not enough. Crap, I Missed It's emails have slowed to a halt and it appears that they are no longer updating their database. RerunCheck (made by MakeUseOf's own Jorge Sierra) is a good place to check if there are new episodes of your shows but it is better used if you are only following one or two shows at a time.

For the power users and television buffs among us, I have uncovered two very useful apps to keep track of TV shows.

EpisodeCalendar

EpisodeCalendar offers an easy way to see when your favorite TV shows are going to air. Shows are presented on a calendar so you can see which day and which episode is airing. It does not keep track of the time a show will air, but it offers many great features that make using this app worthwhile.

If you are just inquiring about which new shows are on a particular day, you can visit their public calendar here.

You can create a personalized calendar and keep track of only the shows you want to if you create an account on EpisodeCalendar. Add shows to your list by searching for them individually or you can click Quick multiple add and select from a list of the most popular shows.

Once a show is added to your list you can see the last episode that was aired, the next one to be aired, and the date. To view these in calendar form, simply go up to My calendar.

One of the best features of EpisodeCalendar is notifications of new episodes. If you navigate to the My settings page, you will see that you can add your iCal feed to Google Calendar, subscribe to your own RSS feed, and enable email notifications. Once you enable email notifications, simply go back to your My shows page and check the email box next to any shows you would like to receive notifications for. You'll never miss an episode again.

If there's a downside to EpisodeCalendar it's that they take a little while to add new shows to follow, but you can always email them if you can't find one of your shows.

MyTVShows

MyTVShows is "the best way to manage your TV shows" online. This webapp helps you organize episodes to all your favorite shows and keep track of what you've seen and what you have yet to see. It also keeps you updated on new episodes for the shows you're following, so you won't miss them.

MyTVShows has every show imaginable. I tried to stump them but I couldn't. I searched for Boardwalk Empire, which is an upcoming HBO series that airs for the first time in September and - sure enough - they had it in their database.

Sign up for an account and you can begin adding shows to your My Shows page. You can add specific season of shows if you want, and you can mark which episodes out of the seasons you've seen. MyTVShows will keep track of all of the unseen episodes to all of your shows until you mark them seen. You can also rate shows.

On the Stats page you can see the most popular shows and the most addicted users. You can visit any user's profile to see what they have favorited unless they have marked their profile private. Your profile picture is pulled from your Gravatar image based on the email you signed up for an account with.

As far as I can tell there is no system of notifications for new episodes, although you can access the site on your iPhone/iTouch or Android, which makes checking for episodes easier.

Conclusion

I will be using these apps in conjunction with one another for all of my television management needs. With MyTVShows' ability to keep track of every episode and EpisodeCalendar's notifications, I doubt I'll ever need to check the TV guide again.

Are you a TV junkie like me? Do you use an app to keep track of your favorite shows or do you just mark them down using Google Calendar? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.