Project Zomboid TV Schedule: Every Life and Living Broadcast
Last verified: July 19, 2026, against the Build 42 broadcast data (42.17). Build 41 used the same Life and Living lineup; exact XP values below are the B42 numbers.
The one fact that changes how you play: the TV schedule runs on the calendar, not on your spawn. Life and Living broadcasts air from July 9 to July 17, 1993 (in-game) at fixed hours - 6:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM, plus one midnight show on the first day. If you start a later-spawn run, the early shows have already aired and are gone. Watching a show live grants free skill XP (scaled by Fast/Slow Learner) and a few shows permanently teach recipes. After July 17 the channel goes to static - from then on, VHS tapes are the only televised XP left.
What time does Life and Living come on?
6:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM, every day from July 9 to July 17, 1993. There is one extra broadcast at 12:00 AM on July 9 and nothing else outside those hours. Two days are short: Day 4 has no evening show and Day 8 has no noon show. Day 9, July 17, is a single 6:00 AM broadcast and then the channel is done for good.
| Slot | Days it airs | Skill | Total base XP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6:00 AM | all nine | Cooking, every single time | 762.5 |
| 12:00 PM | seven, not Day 8 or Day 9 | Carpentry, every single time | 612.5 |
| 6:00 PM | seven, not Day 4 or Day 9 | varies: Fishing, Farming, Foraging, Trapping, and Carpentry on Day 8 | 500.0 |
| 12:00 AM | Day 1 only | Fishing | 75.0 |
The pattern is easy to hold in your head: breakfast is always Cooking, lunch is always Carpentry, and the evening slot is the one that varies. The four recipes split evenly between the two ends of the day, Pie Dough and Cake Batter in the morning, Fishing Rod and Trap Crate in the evening.
If you can only reliably catch one slot, make it 6:00 AM. It is the only slot that never skips a day, and at 762.5 base XP it is the largest of the three, ahead of noon on 612.5 and the evening on 500.
The full schedule (all nine days)
Base XP assumes no learner traits; Fast Learner gets 1.3× and Slow Learner 0.7× these values. You must be in earshot of a powered TV tuned to Life and Living for the whole segment to collect every XP tick.
| Day (date) | Time | Skill | Base XP | Recipe taught |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 (July 9) | 12:00 AM | Fishing | 75 | - |
| 6:00 AM | Cooking | 112.5 | - | |
| 12:00 PM | Carpentry | 75 | - | |
| 6:00 PM | Fishing | 62.5 | - | |
| Day 2 (July 10) | 6:00 AM | Cooking | 75 | - |
| 12:00 PM | Carpentry | 75 | - | |
| 6:00 PM | Farming | 75 | - | |
| Day 3 (July 11) | 6:00 AM | Cooking | 62.5 | - |
| 12:00 PM | Carpentry | 100 | - | |
| 6:00 PM | Fishing | 75 | Fishing Rod | |
| Day 4 (July 12) | 6:00 AM | Cooking | 87.5 | - |
| 12:00 PM | Carpentry | 75 | - | |
| Day 5 (July 13) | 6:00 AM | Cooking | 75 | - |
| 12:00 PM | Carpentry | 100 | - | |
| 6:00 PM | Foraging | 50 | - | |
| Day 6 (July 14) | 6:00 AM | Cooking | 62.5 | Pie Dough |
| 12:00 PM | Carpentry | 75 | - | |
| 6:00 PM | Trapping | 100 | Trap Crate | |
| Day 7 (July 15) | 6:00 AM | Cooking | 87.5 | Cake Batter |
| 12:00 PM | Carpentry | 112.5 | - | |
| 6:00 PM | Foraging | 100 | - | |
| Day 8 (July 16) | 6:00 AM | Cooking | 125 | - |
| 6:00 PM | Carpentry | 37.5 | - | |
| Day 9 (July 17) | 6:00 AM | Cooking | 75 | - |
Totals if you catch every broadcast: roughly 762.5 Cooking XP, 650 Carpentry, 212.5 Fishing, 150 Foraging, 100 Trapping and 75 Farming - before trait multipliers. That is several early levels in Cooking and Carpentry for standing safely indoors. Full per-tick data is on the PZwiki Life and Living page.
The rules the game never explains
- Calendar-based, not run-based. The dates above are in-game calendar dates. On the default July 9 start you get the whole run; a later spawn (or a long sleep) permanently misses whatever already aired.
- XP arrives in ticks while the show airs. Arrive mid-broadcast and you collect only the remaining ticks. Be seated before the hour.
- The Day 1 midnight Fishing slot is an edge case - it airs at 00:00 on the start date, before a standard morning spawn is awake. Do not plan around it; the 6:00 AM Cooking premiere is your practical first show.
- Recipes are the real prizes. The four taught recipes (Fishing Rod, Pie Dough, Trap Crate, Cake Batter) unlock permanently - Day 3's Fishing Rod and Day 6's Trap Crate replace skill books you may not find for weeks.
- Volume matters. A TV at volume attracts zombies through walls and windows. Watch on low volume in a secured interior room; never in a house with open sightlines.
- Multiplayer servers: the schedule follows the server's world clock. On a fresh server everyone can gather for the broadcasts; on an established one, new joiners have missed them - plan loot priorities accordingly.
- Sandbox can change the numbers. XP-gain multipliers and the broadcast options in sandbox settings scale or move these values - the table assumes defaults.
After July 17: VHS tapes
Once Life and Living signs off (final broadcast: Day 9, 6:00 AM Cooking), televised XP continues only through VHS tapes played on a TV with a built-in VCR slot. Tapes drop in homes and the video store, are watchable any time, and each character collects a tape's XP once. If you missed the live window, tapes plus skill books are the catch-up path.
Read from the shipped files of the Build 42 Stable server we run (build 24909836), there are exactly two tape items and the distinction between them is the one that matters when you are sorting a pile of loot:
| Tape | Item ID | Media category | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home-recorded tape | Base.VHS_Home | Home-VHS | 0.5 |
| Retail tape | Base.VHS_Retail | Retail-VHS | 0.5 |
Both weigh 0.5, which is five bandages for one tape, so haul them to the TV rather than carrying a collection around. Both are also flagged as fire fuel at a ratio of 0.25, so a tape that taught you nothing is still worth keeping for the stove.
The TV itself weighs 10
All three television sets in the build, Base.TvAntique,
Base.TvBlack and Base.TvWideScreen, weigh 10.0
and sit in the Communications category. There is no lighter model to look for. Moving one
home is a dedicated trip with an empty bag, or a vehicle, and it is usually easier to
fortify the room the TV is already in for the nine days that matter.
The TV Magazine is not a schedule
Players reasonably assume Base.TVMagazine is the in-game programme guide.
It is not. It sits in the Literature category at 0.3 weight, 0.4 for the new edition, and
what it actually does is reduce stress by 15 when read. Useful, but it
will not tell you when Life and Living airs. The table above is the schedule.
How to use the window well
- Plan loot trips around the 6:00 AM / 12:00 PM / 6:00 PM slots - out after breakfast TV, back before the noon Carpentry block.
- Keep books, food and repair supplies by the TV so indoor time stays productive between shows.
- Do not risk a character to catch one episode; missing a show beats dying in a parking lot.
- Once the window closes, transition fully into books, tapes and deliberate skill training.
Need a stable place to test changes before you touch a live world? Launch your Project Zomboid server with Supercraft.