Songfacts®:

• This melancholic song captures Billie Eilish's thoughts and feelings in the wake of a breakup. The depressed singer just wants to slump in front of the TV and watch someone else suffer on Survivor. Because Eilish cut her friends off to concentrate on her romantic relationships, she now feels lonely and cast adrift. Full of self-pity, the pop star reflects on not getting on with anyone and wonders if she's the problem.
• I don't wanna talk right now
  I just wanna watch TV
  I'll stay in the pool and drown
  So I don't have to watch you leave
  
  Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas started penning "TV" while on tour. They found it tough to write while on the road, but came up with the first verse and chorus. When Eilish played the verse to her personal assistant Laura Ramsay, she looked shocked. The singer assured her PA the content was fictional and told her not to worry about it.
  
  Eilish and Finneas completed the song a few months later.
• Eilish may have written the second verse following her split with her actor boyfriend Matthew Tyler Vorce. The pair started dating in April 2021 but broke up a year later amid rumors he cheated on her.
  
  I don't know where you are right now
  But did you see me on TV?
  
  Eilish wonders whether her ex saw her on the final episode of Ellen, which aired on May 26, 2022. During the show, the pop star told the host she was "just now starting to think about" music for her next album.
• Eilish points out a couple of events making headline news in May 2022.
  
  The internet's gone wild watching movie stars on trial
  While they're overturning Roe v. Wade
  
  The Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial and the impending reversal of Roe v. Wade were two of the biggest stories when Eilish wrote "TV."
  
  Actor Johnny Depp sued his former wife Amber Heard for defamation after she described herself as a public victim of domestic violence. After a seven-week trial, the jury found Heard guilty of defamation, and Depp received $15 million in damages.
  
  Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court that ruled a state law that banned abortion was unconstitutional. On May 2, 2022, a leak of official US Supreme Court documents suggested the ruling would be overturned. Eilish has voiced her concerns over abortion rights in the past, and in 2021 considered canceling her Austin City Limits concert over Texas' controversial law.
  
  Eilish and Finneas wrote the Roe v. Wade line a few weeks before the Supreme Court officially reversed it. Speaking to Zane Lowe of Apple Music, Eilish bemoaned the decision, saying writing "TV" in hindsight "was a placeholder of doom."
  Eilish added it was the day of her headlining concert at Glastonbury when news came through of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. "We were at this house, and I was sitting with the dogs in the grass," she said. "My mom came out, and she just stood there, and she went, 'They overturned it.' We all were just like... God, it was like a curtain of doom. I mean, there was almost no even reaction. I had this, I guess, now that I think about it, unrealistic hope that that wouldn't happen. We wrote that line when the news got out about the fact that they're considering overturning it, and we wrote that line then. It's a really scary world right now."
• Eilish debuted "TV" at her Manchester, England, show on June 7, 2022. The singer told the crowd it was the first time she and her brother/producer Finneas played a fresh track live before its release since 2017 or 2018. She added: "This is one we just wrote, and we just wanted to play for you."
• Eilish released "TV" as one of two tracks from her Guitar Songs EP on July 21, 2022. She and Finneas inserted a recording of crowd noises from the Manchester tour performance into the song.