3 Messages

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90 Points

Tuesday, May 26th, 2026

No Status

Changes from TV Series to TV Special or Movie keep getting rejected

Two examples:

Dining With the Kapoors: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35665487

All you have to do is go to the Netflix official site (https://www.netflix.com/title/81702885) and see that this is NOT a series, it is a special. The site itself states that this is a "Documentary Film" and not a series. Yet when I try to submit it as Dining with the Kapoors (2025) (TV) to change the type (along with the link to Netflix and its description), IMDb editors keep saying "We have been unable to verify your contribution." What else is needed to convince them?

Aftershock: The Nicole Bell Story: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36304451 and https://www.imdb.com/title/tt38872302/

These are very obviously duplicates of each other, and this is a movie and not a TV series. Yet when I try to make a name change on the TV Series listing, cite the movie title, and confirm that these should be merged, it keeps getting rejected as "Badly Formatted. Your contribution has been declined. Your contribution did not meet our formatting standards." How should this kind of situation be submitted? The formatting is going to look different because I'm trying to report that this is both a duplicate entry and under the wrong category.

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3 Messages

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90 Points

5 hours ago

These were the most recent submissions:

#260525-061449-25600

#260525-165325-734000

Employee

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8.5K Messages

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194.4K Points

4 hours ago

@sycasey80 The team are going to need the 18-digit contribution IDs to investigate this, however, without looking at the details, it appears the first one will have been rejected because you are trying to add “(TV)” to a standalone title made for a streaming service and that is the wrong title type for this release. Please see https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/titles/title-formatting/G56U5ERK7YY47CQB and specifically: 

  • If a standalone title is first released via a subscription-based streaming OTT service it should be submitted as a movie, for example, Roma (2018). If the title follows an episodic structure please submit the title as a TV-series, for example, "Stranger Things" (2016).

Hope this helps. 

Employee

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8.5K Messages

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194.4K Points

[ah you have added the reference numbers since I started composing the above] 

3 Messages

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90 Points

@Col_Needham​ I had also tried submitting the same title without the (TV) designation some time ago but it was also rejected as badly formatted.

#251121-201323-13300