An improved remote control that includes a manual alert mechanism for alerting and providing channel information to television viewer when a regularly viewed television program is about to begin. The improved remote control preferably includes an alerting mechanism having an automatic alert mode whereby, in addition to providing the audible and visual alerting alarms and the channel information of the manual alert mechanism, the automatic alert mode causes the remote control to turn on the television if it is not currently on and to tune the television to the channel of the desired program. In addition, if desired, the improved remote control includes a microprocessor circuit that includes a manual programming mode for entering time, day and channel information to receive an alert for a desired program, and an automatic program mode that compares the viewing habits of the remote control users to one or more predetermined viewing patterns that are stored in the microprocessor circuit and that automatically programs a time, day and channel alerting event when the user's viewing habits match with one of the predetermined viewing patterns.