Need Quick Help With 301ing .htaccess

I carnt figure out why this isn't working

it keeps putting program as index.php [NC]

if anyone could help that could be fantastic

 

Firstly, I don't think you need to repeat both lines....

RewriteRule shows/(.*) shows/index.php?program=$1 [R=301,NC]

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should do exactly the same as:

RewriteRule shows/(.*)/ shows/index.php?program=$1/ [R=301,NC]

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since the period matches any character, including a forward slash.

About your problem - the rewriting is being done twice. Let's assume the original request is for shows/donkeys. This matches the pattern shows/(.*) so it gets 301 redirected to shows/index.php?program=donkeys
This is now a new request for shows/index.php, the rewrite rules still apply so
shows/index.php is rewritten to shows/index.php?program=index.php

Try something along the lines of:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !index.php$
RewriteRule shows/(.*)/episode/(.*) shows/index.php?program=$1&episode=$2 [R=301,NC]
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !index.php$
RewriteRule shows/(.*) shows/index.php?program=$1 [R=301,NC]

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