1. Family members

   • hold the victim in front of their family members as they are being tortured with your preferred method. As long as their family members appear to be in obvious pain, the victim will blame themselves. If left alone, the victims' conscience will gradually tear them apart. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

2. Solitary confinement

   • Humans are social beings. When deprived of social capability, people tend to become withdrawn and some even go barking mad. For a plus point, add bright lights that are on 24/7 (disrupts sleep cycle), or keep them in a room with no clear edges (single-color edgeless walls). Within a week the victims will lose either their sense of time or space.

1. Waterboarding

   • TV's favorite torture method. Remarkably effective as the victim needs to live out the experience of "drowning" possibly many times. Having to experience drowning (by no means a pleasant thing) can cause significant mental pain.

2. Phobias

• Expose the victim to their phobias, be it heights, insects, speed and so on, but do not let them be directly affected by their phobias (e.g. if they're afraid of insects, place victim in glass tube within insect-infested region). Insanity due to exposure to phobias for extended durations of time can set in quickly with this method.

1. Slow slicing/Lingchi

• link. An ancient Chinese method of torture (which can easily be prolonged to three hours or more) also known as Death by a Thousand Cuts, parts of their body are periodically sliced off.

2. Systematic Dismemberment

• Find a body extremity (like fingers) and systematically remove the joints one by one either by cutting or blunt force. If the victim bleeds, cauterization of the wound is a viable way to stop the bleeding (and also cause more pain).

In conclusion, to cause maximum pain, I would recommend combining all six methods listed above but not to the extent of fatality.

1. Family members

   • hold the victim in front of their family members as they are being tortured with your preferred method. As long as their family members appear to be in obvious pain, the victim will blame themselves. If left alone, the victims' conscience will gradually tear them apart. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

2. Solitary confinement

   • Humans are social beings. When deprived of social capability, people tend to become withdrawn and some even go barking mad. For a plus point, add bright lights that are on 24/7 (disrupts sleep cycle), or keep them in a room with no clear edges (single-color edgeless walls). Within a week the victims will lose either their sense of time or space.

3. Deprivation

   • Find an object that your victim really loves or values (could be anything, phone, stuffed toy, book) and give that item to them. After a day or two, take it away. It is important to let them get attached to the object (assuming it is the only other thing in the room). Wait a day or so, then give it back for another day or so. Repeat this process for extended durations of deprivation of the object. As a culmination, you can completely obliterate a duplicate of the object in front of the victim in the most gruesome fashion possible. Never return the original. If your dictator is a slight psychopath, create a shelf and place this object there.

1. Waterboarding

   • TV's favorite torture method. Remarkably effective as the victim needs to live out the experience of "drowning" possibly many times. Having to experience drowning (by no means a pleasant thing) can cause significant mental pain.

2. Phobias

   • Expose the victim to their phobias, be it heights, insects, speed and so on, but do not let them be directly affected by their phobias (e.g. if they're afraid of insects, place victim in glass tube within insect-infested region). Insanity due to exposure to phobias for extended durations of time can set in quickly with this method.

3. Confusion

   • expose your subject (first placed in a completely dark room) to an extremely bright light connected to a timer that fires at irregular intervals. For example, the light would turn on every ten seconds for three seconds, the next round would be every four seconds for thirty seconds etc. It helps if it could be in a room with completely black walls in which all walls become illuminated when the light turns on (entire-wall lights). The subject will likely be driven insane after a few days.

1. Slow slicing/Lingchi

   • link. An ancient Chinese method of torture (which can easily be prolonged to three hours or more) also known as Death by a Thousand Cuts, parts of their body are periodically sliced off.

2. Systematic Dismemberment

   • Find a body extremity (like fingers) and systematically remove the joints one by one either by cutting or blunt force. If the victim bleeds, cauterization of the wound is a viable way to stop the bleeding (and also cause more pain).

3. Anything to do with the genitals.

   • assuming your subject is a male, simply repeatedly punch, compress, or do anything that'd cause a male extreme pain. I would propose first the phallus and then individual testicula under a hydraulic press. If there is blood, cauterize.

In conclusion, to cause maximum pain, I would recommend combining all nine methods listed above but not to the extent of fatality.

Also, torture needn't just be made from prelisted methods; you can create your own torture method very easily. How painful it can be depends on your imagination.

I'd also like to point out that torture isn't exactly suited for television as people who are watching it may get turned off. Some other answers have highlighted the possibility of gamification to engage viewer interest, but I would generally advise only airing a few minutes of the most gruesome parts possible (e.g. first cut).

I note that most other answers seem to be covering physical pain, and I'd like to add some other types of pain that can be induced.

Be warned, certain methods below may be particularly morbid

There are three primary different kinds of pain: emotional, mental and physical pain. Each one can be equally debilitating and/or fatal.

I'll cover a few methods of inducing each type of pain on your victim.

Emotional Pain

Emotional pain is likely the most damaging and traumatising type of pain. Below are a few methods of inducing emotional pain:

1. Family members

   • hold the victim in front of their family members as they are being tortured with your preferred method. As long as their family members appear to be in obvious pain, the victim will blame themselves. If left alone, the victims' conscience will gradually tear them apart. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

2. Solitary confinement

   • Humans are social beings. When deprived of social capability, people tend to become withdrawn and some even go barking mad. For a plus point, add bright lights that are on 24/7 (disrupts sleep cycle), or keep them in a room with no clear edges (single-color edgeless walls). Within a week the victims will lose either their sense of time or space.

Mental Pain

Mental pain comes with traumatising experiences. While emotional pain is a subset of mental pain, I will discuss some ways to cause specifically mental pain.

1. Waterboarding

   • TV's favorite torture method. Remarkably effective as the victim needs to live out the experience of "drowning" possibly many times. Having to experience drowning (by no means a pleasant thing) can cause significant mental pain.

2. Phobias

• Expose the victim to their phobias, be it heights, insects, speed and so on, but do not let them be directly affected by their phobias (e.g. if they're afraid of insects, place victim in glass tube within insect-infested region). Insanity due to exposure to phobias for extended durations of time can set in quickly with this method.

Physical Pain

By far the easiest pain to inflict.

1. Slow slicing/Lingchi

• link. An ancient Chinese method of torture also known as Death by a Thousand Cuts, parts of their body are periodically sliced off.

2. Systematic Dismemberment

• Find a body extremity (like fingers) and systematically remove the joints one by one either by cutting or blunt force. If the victim bleeds, cauterization of the wound is a viable way to stop the bleeding (and also cause more pain).

I note that most other answers seem to be covering physical pain, and I'd like to add some other types of pain that can be induced.

Be warned, certain methods below may be particularly morbid

There are three primary different kinds of pain: emotional, mental and physical pain. Each one can be equally debilitating and/or fatal.

I'll cover a few methods of inducing each type of pain on your victim.

Emotional Pain

Emotional pain is likely the most damaging and traumatising type of pain. Below are a few methods of inducing emotional pain:

1. Family members

   • hold the victim in front of their family members as they are being tortured with your preferred method. As long as their family members appear to be in obvious pain, the victim will blame themselves. If left alone, the victims' conscience will gradually tear them apart. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

2. Solitary confinement

   • Humans are social beings. When deprived of social capability, people tend to become withdrawn and some even go barking mad. For a plus point, add bright lights that are on 24/7 (disrupts sleep cycle), or keep them in a room with no clear edges (single-color edgeless walls). Within a week the victims will lose either their sense of time or space.

Mental Pain

Mental pain comes with traumatising experiences. While emotional pain is a subset of mental pain, I will discuss some ways to cause specifically mental pain.

1. Waterboarding

   • TV's favorite torture method. Remarkably effective as the victim needs to live out the experience of "drowning" possibly many times. Having to experience drowning (by no means a pleasant thing) can cause significant mental pain.

2. Phobias

• Expose the victim to their phobias, be it heights, insects, speed and so on, but do not let them be directly affected by their phobias (e.g. if they're afraid of insects, place victim in glass tube within insect-infested region). Insanity due to exposure to phobias for extended durations of time can set in quickly with this method.

Physical Pain

By far the easiest pain to inflict.

1. Slow slicing/Lingchi

• link. An ancient Chinese method of torture (which can easily be prolonged to three hours or more) also known as Death by a Thousand Cuts, parts of their body are periodically sliced off.

2. Systematic Dismemberment

• Find a body extremity (like fingers) and systematically remove the joints one by one either by cutting or blunt force. If the victim bleeds, cauterization of the wound is a viable way to stop the bleeding (and also cause more pain).

In conclusion, to cause maximum pain, I would recommend combining all six methods listed above but not to the extent of fatality.