To provide a lighting system capable of surely preventing secondary abnormality from occurring when abnormality occurs and excelling in safety; a display device using it; and a television receiver.

This lighting system is provided with: hot-cathode fluorescent tubes (light sources) 9; a plurality of inverter circuits (lighting drive circuits) 16 lighting and driving the hot-cathode fluorescent tubes 9; and a lighting control part (control part) 15 controlling the drive of the inverter circuits 16. In the lighting system, the lighting control part 15 generates an error signal when abnormality of at least either of the hot-cathode fluorescent tubes 9 and the inverter circuits 16 is detected, stops the power supply to the inverter circuit 16 having the detected abnormality and the power supply to the inverter circuit 16 driving the lighting of the hot-cathode fluorescent tube 9 having the detected abnormality, and stops power supply to all the rest of the inverter circuits 16 when a first threshold time elapses from the time the error signal is generated.