diff --git a/django/views/generic/base.py b/django/views/generic/base.py
index ca039ae9db..e11412ba4d 100644
--- a/django/views/generic/base.py
+++ b/django/views/generic/base.py
@@ -142,11 +142,11 @@ class TemplateResponseMixin(object):
 
 class TemplateView(TemplateResponseMixin, ContextMixin, View):
     """
-    A view that renders a template.  This view is different from all the others
-    insofar as it also passes ``kwargs`` as ``params`` to the template context.
+    A view that renders a template.  This view will also pass into the context
+    any keyword arguments passed by the url conf.
     """
     def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
-        context = self.get_context_data(params=kwargs)
+        context = self.get_context_data(**kwargs)
         return self.render_to_response(context)
 
 
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.5.txt b/docs/releases/1.5.txt
index 29cbd45c49..4f25919d79 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.5.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.5.txt
@@ -144,6 +144,14 @@ year|date:"Y" }}``.
 ``next_year`` and ``previous_year`` were also added in the context. They are
 calculated according to ``allow_empty`` and ``allow_future``.
 
+Context in TemplateView
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+For consistency with the design of the other generic views,
+:class:`~django.views.generic.base.TemplateView` no longer passes a ``params``
+dictionary into the context, instead passing the variables from the URLconf
+directly into the context.
+
 OPTIONS, PUT and DELETE requests in the test client
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/generic_views/base.py b/tests/regressiontests/generic_views/base.py
index b9f64888fc..a61b01be0b 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/generic_views/base.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/generic_views/base.py
@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ class TemplateViewTest(TestCase):
         """
         response = self.client.get('/template/simple/bar/')
         self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
-        self.assertEqual(response.context['params'], {'foo': 'bar'})
+        self.assertEqual(response.context['foo'], 'bar')
         self.assertTrue(isinstance(response.context['view'], View))
 
     def test_extra_template_params(self):
@@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ class TemplateViewTest(TestCase):
         """
         response = self.client.get('/template/custom/bar/')
         self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
-        self.assertEqual(response.context['params'], {'foo': 'bar'})
+        self.assertEqual(response.context['foo'], 'bar')
         self.assertEqual(response.context['key'], 'value')
         self.assertTrue(isinstance(response.context['view'], View))