1996 in American television
| List of years in American television: |
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| 1995–96 United States network television schedule |
| 1996–97 United States network television schedule |
| List of American television shows currently in production |
The following is a list of events affecting American television during 1996. Events listed include television show debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel initiations, closures and rebrandings, as well as information about controversies and disputes.
Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 1 | Speedvision, a cable channel devoted to motor sports, commences programming. The network would be rechristened Speed Channel in 2002, then Speed in 2005. It would be replaced by Fox Sports 1 in 2013. |
| January 20 | Fox introduces its FoxTrax "glowing puck" during its telecast of the 46th National Hockey League All-Star Game. |
| January 28 | Chris Isaak and Brooke Shields make guest appearances on a post-Super Bowl episode of Friends. |
| March 1 | More than 1 billion households worldwide now own television sets. |
| March 4 | DISH Network, a Direct Broadcast Satellite service, begins as a service of EchoStar. |
| April 29 | TV Land, an offshoot of the series Nick at Nite devoted to round-the-clock broadcasts of classic television shows, debuts. |
| May 16 | More than 12 million Americans watch the final episode of Murder, She Wrote on CBS, "Death By Demographics". Through its 12-year run, the series had become the longest-running American Murder Mystery Drama. |
| May 19 | Sundance Channel debuts. |
| June 1 | Major League Baseball broadcasts debut on Fox. |
| June 3 | Zenith introduces the first HDTV-compatible front projection TV in the U.S. |
| June 19 | WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC is awarded the first experimental high-definition television license in the United States. |
| June 30 | New York PBS member station WNYC-TV shuts off the air and it was replaced with a commercially operated sports TV station known as WBIS. |
| July 6 | When it becomes evident that Anna Stuart will be next to die in a serial killer storyline on Another World, many fans start letter-writing campaigns to save the actress; the NBC studios in New York City also report a great number of switchboard telephone calls regarding Stuart's imminent demise. Executive producer Jill Farren Phelps decides that actress Alice Barrett will be killed off the show instead. |
| New World Communications sells its 2 remaining non-Fox affiliates, KNSD-TV (channel 39) in San Diego, California and WVTM-TV (channel 13) in Birmingham, Alabama, both of whom are affiliated with NBC, to the NBC Television Stations Division. Upon the finalization of the deal on August 14, both stations become NBC owned-and-operated stations (WVTM would eventually be sold to Media General in 2006; Hearst Television would acquire WVTM in 2015). | |
| July 15 | Talk-oriented America's Talking ceases broadcasting and is replaced by MSNBC, an all-news joint venture between NBC (AT's owner) and Microsoft. |
| August 2 | MTV's secondary channel, M2 (now known as MTV2), debuts. |
| August 23 | The Price Is Right celebrates its 25th Anniversary Special on CBS. |
| September 8 | The 48th Primetime Emmy Awards are presented on ABC. |
| The 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment continues when longtime ABC affiliate WBRC-TV (channel 6) in Birmingham, Alabama finally becomes a Fox owned-and-operated station, a year after Fox had acquired it (and WGHP-TV in High Point, North Carolina) from a trust that had been formed by New World Communications. ABC eventually affiliates with a trimulcast of WBMA-LP/WCFT/WJSU (channels 58, 33 and 40), which is owned by Allbritton Communications (owners of WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., one of ABC's strongest affiliates). Former Fox affiliate WTTO-TV (channel 21) becomes an independent station before affiliating with The WB the next year, while another former Fox affiliate, WNAL in Gadsden, Alabama, aligns with CBS. | |
| September 13 | The dubbed version of the Japanese series Dragon Ball Z premieres in the U.S. |
| September 15 | USA Cartoon Express airs for the last time on USA Network. |
| September 16 | The Jackpot wedge debuts on Wheel of Fortune. |
| September 17 | The O.J. Simpson civil trial begins. |
| October 1 | Animal Planet and Discovery Civilization launched. |
| October 2 | Seven newscasters were dismissed by WCBS-TV (channel 2) in New York. |
| October 4 | Discovery Science debuts. |
| October 7 | News Corporation gets into the cable news fray with the debut of the Fox News Channel. |
| November 1 | ESPNNEWS, a sports news channel from ESPN, debuts. |
| November 2 | The original cartoon series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles broadcasts its final episode, "Divide and Conquer", on CBS. |
| November 11 | Discovery Kids debuts. |
| December 1 | The 25 Days of Christmas Special begins on The Family Channel, starting one of the longest running Christmas Specials. |
| December 12 | Sports Illustrated and CNN debut CNN/SI, a 24-hour sporting news channel. |
| December 15 | Five years after its series finale, a movie version of Dallas, entitled Dallas: J.R. Returns, is broadcast by CBS. |
| December 17 | 6 years after dropping the title, TBS resumes using the term Superstation. |
| December 31 | WAKR-TV in Akron, Ohio disaffiliates from ABC and becomes an infomercial-based station before becoming a charter O&O of station owner Paxson Communications' new Pax TV network in 1998. |
Television programs
Programs debuting during 1996
Programs resuming during 1996
| Show | Last Aired | Previous Network | Retitled as | New Network | Returned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doug | 1994 | Nickelodeon | Disney's Doug | ABC | September 7 |
| Shop 'til You Drop | Lifetime | The New Shop 'til You Drop | The Family Channel | September 30 |
Programs ending during 1996
Made for TV movies and miniseries
| Premiere Date | Title | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| April 9 | Face of Evil | CBS |
| April 28 | The Beast | NBC |
| May 14 | Doctor Who | Fox |
| September 24 | After Jimmy | CBS |
| November 15 | Dallas: J.R. Returns | |
| November 17 | Titanic |
Changes of network affiliation
| Show | Moved from | Moved to |
|---|---|---|
| Brotherly Love | NBC | The WB |
| In the House | UPN | |
| Doug | Nickelodeon | ABC |
| Mystery Science Theater 3000 | Comedy Central | Sci Fi Channel |
Births
| Date | Name | Cinematic Notability |
|---|---|---|
| January 9 | Oana Gregory | Actress (Crash and Bernstein) |
| January 14 | Gabrielle Elyse | Actress (Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn) |
| January 15 | Dove Cameron | Actress (Liv and Maddie) and singer |
| January 18 | Sarah Gilman | Actress (I Didn't Do It) |
| January 27 | Braeden Lemasters | Actor (Men of a Certain Age, Betrayal) |
| February 1 | Rahart Adams | Actor (Every Witch Way) |
| February 9 | Jimmy Bennett | Actor (No Ordinary Family) |
| Kelli Berglund | Actress (Lab Rats, Lab Rats: Elite Force) | |
| February 17 | Sasha Pieterse | Actress (Pretty Little Liars) and singer |
| February 19 | Allen Alvarado | Actor (Flight 29 Down) |
| February 21 | Sophie Turner | English actress (Game of Thrones) |
| February 28 | Bobb'e J. Thompson | Actor (That's So Raven, Tyler Perry's House of Payne) |
| March 22 | Gig Morton | Canadian actor (Mr. Young) |
| April 3 | Sarah Jeffery | Canadian actress |
| April 4 | Austin Mahone | American singer |
| April 6 | Miranda May | Actress (Bunk'd) |
| April 10 | Audrey Whitby | Actress (The Thundermans) |
| April 14 | Abigail Breslin | Actress (Scream Queens) |
| April 17 | Dee Dee Davis | Actress (The Bernie Mac Show) |
| April 25 | Allisyn Ashley Arm | Actress (Sonny with a Chance, So Random!) |
| May 3 | Noah Munck | Actor (iCarly, The Goldbergs) |
| May 8 | Noah Centineo | Actor (The Fosters) |
| May 17 | Ryan Ochoa | Actor (iCarly, Pair of Kings) |
| June 16 | Cody Lohan | Actor (Living Lohan) |
| July 16 | Nicky Jones | Voice actor (Chowder) |
| July 21 | Joey Bragg | Actor (Liv and Maddie) |
| July 30 | Austin North | Actor (I Didn't Do It) |
| July 31 | Blake Michael | Actor (Dog With a Blog) |
| August 1 | Cymphonique Miller | Actress (How to Rock) and singer |
| August 12 | Torri Webster | Canadian actress (Life with Boys) |
| September 1 | Zendaya | Actress (Shake It Up, K.C. Undercover) and singer |
| September 4 | Victoria Moroles | Actress (Liv and Maddie, Teen Wolf) |
| September 6 | Alex Christian Jones | Actor (Kickin' It) |
| September 10 | Kamil McFadden | Actor (K.C. Undercover) |
| November 22 | Hailey Baldwin | American fashion and model |
| December 6 | Stefanie Scott | Actress (A.N.T. Farm) |
| December 11 | Hailee Steinfeld | Actress and singer |
| Jack Griffo | Actor (The Thundermans) and singer | |
| December 21 | Kaitlyn Dever | Actress (Justified, Last Man Standing) |
Deaths
| Date | Name | Age | Cinematic Credibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 3 | Audrey Meadows | 73 | actress (Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners) |
| February 13 | Martin Balsam | 76 | actor (Murray on Archie Bunker's Place) |
| February 15 | McLean Stevenson | 68 | actor (Lt. Col. Henry Blake on M*A*S*H) |
| Tommy Rettig | 54 | child actor (Jeff on Lassie) | |
| March 4 | Minnie Pearl | 83 | comedian |
| March 5 | Whit Bissell | 86 | character actor |
| March 9 | George Burns | 100 | comedian (The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show) |
| March 11 | Vince Edwards | 67 | actor (Ben Casey) |
| April 21 | Jimmy Snyder | 77 | sports commentator (The NFL Today) |
| May 20 | Jon Pertwee | 76 | actor (Third Doctor) (Doctor Who) |
| June 2 | Ray Combs | 40 | former host of Family Feud, (suicide) |
| June 5 | Vito Scotti | 78 | character actor, Gilligan's Island |
| June 16 | Mel Allen | 83 | sports commentator |
| July 21 | Herb Edelman | 62 | actor (Stanley Zbornak on The Golden Girls) |
| August 27 | Greg Morris | 62 | actor (Mission: Impossible) |
| September 13 | Tupac Shakur | 25 | actor and songwriter |
| October 6 | Ted Bessell | 61 | actor and director (Donald on That Girl) |
| October 28 | Morey Amsterdam | 87 | actor and comedian (Buddy on The Dick Van Dyke Show) |
| December 8 | Howard Rollins | 46 | actor (Tibbs on In the Heat of the Night) |
| December 12 | Larry Gates | 81 | soap opera actor (Guiding Light) |
| December 14 | Edward K. Milkis | 65 | producer |
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