| Date | Event |
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| January 3 | ABC and CBS simultaneously broadcast their own movies based on Amy Fisher's life, with Fisher played by Drew Barrymore (for ABC) and Alyssa Milano (for CBS); NBC had broadcast its own version of the Fisher saga six days earlier (December 28, 1992). |
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| January 8 | ABC affiliate KOUS-TV (now Fox affiliate KHMT) in Billings, Montana, which had suffered reception problems for most of its history, signs off the air (it will return to the air as KHMT in August 1995). Later that day, KSVI signs-on the air, taking KOUS-TV's intellectual unit and ABC affiliation with it. [1] [2] |
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| January 11 | Monday Night Raw airs its first episode, live from the Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center in New York City, on the USA Network. In the main event, The Undertaker defeats Damien Demento. |
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| January 14 | David Letterman announces [3] during a press conference that he will be moving his late-night program from NBC to CBS come August 1993. |
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| January 15 | The series finale of Santa Barbara airs on NBC. In it, Sophia and C.C. Capwell move towards a reconciliation, Kelly finds love with Connor McCabe, and at Warren and B.J.'s wedding, unbalanced Andie Klein aims a gun at the crowd; however, she is quickly disarmed and carried away by Connor. This is then followed by a roll-call list of the cast and crew. The final shot consists of executive producer Paul Rauch standing in front of the camera, smashing a cigar under his shoe, and walking away. |
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| January 16 | On Saturday Night Live , Madonna parodies Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday Mr. President, as “Happy Inauguration Mr. President”. On the same episode, she imitates Sinéad O'Connor's actions from earlier in the season. |
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| January 19 | Fox expands its regular prime-time schedule to seven days a week; the network celebrates by premiering two dramas on this Tuesday: Class of '96 and Key West . |
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| January 20 | Warner Bros. Television Distribution launches the Prime Time Entertainment Network. |
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| January 31 | The Super Bowl, broadcast by NBC, has a solo halftime performer for the first time—Michael Jackson, who performed a medley of his most successful songs. |
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| February 6 | Dana Carvey makes his final appearance as a cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live . By the end of the season on May 15, Chris Rock and Robert Smigel would also make their final appearances on SNL as cast members. |
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| February 10 | Oprah Winfrey interviews Michael Jackson during a live primetime special on ABC, hosted at Jackson's Neverland Ranch (Jackson's first TV interview since 1979 with Barbara Walters for 20/20 ). |
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| Fox gets a full-time home in Grand Junction, Colorado when KFQX signs-on the air. |
| February 24 | Michael Jackson receives a Grammy Legend Award at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards, presented by his younger sister, Janet. The ceremony is broadcast by CBS. |
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| February 26 | The Days of Our Lives nighttime special Night Sins is broadcast by NBC. |
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| March 2 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade makes its network television premiere on CBS. |
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| March 4 | ESPN holds the first ever ESPY Awards. The highlight is Jim Valvano's speech while accepting the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. He announced the creation of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for cancer. [4] Less than two months after his famous ESPY speech, Valvano died following a nearly yearlong battle with metastatic cancer. |
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| March 13 | Harrison Ford appears as Indiana Jones in the bookend scenes for an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles on ABC. |
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| March 28 | Through a brokered deal with ESPN, ABC begins the first of a two-year deal with the National Hockey League to televise six regional Sunday afternoon broadcasts (including the first three Sundays of the playoffs). This marked the first time that regular season National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television [5] since 1974–75 (when NBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner). |
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| April 4 | The ninth annual WrestleMania event is broadcast on pay-per-view. This was the first WrestleMania event to be held outdoors as it took place at Caesars Palace in Paradise, Nevada. This was also the first World Wrestling Federation event to feature Jim Ross as a commentator. The main event saw Hulk Hogan defeating Yokozuna, who had won the belt moments prior, to win the WWF Championship (Hogan actually wrestled earlier in the night, teaming up with Brutus Beefcake in a loss to Money Inc. via DQ and failed to win the WWF Tag Team Championship). |
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| April 18 | The Disney Channel celebrates its 10th anniversary. |
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| April 25 | Lorne Michaels chooses Conan O'Brien, who was a writer for The Simpsons at the time and a former writer for Michaels at Saturday Night Live , to fill David Letterman's old seat directly after The Tonight Show on NBC. [6] |
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| May 5 | Senior As the World Turns cast member Don Hastings hosts a memorial tribute to Douglas Marland. Marland, who died during March after an abdominal surgery procedure, had been the series' chief writer since 1985 and was responsible for several story lines on the CBS soap opera. |
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| The series finale of Quantum Leap is broadcast on NBC. Two title cards were tacked on to the end of the last episode; one read that Al's first wife Beth never remarried, so they were still married in the present day and had four daughters. The last title cards said "Sam Becket [sic] never returned home." The finale was met by viewers with mixed feelings. [7] [8] [9] |
| May 8 | The intended hour long series finale of A Different World is broadcast on NBC, who would go on to air four additional episodes through July 9, 1993. Three remaining episodes would make their debuts in syndication. In the finale, Dwayne, Whitley, and their unborn child prepare to move to Japan, where Dwayne is offered a job. |
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| May 13 | The fourth-season finale of the Fox cartoon-sitcom The Simpsons features guest appearances from Johnny Carson, Hugh Hefner, Bette Midler, Luke Perry, Elizabeth Taylor, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Barry White. |
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| Knots Landing airs a two-hour series finale on CBS. |
| May 14 | Jaimee Foxworth (Judy) and Telma Hopkins (Rachel) make their final regular appearances on the ABC sitcom Family Matters ; though Hopkins later makes return guest appearances on the series as Rachel while Foxworth's character Judy disappears without explanation. |
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| May 19 | The gang at West Beverly graduate from high school in the Season 3 finale of Beverly Hills, 90210 . |
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| May 20 | NBC airs the fourth season finale of Seinfeld , expanded to 60 minutes. The episode concludes a season-long story sequence involving a pilot show written by Jerry and George, with the pilot finally coming to fruition only to be refused by NBC executives. Immediately afterwards, 80.4 million people tune to NBC to watch the series finale of Cheers . |
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| May 23 | One month after federal agents make an infamous raid on David Koresh's Waco, Texas, compound, NBC broadcasts a hastily produced television movie based on the incident, In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco ; Tim Daly plays Koresh for the movie. |
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| May 28 | Major League Baseball's owners overwhelmingly approve [10] a six-year joint venture with ABC and NBC. The venture, eventually dubbed "The Baseball Network", displaces CBS as MLB's primary network television package holder. |
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| June 1 | Connie Chung begins co-anchoring CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. |
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| June 13 | The World Wrestling Federation holds the inaugural King of the Ring event on pay-per-view. Hulk Hogan would lose the WWF Championship against Yokozuna in what would be Hogan's final appearance on the WWF's television programming until 2002. |
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| June 16 | While appearing as a guest on Yo! MTV Raps , Tupac Shakur confesses to physically assaulting film directors Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes in retaliation for his firing from the film Menace II Society . |
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| June 25 | David Letterman broadcasts his last late-night talk show with NBC. |
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| June 26 | The final episode of Soul Train with Don Cornelius as host airs. |
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| July 2 | Don Drysdale makes what turns out to be his final broadcast for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He provided play-by-play on the first six innings for a game between the Dodgers and Montreal Expos on KTLA 5, before handing it off to Vin Scully. Drysdale later died of a heart attack in his hotel's room, in Montreal, in the early hours of the following night. |
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| July 13 | The Major League Baseball All-Star Game airs on CBS for the fourth consecutive year. Played in Baltimore, this is to date, the final time that CBS would broadcast Major League Baseball's All-Star Game. |
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| August 3 | Gayle Gardner becomes the first woman to do televised play-by-play of a baseball game when she called the action of a game between the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds. [11] |
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| August 18 | At Clash of the Champions XXIV , the professional wrestler known as the Shockmaster botches his debut appearance in World Championship Wrestling by tripping and falling face first to the ground after crashing through a wall on Ric Flair's interview segment "A Flair for the Gold". |
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| August 28 | Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , the first Power Rangers entry, debuted on Fox Kids. It would soon become a 1990s pop culture phenomenon along with a large line of toys, action figures, and other merchandise. [12] The show adapts stock footage from the Japanese TV series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (1992–1993), which is the 16th installment of Toei's Super Sentai franchise. [13] |
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| August 30 | Late Show with David Letterman premieres on CBS, with actor Bill Murray and musical guest Billy Joel. |
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| PBS introduces new branding for their children's programs featuring "The P-Pals". |
| September 3 | Sally Jessy Raphael Show airs for the last time on WABC-TV and KCAL-TV in the New York and Los Angeles areas respectively. The following Tuesday, The Les Brown Show takes over the WABC spot. Sally would move to WNBC and KNBC in said areas. |
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| September 10 | The pilot episode of The X-Files airs on Fox. As the pilot, it would set up the mythology storyline for the series. The episode earns a Nielsen rating of 7.9 and is viewed by 7.4 million households and 12.0 million viewers. The episode itself is generally well received by fans and critics alike, which leads to a growing cult following for the series before it hits the mainstream. |
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| September 12 | Raymond Burr dies of liver cancer at his ranch home in California at the age of 76. (The last Perry Mason movie, Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss, airs on NBC on November 29, carrying a dedication to Burr with an in memoriam tribute at the end of the movie.) |
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| September 13 | Late Night with Conan O'Brien premieres on NBC, as O'Brien replaces David Letterman as host. |
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| Xuxa debuts her English program in syndication, becoming the first Brazilian person to host a TV show in US. |
| September 16 | Marc Wilmore, Reggie McFadden, Jay Leggett, Carol Rosenthal and Anne-Marie Johnson join the cast of the Fox series In Living Color for its final season. None of the Wayans Family are involved at all during the season. |
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| The pilot episode of Frasier airs on NBC. It introduces the primary characters and settings, and distances itself from its parent series Cheers . The episode also sets up a number of recurring gags for the series, such as Martin's Lazyboy recliner and the unseen character of Maris Crane, Niles' wife. For his performance in this episode, Kelsey Grammer would win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. |
| September 18 | On Beakman's World on CBS, Liza (played by Eliza Schneider) makes her debut as the new assistant/co-host. Lasting 39 episodes, Liza would be the longest tenured assistant on the show. |
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| September 19 | The 45th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is broadcast on ABC. |
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| September 21 | The pilot episode for NYPD Blue is broadcast on ABC. The series includes more nudity and raw language than is common on broadcast television at the time. This results in at least 30 of the network's affiliates—mostly in smaller markets—not running the series when it debuts, with the show airing in many of those markets on a Fox affiliate or independent station live or delayed. [14] |
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| September 24 | Raven-Symoné, Nell Carter and Saundra Quarterman join the cast of the series Hangin' with Mr. Cooper on ABC. |
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| The pilot episode for Boy Meets World is broadcast on ABC as part of the network's popular TGIF comedy block following Family Matters and before Step by Step . It would face competition from hour-long shows The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (Fox) and a special episode of Blossom (NBC), as well as half-hour comedy Family Album (CBS) in the same 8:30 p.m. timeslot. It would debut to 16.5 million viewers, ranking it as the fifth highest-viewed show of the night, and tied with another ABC series Matlock as the 48th ranked broadcast of the week. |
| October 23 | CBS's four-year broadcast relationship with Major League Baseball ends with Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter's walk-off home run to win the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. (Bob Seger's song "The Famous Final Scene" plays during the broadcast's closing credits.) |
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| October 25 | The Rocky Horror Picture Show makes its TV debut on Fox; the movie is inter-cut with a live cast performance. |
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| October 27 | Paramount Pictures and Chris-Craft Industries announce the formation of the United Paramount Network. |
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| October 29 | The first Got Milk? commercial is broadcast on TV. Directed by Michael Bay, a guy obsessed by the history of the duel hears a voice on the radio asking a $10,000 question, "Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?", while making and eating a peanut butter sandwich. The question was transferred to the telephone, answers the correct answer "Aaron Burr", but the person on the telephone can't hear it clearly with his mouth full of peanut butter sandwich before time ends, and he only has a few drops of milk left. |
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| October 30 | Michael J. Nelson makes his debut as host of Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Nelson replaced Joel Hodgson, who departed from the series the week prior. |
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| November 2 | Warner Bros. Entertainment announces the formation of The WB Television Network. |
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| November 9 | On CNN, Larry King moderates a debate between Ross Perot and Al Gore on the North American Free Trade Agreement that was watched in 11.174 million households – the largest audience ever for a program on an ad-supported cable network until the October 23, 2006 New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game on ESPN's Monday Night Football . [15] |
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| November 12 | The UFC puts on their first ever pay-per-view event in Denver. [16] |
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| November 15 | Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera join the cast of the Disney Channel series The New Mickey Mouse Club . |
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| November 21 | Bill Bixby dies of prostate cancer at the age of 59 (six days after his final directing job on NBC's Blossom ). |
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| November 22 | TV Food Network (later, just Food Network) makes its debut with two initial shows featuring David Rosengarten, Donna Hanover, and Robin Leach. The following day, TV Food Network would begin live broadcasting. [17] One if its first shows is How to Boil Water , which is first hosted by Emeril Lagasse. |
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| November 25 | Home Alone makes its network television premiere on NBC. |
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| November 26 | Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT all broadcast 14 hours of animated programs as part of "The Great International Toon-In". Interstitials during the event introduced the Cartoon Network's new motion capture animated character Moxy, which would be the star of Cartoon Network's first original animated program, The Moxy Show. |
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| December 18 | CBS (which had been a broadcaster of National Football League games for 38 years) loses their rights to telecast National Football Conference games to Fox. Fox wins the rights to NFC games by offering a then-record $1.58 billion to the NFL over four years, significantly more than the $290 million per year CBS was willing to pay. |
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