2001 in American television
The following is a list of events affecting American television during 2001. Events listed include television series debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel initiations, closures and re-brandings, as well as information about controversies and disputes.
| List of years in American television: |
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| 2000–01 United States network television schedule |
| 2001–02 United States network television schedule |
| List of American television programs currently in production |
Events
January
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | After being acquired by MTV Networks, The Box, a request video music channel shuts down, replaced by MTV2 on terrestrial stations. |
| In Hartford, Connecticut, UPN affiliate WTXX (now CW affiliate WCCT-TV) and WB affiliate WBNE (now MyNetworkTV affiliate WCTX) swap affiliations due to WTXX's impending purchase by Tribune Broadcasting, owners of Fox affiliate WTIC-TV (which at the time operated WTXX under a LMA) and a minority owner of The WB. WBNE, meanwhile, changes its call letters to the current WCTX and adopts new branding as "The X". | |
| 4 | HBO's children's programs, including the recently cancelled Crashbox, are transferred to its multiplex channel HBO Family. |
| 7 | Extreme Championship Wrestling's final nationally and globally televised event, Guilty as Charged airs on pay-per-view. |
| 9 | KXVA in Abilene, Texas signs-on the air under Program Test Authority. The new station (which will not be licensed for another 13 months) takes the market's Fox affiliation from sister station KIDZ-LP, which in turn becomes a full-time UPN affiliate. |
| 12 | National Geographic Channel debuts in the United States. |
| 15 | UK children's stop motion animated series Bob the Builder starts its American debut for the first time on Nick Jr. |
| 28 | CBS broadcasts Super Bowl XXXV, their first since Super Bowl XXVI at the end of the 1991 season. Greg Gumbel becomes the first African-American sportscaster to do network televised play-by-play on a major professional sports championship. |
February
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 5 | Kelly Ripa joins Live! as a permanent co-host with Regis Philbin. |
| 18 | Fox broadcasts its inaugural NASCAR telecast, the Daytona 500. In the final lap, Dale Earnhardt is killed after getting into a head-on collision. |
March
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 6 | TEENick first airs as a Sunday night block. |
| 18 | World Championship Wrestling produces their final pay-per-view, Greed. |
| 26 | On TNT, WCW Monday Nitro broadcasts its final show from Panama City Beach, Florida with a simulcast with the WWF's (now WWE's) Monday Night RAW television series (then airing on TNN), officially ending a six-year ratings struggle in professional wrestling known as the Monday Night Wars. Live professional wrestling events wouldn't be broadcast on TNT again until the launch of AEW Dynamite in 2019. |
April
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 10 | Kevin Olmstead wins a $2.18 million jackpot on the ABC game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, making him the biggest winner in American game show history.[1] |
May
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 15 | NBC airs the hour-long season seven finale of Friends titled "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding". |
| 17 | Shannen Doherty makes her final appearance as Prue Halliwell on Charmed. |
| 18 | The 28th Daytime Emmy Awards are presented on NBC. |
| 23 | On UPN, Star Trek: Voyager airs its series finale with a two-part episode "Endgame". |
June
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 12 | TNT is refocused as a drama-based cable channel with a new slogan, We Know Drama. |
| 18 | Luke and Laura, widely regarded as the soap opera pairing that helped generate the term "supercouple", sign divorce papers on ABC's soap opera General Hospital, dissolving their fictional two-decade union. |
July
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | HBO's second multiplex channel HBO Plus is renamed HBO 2, its original name from 1991 to 1998. |
| 20 | America's Funniest Home Videos returns as a regular series hosted by Tom Bergeron, a role he would hold for 15 seasons. |
| 21 | Nickelodeon's hit TV series Rugrats celebrates its 10th anniversary with a one-hour special, All Growed Up (which will eventually lead to a spin-off series), and a documentary, Still Babies After All These Years, narrated by Amanda Bynes. |
August
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 5 | Having acquired the Jim Henson Company's interest in the Odyssey cable network the previous year, Crown Media Holdings rebrands Odyssey as the Hallmark Channel, after Crown Media's corporate parent Hallmark Cards. The Hallmark Channel branding continues to this day. |
| 10 | Samurai Jack premieres on Cartoon Network with the premiere movie. |
| 31 | Mister Rogers' Neighborhood airs its final episode on PBS Kids. Fred Rogers died two years later of stomach cancer at the age of 74. |
September
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2 | Adult Swim, an adult-oriented programming block, debuts on its Turner sister cable channel Cartoon Network. |
| 5 | CBS's travel-based reality-competition, The Amazing Race, which would later become one of the most successful franchises in television, premiered its first episode. |
| 7 | Ed Toutant wins $1,860,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.[2] He had previously appeared on the episode aired January 31, 2001 when the jackpot was $1,860,000, where he was ruled to have answered his $16,000 question incorrectly, but when it was discovered that there was a mistake in that question, Toutant was invited back[3] and won the $1,860,000 jackpot.[2] |
| The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Band Geeks", airs on Nickelodeon. | |
| 8 | Fox broadcasts the final episode of Murder in Small Town X, in which New York City firefighter Ángel Juarbe, Jr. won. Juarbe was killed three days later during the collapse of the World Trade Center. |
| 11 | Viewers around the world witness a terrorist attack on the United States, and the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City, live on television. Additionally, the broadcast towers of WABC-TV and WNBC, the respective flagship stations of ABC and NBC, are destroyed by the attacks, but those signals could be viewed cable and satellite. The broadcast tower of WCBS-TV was destroyed in the attacks, but its full-power backup transmitter at the Empire State Building was not destroyed. Most American over-the-air broadcasters (except for Fox, UPN, PBS, and The WB) and cable networks suspend regular programming for four days, and numerous major daily talk shows are not exhibited for several weeks until their hosts feel comfortable resuming programming. |
| Although they were first seen during 1952 and used by some television news programs ever since, continually scrolling news headlines along the bottom of the screen become commonplace after the Fox News Channel used it to allow viewers to keep track of the latest developments during the attacks. | |
| 13 | UPN resumes normal programming with a live episode of SmackDown. The show was originally going to be taped on September 11, but the taping got postponed by two days due to the attacks. |
| 17 | Card Sharks is revived with host Pat Bullard, but its dramatically different game play turns off viewers and it is cancelled after just 13 weeks. |
| All of the Big Three television networks resume their normal daytime programming schedules after four days of extensive news coverage of the attacks. | |
| 20 | On CBS, Dr. Will Kirby is declared the winner of Big Brother 2, which was delayed by the attacks. Runner-up Nicole Nilson-Schafrich wins $50,000. |
| 21 | All four major US networks – ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC – broadcast America: A Tribute to Heroes, a two-hour telethon to raise money for the families of those killed by the attacks.[4] |
| Alex Trebek, the longtime host of Jeopardy!, appears for the first time without his trademark mustache. | |
| The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Sailor Mouth", airs on Nickelodeon. | |
| 24 | The start of the 2001–2002 autumn season in the US is delayed as a result of the attacks, with some series such as NBC's The West Wing substituting special episodes dealing with the event in lieu of their originally scheduled season premieres. Some series, such as CBS's military-themed series JAG and NBC's New York-based Third Watch, have to be reformatted in consideration of the attacks. |
| 29 | Fox affiliate WVSX (now WVNS-TV) in Lewisburg, West Virginia changes its affiliation to CBS, giving the Beckley-Bluefield-Oak Hill market its first full-time CBS affiliate. Fox will not return to the Bluefield area until 2006, when the combination of a dispute involving WVAH-TV in Charleston and the end of the Foxnet cable service prompts WVNS-TV to establish a Fox-affiliated DT2 subchannel. |
October
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2 | The medical comedy Scrubs premieres on NBC. |
| 3 | In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, several planned series and events are cancelled; most notably, NBC drops a mini-series planned for spring 2002 which would have united the cast of Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, dealing with a terrorist attack on New York City. |
| 4 | Rose McGowan makes her first appearance as Paige Matthews, the long-lost younger half-sister of Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, on Charmed. |
| 15 | In Wheel of Fortune, a compilation week of five taped sixth-episodes (which would later be called America's Game as of Season 26 in 2008) were shown for the first time. A new bonus round premiered a week later, in which a contestant can win as much as $100,000. This was not won until the December 19 episode. |
| 20 | Concert For New York: A Tribute To Heroes is broadcast by VH1, with performances by Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Billy Joel and others. It raises funds for the families of those killed by the attacks. |
| 24 | The Walt Disney Company completes its purchase of Fox Family for $2.9 billion. |
November
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | Telemundo relaunches GEMS Television as Mun2, featuring English and Spanish language programming intended for a young Latino audience. |
| 4 | The 53rd Primetime Emmy Awards are presented on CBS. The original date was postponed 2 months ago when the September 11 attacks occurred.[5] The broadcast aired opposite Game 7 of the World Series on Fox, where the Arizona Diamondbacks won their first title by defeating the three-time champion New York Yankees, marking the end of their memorable 1990s dynasty. |
| 10 | Fox Family Channel is renamed ABC Family, as News Corporation sells the channel to The Walt Disney Company. |
| 15 | The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is broadcast on television for the first time. The 2001 edition of the show is broadcast on ABC with 12.4 million viewers tuning in.[6][7] |
| 23 | Samurai Jack joins Cartoon Cartoon Fridays for the first time. |
| 26 | The values of clues on Jeopardy! are doubled. |
| 30 | The series finale of CGI cartoon series ReBoot is broadcast by Cartoon Network. |
December
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 13 | On CBS, lawyers and best friends team, Rob Frisbee and Brennan Swain, won the inaugural season of The Amazing Race and the US$1,000,000 grand prize. |
| 31 | New Year's Eve Live airs its first episode on CNN. |
Programs
Debuts
Returning this year
| Show | Last aired | Previous network | New network | Returning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space Ghost Coast to Coast | 1999 | Cartoon Network | Cartoon Network/Adult Swim | May 7/September 2 |
| Unsolved Mysteries | CBS | Lifetime | July 11 | |
| Home Movies | UPN | Adult Swim | September 2 | |
| Aqua Teen Hunger Force | 2000 | Cartoon Network | ||
| The Brak Show | ||||
| Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law | ||||
| Sealab 2021 | ||||
| Card Sharks | 1989 | CBS | Syndication | September 17 |
| Dexter's Laboratory | 1999 | Cartoon Network | Cartoon Network | November 16 for the revival season by Chris Savino |
Ending this year
Entering syndication this year
| Show | Seasons | In Production | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 5 | Yes | [10] |
| City Guys | 4 | No | [11] |
| Everybody Loves Raymond | 5 | Yes | [12] |
| Just Shoot Me! | 5 | Yes | [13] |
| King of the Hill | 5 | Yes | [14] |
| The Practice | 5 | Yes | [15] |
| The Steve Harvey Show | 5 | Yes | [16] |
| Two Guys and a Girl | 4 | No | [17] |
Changes of network affiliation
Notable TV movies
| Premiere date | Title | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| March 24 | Wit | HBO |
| April 28 | 61* | |
| April 29 | On Golden Pond | CBS |
| May 19 | Conspiracy | HBO |
| July 21 | All Growed Up | Nickelodeon |
| July 30 | The Retrievers | Animal Planet |
| September 14 | The Poof Point | Disney Channel |
| October 12 | Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge | |
| November 3 | The Flintstones: On the Rocks | Cartoon Network |
| November 18 | The Facts of Life Reunion | ABC |
| December 2 | The Lost Battalion | A&E |
| December 7 | 12 Tiny Christmas Tales | Cartoon Network |
| 'Twas the Night | Disney Channel | |
| December 11 | A Rugrats Kwanzaa | Nickelodeon |
Television stations
Station launches
Network affiliation changes
| Date | City of License/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | Albany, New York | WVBG-LP | 25 | UPN | Resort Sports Network | |
| Hartford, Connecticut | WCCT-TV | 20 | UPN | The WB | ||
| WCTX | 59 | The WB | UPN | |||
| January 9 | Abilene, Texas | KIDZ-LP | 54 | Fox (primary) UPN (secondary) |
UPN (primary) Pax TV (secondary) | |
| January 22 | North Platte, Nebraska | K11TW | 11 | UPN | Fox | |
| March 21 | Bowling Green, Kentucky | WNKY | 40 | Fox (as WKNT) | NBC | [18] |
| September 29 | Lewisburg, West Virginia (Bluefield/Beckley/Oak Hill, West Virginia) |
WVNS-TV | 59 | Fox | CBS | |
| October 20 | Syracuse, New York | WAWA-LP | 14 | Independent | UPN | |
| Unknown date | Fort Wayne, Indiana | W07CL | 7 | Network One | AIN/UATV | |
Births
| Date | Name | Notability |
|---|---|---|
| January 3 | Ellis Ann Jackson | Actress (Talia in the Kitchen) |
| January 14 | Jayce Mroz | Actor (I Am Frankie) |
| January 18 | Claire Engler | Actress (A.N.T. Farm) |
| January 19 | Tyler Merna | Voice actor (Prince James on Sofia the First) |
| January 21 | Jackson Brundage | Actor (One Tree Hill, See Dad Run, Harvey Beaks) |
| February 5 | Connor Gibbs | Actor (Ghost Whisperer) |
| February 15 | Haley Tju | Actress (Bella and the Bulldogs, Where's Waldo?) |
| February 16 | Katherine Forrester | Canadian voice actress (Katie on PAW Patrol) |
| February 19 | David Mazouz | Actor (Touch, Gotham) |
| February 21 | Isabella Acres | Actress (Better Off Ted) |
| Amarr M. Wooten | Actor (Knight Squad) | |
| February 23 | Tommi Rose | Actress (I Am Frankie) |
| March 6 | Milo Manheim | Actor |
| March 26 | Ciara Riley Wilson | Actress |
| March 30 | Uriel Baldesco | Filipino actress (I Am Frankie) |
| April 5 | Robbie Tucker | Actor (The Young and the Restless, See Dad Run) |
| April 21 | Maria Quezada | Actress (Talia in the Kitchen) |
| April 8 | Kyla Rae Kowalewski | Voice actress (Anais on The Amazing World of Gumball) |
| June 8 | Owen Mason | Canadian voice actor (Ryder on PAW Patrol (2013–15)) |
| June 9 | Xolo Mariduena | Actor (Parenthood) |
| June 13 | DeVore Ledridge | Actress (Bizaardvark) |
| June 27 | Curtis Harris | Actor (The Haunted Hathaways) |
| July 8 | Riele Downs | Canadian actress (Henry Danger, The Adventures of Kid Danger) |
| July 10 | Isabela Moner | Actress (Dora and Friends: Into the City!, 100 Things to Do Before High School) |
| July 12 | Niles Fitch | Actor (This Is Us) |
| July 31 | Sean Kyer | Canadian actor (Odd Squad) |
| August 8 | Bebe Wood | Actress (The New Normal, The Real O'Neals) |
| August 13 | Alyssa Jirrels | Actress (Mech-X4) |
| August 16 | Cole Jensen | Actor (Crash & Bernstein) |
| August 21 | Dallas Liu | Actor (Legendary Dudas, PEN15) |
| August 30 | Sean Ryan Fox | Actor (Henry Danger, The Adventures of Kid Danger) |
| September 4 | Tenzing Norgay Trainor | Actor (Liv and Maddie) |
| September 18 | Luke Mullen | Actor (Andi Mack) |
| October 5 | Dalila Bela | Canadian actress (Odd Squad, Ready Jet Go!, Anne) |
| October 12 | Raymond Ochoa | Actor |
| October 13 | Caleb McLaughlin | Actor (Stranger Things) |
| October 14 | Rowan Blanchard | Actress (Girl Meets World, The Goldbergs) |
| October 27 | Teilor Grubbs | Actress (Hawaii Five-0) |
| October 30 | Jaheem King Toombs | Actor (100 Things to Do Before High School) |
| November 5 | Alex Hook | Canadian actress (I Am Frankie) |
| November 7 | Sawyer Barth | Actor (The Kids Are Alright) |
| November 14 | Chloe Lang | Actress (Stephanie on LazyTown (2013–14)) |
| November 15 | Sadie Stanley | Actress (Kim Possible) |
| December 5 | Diego Velazquez | Actor (The Thundermans, Zoe Valentine) |
| December 8 | Kamran Lucas | Actor (Mech-X4) |
| Tylen Jacob Williams | Actor (Instant Mom) | |
| December 14 | Joshua Rush | Actor (Clarence, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, The Lion Guard, Andi Mack, Where's Waldo?) |
| December 28 | Madison De La Garza | Actress (Desperate Housewives) and sister of Demi Lovato |
| December 31 | Alex Thorne | Canadian voice actor (PAW Patrol, PJ Masks) |
Deaths
| Date | Name | Age | Notability |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | Ray Walston | 86 | American actor (My Favorite Martian) |
| January 6 | Scott Marlowe | 68 | American film, stage and television actor |
| January 8 | Don Brodie | 96 | American actor |
| January 15 | Bob Braun | 71 | |
| January 18 | Al Waxman | 65 | Canadian actor and director (Lt. Samuels on Cagney & Lacey) |
| January 21 | Sandy Baron | 64 | American actor and comedian |
| January 22 | Roy Brown | 68 | Clown and puppeteer |
| January 24 | Dick Whittinghill | 87 | American actor |
| January 25 | Sam Singer | 88 | American animator and producer |
| January 28 | Sally Mansfield | 77 | American actress |
| February 7 | Dale Evans | 88 | Singer, actress (The Roy Rogers Show) and wife of Roy Rogers |
| February 20 | Bob Weiskopf | 86 | Writer (I Love Lucy) |
| February 27 | Stan Margulies | 80 | Producer (Roots, The Thorn Birds) |
| March 8 | Edward Winter | 63 | Actor (Colonel Flagg on M*A*S*H) |
| March 12 | Morton Downey Jr. | 68 | Host of (The Morton Downey Jr. Show) |
| March 15 | Ann Sothern | 92 | Actress (Private Secretary, My Mother the Car) |
| March 16 | Norma MacMillan | 79 | Voice actor (Casper the Friendly Ghost, Gumby) |
| March 22 | William Hanna | 90 | Co-founder (with Joseph Barbera) of famous Hanna-Barbera animation studio |
| April 15 | Joey Ramone | 49 | Singer-songwriter (Ramones) |
| May 12 | Perry Como | 88 | Singer, TV host (Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall) |
| May 19 | Pat Falken Smith | 75 | Soap opera writer (Days of Our Lives) |
| May 22 | Whitman Mayo | 70 | Actor (Grady Wilson on Sanford and Son) |
| May 23 | Harry Townes | 86 | Actor (The Fugitive) |
| May 31 | Arlene Francis | 93 | Actress and game show panelist (What's My Line?) |
| June 2 | Imogene Coca | 92 | Actress and comedian (Your Show of Shows) |
| June 21 | Carroll O'Connor | 76 | Actor (Archie Bunker on All in the Family) and Chief Bill Gillespie on In the Heat of the Night (TV series) |
| August 3 | Christopher Hewett | 80 | Actor (Mr. Belvedere) |
| August 4 | Lorenzo Music | 64 | Writer and actor who co-created The Bob Newhart Show and did the voices of Carlton the doorman on Rhoda and Garfield the cat |
| August 25 | Aaliyah | 22 | Singer and actress |
| September 3 | Thuy Trang | 27 | Actress (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) |
| September 11 | David Angell | 55 | Writer (Cheers, Frasier) |
| October 9 | Dagmar | 79 | 1950s sex symbol |
| October 15 | Ralph Levy | 80 | Director (The Jack Benny Program, Petticoat Junction) |
| October 17 | Jay Livingston | 86 | Songwriter (themes to Bonanza and Mister Ed) |
| November 29 | George Harrison | 58 | Singer-songwriter (The Beatles) |
| John Mitchum | 82 | Actor | |
| December 1 | Johnny Stearns | 85 | Actor and producer (Mary Kay and Johnny, Tonight Starring Steve Allen) |
| December 13 | Chuck Schuldiner | 34 | Singer, songwriter, guitarist (guest on Headbanger's Ball) |
| December 20 | Foster Brooks | 89 | Actor |
| December 22 | Lance Loud | 50 | Member of the family documented in (An American Family) |
References
- "Interview: Kevin Olmstead, mega-Millionaire". Trivia Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
- Berr, Jonathan (September 29, 2010). "Million Dollar Game Show Winners: What Happens After the Money Comes In". Aol.com. Daily Finance. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Season 3. Episode 1. September 7, 2001. ABC.
- Carman, John (September 22, 2001). "Musicians, actors honor heroes, raise money for attack victims". San Francisco Chronicle. p. A1.
- The 53rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards from Variety (November 6, 2001)
- Kaplan, Don (November 17, 2001). "Victoria's Undies Fall Off". New York Post. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
- "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (2001)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 7, 2009.
- Heffley, Lynne (January 29, 2001). "New on Noggin: Team, Yes, Big Kids, No". Los Angeles Times.
- "Jerkbeast - Seattle Public Access Show episodes". 2008-10-21. Archived from the original on 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
- from Broadcasting & Cable
- from Broadcasting & Cable
- from Broadcasting & Cable
- from Broadcasting & Cable
- from Broadcasting & Cable
- from Broadcasting & Cable
- from Broadcasting & Cable
- from Broadcasting & Cable
- "All stats, all the time". Broadcasting & Cable. March 18, 2001. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
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