Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 1 | NBC Universal drops Trio and in its place launches Sleuth, a 24-hour entertainment cable channel dedicated to the crime, mystery and suspense genre. |
| January 2 | The original Viacom officially splits into two companies, with the CBS television network and Showtime Networks becoming part of CBS Corporation, and the MTV Networks group of channels (which includes MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central) and Black Entertainment Television going to the new Viacom. Eventually, the biggest casualty of the split was that Paramount Television, which became part of CBS Corporation, would cease to exist after 38 years of television production, as it was merged into the production arm of the CBS network. The studio went by the name of CBS Paramount Television for three years, later becoming CBS Television Studios. |
| January 3 | Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff take over anchoring duties ABC News' World News Tonight, replacing Peter Jennings, who died of cancer in 2005. |
| January 6 | After several years as part of The WB's weekday programming lineup, The WB drops its weekday afternoon Kids' WB animation block. Kids' WB was relegated to Saturday mornings, and the weekday block is replaced by Daytime WB. |
| January 12 | Second live episode of Will & Grace airs on NBC on both the East and West coasts. |
| January 20 | High School Musical, arguably Disney's Channel's most successful original movie, is released. It is shown about 12 times more to an audience of 37 million different people. |
| January 24 | CBS and Warner Bros. announce the launch of The CW Television Network for the 2006–2007 season. This network is, in a sense, a merger of The WB Television Network and UPN and was designed to replace both of those networks. |
| January 28 | The Directors Guild of America name Tony Croll and J. Rupert Thompson as reality TV directors for Three Wishes and Fear Factor, respectively. Best director of a dramatic series is Michael Apted for Rome. TV comedy series director is Marc Buckland for My Name Is Earl. Directors Joseph Sargent (Warm Springs)and George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues) share best TV movie awards. General Hospital's Owen Renfroe is named best daytime serial director. |
| February 5 | After 36 years, ABC airs its final National Football League telecast when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Seattle Seahawks, 21-10, in Super Bowl XL. |
| February 22 | Fox announces plans for a new network, called "MyNetworkTV". The network was planned to run on UPN and WB affiliates who are not included in the launch of The CW. |
| March 8 | Bravo's premiere of one of its most popular shows to date, Top Chef. |
| March 16 | SportsNet New York launches. It is home of the New York Mets and New York Jets. |
| March 17 | United States premiere of the new series of Doctor Who on Sci-Fi's Friday-night lineup. |
| March 26 | Last first-run episodes to date of the long-running TV series Soul Train. Reruns of the previous season air until October, when "The Best of Soul Train" reruns from the 1970s and 1980s begin airing in place of new episodes. |
| April 1 | Kids Choice Awards are aired on Nickelodeon with special slimed guest, Robin Williams. The event was hosted by Jack Black. |
| April 28 | The 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards are handed out. |
| May 21 | Mike Wallace makes his last appearance on CBS' 60 Minutes. The WB series Charmed ends its eight year run with the final episode Forever Charmed. |
| May 24 | Taylor Hicks wins American Idol (season 5). |
| May 31 | Katie Couric appears as co-host of Today for the last time. |
| June 20 | 18.46 million watch England vs Sweden in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the UK's highest rated programme of the year. |
| June 26 | MSG Network debuts SummerBall, a basketball series dedicated to the well-known summer streetball leagues in New York City. This was the first show ever aired on the network that was strictly dedicated to streetball in New York City. |
| June 28 | Charles Gibson co-hosts Good Morning America for the last time in his 19-year run. |
| July 8 | Pokémon airs its final episode on Kids' WB!, "Pasta La Vista", also its final episode dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment. |
| July 24 | Aquaman, previously not picked up, becomes available for download on the iTunes Music Store. |
| August 21 | Stargate SG-1 is officially cancelled by SCI FI Channel following the premiere broadcast of the shows 200th episode after just five poor rated episodes. The tenth, and possibly final, Season makes the show the longest running Sci-Fi series in American television history. |
| August 25 | The Cheetah Girls 2 premiered on the Disney Channel and became the highest rated Original Movie at that time with ratings over 8.1 million, beating that of High School Musical. |
| August 27 | The 58th Primetime Emmy Awards are handed out. |
| September 2 | ESPN takes over production of ABC Sports broadcasts, renaming them ESPN on ABC. Both networks are owned by The Walt Disney Company. |
| September 5 | Launch of the new News Corp-owned American broadcast network MyNetworkTV. |
| September 5 | Katie Couric becomes the first female sole anchor of the CBS Evening News replacing the temporary anchor Bob Schieffer. |
| September 6 | The longest-running drama show on television, Guiding Light, airs its 15,000th televised episode. |
| September 8 | The former Kids' WB! series, Pokémon, debuts on Cartoon Network with new voice actors. |
| September 12 | Mike Malin is crowned the winner of Big Brother: All-Stars and wins the $500,000 prize. Runner-Up Erika Landin wins $50,000. |
| September 13 | Meredith Vieira begins co-hosting duties of The Today Show, replacing Katie Couric. |
| September 18 | The new American network The CW is launched. UPN and The WB cease operations. |
| September 18 | Vickyann Sadowski wins $147,517 in cash and prizes on The Price is Right (U.S. game show). This not only made Sadowski the biggest winner in the daytime show's history, it also surpassed Press Your Luck's own Michael Larson, making her the biggest one day winner in the history of American network daytime game shows in general. |
| September 20 | Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is seriously injured after crashing a jet-powered car at 280 mph. |
| October 19 | NBC Universal announces a major restructuring in order to shave US$750 million in costs following several years of falling ratings at the NBC network. Among the changes is the announcement that NBC will no longer air scripted dramas or comedies during the first hour of prime time, focusing instead on less-expensive reality and game shows in those hours. Its news division is also trimmed. The announcement is made despite the early success of several new NBC series such as Heroes. |
| October 31 | Bob Barker announces that he will be retiring from his hosting duties on The Price Is Right in June 2007. |
| November 9 | Nickelodeon airs a 24-hour marathon of SpongeBob SquarePants starting at 8:00 PM. The marathon raised Nickelodeon's ratings to an average of over 6.7 million viewers and became the network's most highest-rated day ever. |
| November 16 | On General Hospital, Luke and Laura Spencer remarry to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their first nuptials, which were the highest-rated hour in US daytime television history. |
Read more about this topic: 2006 In American Television
Famous quotes containing the word events:
““The ideal reasoner,” he remarked, “would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it.””
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“When the course of events shall have removed you to distant scenes of action where laurels not nurtured with the blood of my country may be gathered, I shall urge sincere prayers for your obtaining every honor and preferment which may gladden the heart of a soldier.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Whatever events in progress shall disgust men with cities, and infuse into them the passion for country life, and country pleasures, will render a service to the whole face of this continent, and will further the most poetic of all the occupations of real life, the bringing out by art the native but hidden graces of the landscape.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)