| 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 on NBC.
|
| February 1
|
Sundance Channel debuts.
|
| February 5-9
|
Peter Argyropolous and Deborah Cohen won a combined total of $146,529 from three episodes include the Friday Finals, making the couple the biggest winner in the history of Wheel of Fortune; They remained as the biggest winners for a team, and they held the record until it was first surpassed by Michelle Lowenstein on October 14, 2008, who won $1,026,080.
|
| 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 28
|
Dexter's Laboratory premieres on Cartoon Network.
|
| April 29
|
TV Land, an offshoot of Nickelodeon's late-night block, Nick at Nite, debuts. The channel is devoted to round-the-clock broadcasts of classic television shows.
|
| 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.
|
| 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
|
CBS affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC is awarded the first experimental high-definition television license in the United States.
|
| June 23
|
At the World Wrestling Federation's pay-per-view event King of the Ring, wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin wins the King of the Ring tournament by defeating Jake Roberts. After the match, Austin makes a certain victory speech in what would famously become as the "Austin 3:16" catchphrase.
|
| June 30
|
New York PBS member station WNYC-TV shuts off the air. The next day, it is 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 the NBC soap opera 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 7
|
At the WCW produced pay-per-view event Bash at the Beach, Hulk Hogan turns heel and announces the formation of the New World Order.
|
| 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 7
|
Paula Zahn is named an Saturday anchor of CBS Evening News.
|
| September 8
|
The 48th Primetime Emmy Awards are presented on ABC.
|
| The 1994–96 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.
|
| Blue's Clues premieres on Nick Jr..
|
| September 13
|
The dubbed version of the Japanese series Dragon Ball Z premieres on Toonami
|
| The Phil Donahue Show ends after twenty-nine years on the air.
|
| September 15
|
USA Cartoon Express airs for the last time on USA Network.
|
| September 16
|
Wheel of Fortune introduced a gameplay round called Jackpot which contestants can win an accumulated pot based on the value spun throughout the round. The round would remain intact until 2013.
|
| 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.
|
| October 10
|
Turner Broadcasting System merged into Time Warner.
|
| October 20-26
|
Fox broadcasts its first ever World Series. The New York Yankees won their 23rd title (and first since 1978) against the Atlanta Braves in only six games.
|
| October 30
|
WBKP in Calumet, Michigan signs on the air, giving the Upper Peninsula both its first full-time ABC affiliate (WLUC-TV had dropped its primary ABC affiliation the previous year in favor of its secondary NBC affiliation) and full-time affiliates of the "Big Three" networks.
|
| November 1
|
ESPNNEWS, a sports news channel from ESPN, debuts.
|
| Seven regional sports networks operated by Prime Network relaunched as Fox Sports Net
|
| 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.
|
| November 23
|
Bob Hope's final television special, Bob Hope... Laughing with the Presidents, airs on NBC.
|
| 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.
|
