In American television in 2001, notable events included television series debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel initiations, closures and re-brandings, as well as information about controversies and disputes.
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 are transferred to its multiplex channel HBO Family.
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.
CBS affiliate WWJ-TV started airing newscasts, produced by UPN affiliate WKBD-TV. This experiment was proven to be a disaster, and it was ceased in November 2002.
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]
On The WB, Buffy the Vampire Slayer airs its 100th episode. It also served as The WB series finale after UPN announced that the series and Roswell will move to the network for the fall 2001 season.
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.
31
Fox Television Stations finalizes purchase of Chris-Craft Industries and its subsidiary BHC Communications. Soon afterwards, ABC affiliate KTVX in Salt Lake City and NBC affiliate KMOL-TV in San Antonio was traded to Clear Channel in exchange for Fox station WFTC in Minneapolis/St. Paul, then-UPN station KPTV in Portland was traded to Meredith Corporation in exchange for Fox station WOFL in Orlando and UPN station KBHK-TV in San Francisco was traded to Viacom in exchange for the two Viacom-owned UPN stations KTXH in Houston and WDCA in Washington, D.C.
CBS's travel-based reality-competition, The Amazing Race, which would later become one of the most successful franchises in television, premieres 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 wins the jackpot.[2]
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 is destroyed in the attacks, but its full-power backup transmitter at the Empire State Building is not. 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 uses 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 scheduled to be taped on September 11, but the taping was postponed by two days due to the attacks.
16
Dick Schaap makes his final appearance as host of ESPN's The Sports Reporters. The show is expanded to an hour to cover the sports perspective from the September 11th attacks. Schaap soon undergoes hip replacement surgery and later dies from complications. In fact, he delayed the surgery in order to be on that show.
17
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]
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.
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 does 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 two-hour season 6 premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on UPN (attracting 7.7 million viewers) (making it the first episode of Buffy to not air on The WB after the season 5 finale). The 3rd season premiere of Roswell (also from The WB) first aired on UPN a week later on October 9.
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 by Douglas Ross.
Wolf Lake aired its final episode on CBS due to weak ratings. Four more episodes were burned and aired on UPN. This would mark Mary Elizabeth Winstead's final appearance as a regular cast member on a television series, until BrainDead, nearly 15 years later.
Game 7 of the World Series is broadcast on Fox. The Arizona Diamondbacks win their first title, defeating the three-time champion New York Yankees which marked the end of their dynasty. The game ended with a base hit walk-off by Luis Gonzalez against closer Mariano Rivera as he notoriously blew the save. This series was claimed as one of the greatest of all time.
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]
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.