Editing 1999 in American television (section)

==Events==
===January===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
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! 4
| On an episode of ''[[WWF Raw is War]]'' which had been taped six days earlier on December 29th, [[Mick Foley]] wrestling as Mankind defeats [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] to win the [[WWF Championship]]. Meanwhile, on ''[[WCW Monday Nitro]]'', [[Hulk Hogan]] defeats [[Kevin Nash]] for the [[WCW World Heavyweight Championship]] in the infamous [[Fingerpoke of Doom]]. [[Tony Schiavone]] on orders from [[Eric Bischoff]] gave away the results of Foley's championship victory. As a result, 600,000 viewers switch from ''Nitro'' to ''Raw''. These incidents would mark the beginning of WCW's downfall until its closure in 2001.
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! 6
| [[Bob Newhart]] receives a star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]].
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! 11
| [[Jon Stewart]] debuts as host of [[Comedy Central]]'s ''[[The Daily Show]]'', replacing [[Craig Kilborn]], who moves to [[CBS]] to succeed [[Tom Snyder]] as host of ''[[The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)|The Late Late Show]]''.
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!rowspan="2"| 23
| [[Gene Siskel]] hosts his final episode of ''[[At the Movies (1986 TV program)|Siskel & Ebert]]'' with [[Roger Ebert]]. On February 3, 1999, Siskel announced that he would take a leave of absence for the rest of the season but promised to be back the next fall. On February 20, 1999, Siskel died suddenly from complications from a second [[Brain tumor|brain surgery]]. On that final episode, Siskel and Ebert reviewed ''[[At First Sight (1999 film)|At First Sight]]'', ''[[Another Day in Paradise (film)|Another Day in Paradise]]'', ''[[The Hi-Lo Country]]'', ''[[Playing by Heart]]'', and ''[[The Theory of Flight]]''
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| [[Paula Zahn]] leaves [[CBS News]] after 10 years.
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!rowspan="2"| 31
| The [[1998 Denver Broncos season|Denver Broncos]] win their second consecutive [[Super Bowl XXXIII|Super Bowl]] against the [[1998 Atlanta Falcons season|Atlanta Falcons]] with a score of 34–19. The game is broadcast on [[NFL on Fox|Fox]] with the broadcast team of [[Pat Summerall]] and [[John Madden]] on the call. 
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| ''[[Family Guy]]'' [[Death Has a Shadow|premieres]] on [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] immediately [[List of Super Bowl lead-out programs|following]] the [[Super Bowl XXXIII|Super Bowl]].
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|}

===February===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!rowspan="3"| 1
| Prevue Channel re-brands as [[TV Guide Network|The TV Guide Channel]], an EPG-branded version of [[TV Guide]] magazine.
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| HBO Family, [[HBO]]'s fourth multiplex channel, is rebranded and premieres four new shows; ''[[A Little Curious]]'', ''[[George and Martha]]'', ''[[Anthony Ant]]'' and ''[[Crashbox]]''.
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| [[Disney Channel]] rebrands its preschool block as [[Playhouse Disney]].
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! 13
| ''[[Kids' WB]]'' acquired the rights to the anime, ''[[Pokémon (TV series)|Pokémon]]'' after it debuted on first-run syndication in 1998; and ''Pokémon'' made Kids' WB a household name until 2006, and made it as a huge franchise.
|}

===March===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! 13
| A special live [[All That (season 5)|edition]] of ''[[All That]]'' airs on [[Nickelodeon]].
|-
! 15
|After three years of not being picked up by domestic distribution in the US, action series ''[[L.A. Heat (TV series)|L.A. Heat]]'' finally airs on US television with the series airing on [[TNT (American TV channel)|TNT]].
|-
! 24
| Olympic gold medalist [[Tara Lipinski]] is signed to the recently-launched [[Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids]] network as a special host and sports correspondent.
|-
! 26
| [[Tom Snyder]]'s last show on [[CBS]]'s ''[[The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)|The Late Late Show]]''. The following Monday, [[Craig Kilborn]], late of [[Comedy Central]]'s ''[[The Daily Show]]'', takes his place as the show's host.
|}

===April===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! 18
| [[National Hockey League|Hockey]] great [[Wayne Gretzky]] plays his final game (a 2–1 [[Overtime (ice hockey)|overtime]] loss between his [[1998–99 New York Rangers season|New York Rangers]] and the [[1998–99 Pittsburgh Penguins season|Pittsburgh Penguins]]), which is broadcast in the United States by [[NHL on Fox|Fox]]. [[Mike Emrick]] and [[John Davidson (ice hockey)|John Davidson]] were on the call with [[Sam Rosen (sportscaster)|Sam Rosen]] conducting interviews.
|-
! 26
| [[NBC]]'s ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' is broadcast in high-definition for the first time, making it the first late-night program to be broadcast in this format. Host [[Jay Leno]]'s guests are: [[Salma Hayek]], [[David Arquette]], and [[Jewel (singer)|Jewel]].
|-
! 29
| The [[Television pilot|pilot]] episode of ''[[WWE Smackdown|WWF SmackDown!]]'' is broadcast on [[UPN]] as a single television special. (The show would officially premiere again on the network with a new stage on August 26.) The main event saw [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] and [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] team up to defeat the [[Corporate Ministry]].
|}

===May===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! 1
| Immediately following the [[1999 Kids' Choice Awards]], [[Nickelodeon]] airs the pilot episode of its newest series ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''. [[Tara Lipinski]], [[Bill Bellamy]] and [[Robert Ri'chard]] appeared in interstitials during the sneak peek where they mentioned the series officially premiering in July. ''SpongeBob'' would go on to become the longest running [[Nickelodeon]] series in its history.
|-
! 21
| [[Susan Lucci]] receives a [[26th Daytime Emmy Awards|Daytime Emmy Award]] for her role as [[Erica Kane]] on the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] soap opera ''[[All My Children]]'', after eighteen failed nominations during previous years. The ceremony is telecast live on [[CBS]].
|-
! 23
| ''[[World Wrestling Federation]]'' wrestler [[Owen Hart]] is killed after falling 70&nbsp;ft (21 m) from the rafters at [[Kemper Arena]] in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], during a live pay-per-view broadcast of [[WWF Over the Edge|Over the Edge]].
|-
! 24
| During an in-ring promo on ''[[WCW Monday Nitro]]'', [[World Championship Wrestling|WCW]] wrestler [[Bret Hart]] pays tribute to his brother [[Owen Hart|Owen]], who was killed in an [[Death of Owen Hart|in-ring accident]] the night before at [[Over the Edge (1999)|Over the Edge]].
|-
! 25
| The [[List_of_Home_Improvement_episodes#Season_8_(1998–99)|series finale]] of ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' is broadcast on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]. [[Patricia Richardson]] ([[Jill Taylor (Home Improvement)|Jill Taylor]]) is offered $25 million to do a ninth season; [[Tim Allen]] ([[List_of_Home_Improvement_characters#Tim_Taylor|Tim Taylor]]) is offered $50 million. The two decline the offer and the series comes to an end as a result.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/68477/14-sturdy-facts-about-home-improvement |title=14 Sturdy Facts About 'Home Improvement'|last=Cormier |first=Roger |magazine=Mental Floss |date=September 17, 2016 |access-date=September 21, 2018 |quote=Richardson was offered $25 million to do a ninth season; Allen was offered double that. The two declined, and Home Improvement ended after eight seasons and 203 episodes.}}</ref> [[Jonathan Taylor Thomas]] ([[List_of_Home_Improvement_characters#Randy_Taylor|Randy Taylor]]) does not return to the show for the series finale (as he is busy with his education and filming the movie ''[[Speedway Junky]]'', released in 2001), only appearing in archived footage. The series finale becomes the fifth [[List of most-watched television broadcasts#United States|highest-rated series finale television program]] of the 1990s and the ninth overall series finale ever presented on a single network in television history, watched by 35.5 percent of the households sampled in America, and 21.6 percent of television viewers.
|}

===June===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! 11
| [[Cartoon Network]] rebrands its Friday night block of original animated series as ''[[Cartoon Cartoons|Cartoon Cartoon Fridays]]''.
|-
! 17
| The ''[[NHL on Fox]]'' airs for the [[1999 Stanley Cup Finals|final time]].
|}

===July===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
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! 18
| ''[[The Simpsons]]'' actor [[Hank Azaria]] marries actress [[Helen Hunt]]. The couple would file for divorce over a year later.
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! 31
| ''[[CBS This Morning]]'' co-anchor [[Russ Mitchell]] as a Saturday anchor of ''[[CBS Evening News]]'' along with [[Thalia Assuras]] as an alternate Saturday anchor starting in November.
|}

===August===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! 8
| The [[List_of_Mystery_Science_Theater_3000_episodes#Season_10_(1999)|series finale]] of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' airs on [[Syfy|The Sci-Fi Channel]], who had been broadcasting the past three seasons following its departure from [[Comedy Central]] in 1996. The last film to be featured in its original run is the 1968 film ''[[Danger: Diabolik]]''. ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' would resume production in 2017, when [[List_of_Mystery_Science_Theater_3000_episodes#Season_11_(2017)|new episodes]] begin airing on [[Netflix]].
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! 16
| ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (American game show)|Who Wants to Be a Millionaire]]'' airs its first episode on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] with [[Regis Philbin]] as host. It would go on to become the television season's highest-rated series and one of ABC's most successful shows.
|-
! 26
| ''[[WWF SmackDown!]]'' airs its [[History of WWE Smackdown|first episode]], live from the [[Kemper Arena]] in [[Kansas City, Missouri]], on [[UPN]]. The main event saw [[Triple H]] defeating [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] to retain the [[WWE Championship|WWF Title]] thanks to interference from [[Shawn Michaels]], who was the special guest referee.
|-
! 30
| [[Countess Vaughn]] leaves the cast of ''[[Moesha]]'' to star in her own television spin-off ''[[The Parkers]]'' with [[Mo'Nique]], making her the first female African-American comedian to receive a spin-off.
|}

===September===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! rowspan="3" | 6
| [[UPN]] replaces its [[UPN Kids]] block with a new E/I-compliant block airing weekdays and Sunday mornings named [[Disney's One Too]], a spinoff of [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s [[Disney's One Saturday Morning]].
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| In [[Schenectady, New York]], [[PBS]] member station [[WCWN|WMHQ]] is relaunched as WEWB-TV, a commercial broadcast station affiliated with [[The WB]] (the [[Capital District, New York|Capital District]]'s first affiliate of that network).
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| [[PBS]] launches a 24-hour [[PBS Kids]] television network and new branding for its children's programming.
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! 7
| [[Viacom (1952–2006)|Viacom]] announced that the company would acquire [[CBS]] and its company, [[CBS Corporation (1997)|CBS Corporation]] (after CBS spun off Viacom in 1971 after the [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]] forbids broadcast networks to own [[Broadcast syndication|syndication]] units or more TV stations) which would cause the two companies to merge into one mega media empire. Which the merger would bring CBS and [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] close.
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! 12
| The [[51st Primetime Emmy Awards]] presentation is aired on [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]].
|-
! 20
| After four years, [[WGN America|WGN's superstation feed]] drops programming from [[The WB]] and [[Kids' WB]] at the request of the network. The network's programs are replaced by movie, sports from Chicago's sporting teams and other broadcasts.
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! 24
| [[The WB]] begins airing programming on Friday nights.
|-
! 26
| [[NBC]] airs a [[Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary Special|three-hour prime-time special]] in celebration of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'s'' 25th anniversary.
|-
! 27
| [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] garners the highest cable rating in [[WWE|WWF]] history with [[Mick Foley|Mankind]] in a segment entitled "This is your life" on [[WWE Raw|Raw Is War]], which draws a record 8.4 rating.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.wwe.com/videos/playlists/rock-this-is-your-life-playlist | title=The Rock: This is Your Life! }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://bleacherreport.com/articles/57902-bill-banks-talks-about-the-highest-rated-wrestling-segment | title=Bill Banks Talks About the Highest Rated Wrestling Segment | website=[[Bleacher Report]] }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://slashwrestling.com/raw/990927.html | title=; RAW 27 September 1999|work=/Wrestling}}</ref>
|-
|}

===October===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! 4
| [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] affiliate [[WATN-TV|WPTY]], and sister station [[WLMT]], both in the [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] area, begin allowing [[The WB]] programming, most notably on WPTY for late nights, and some kids shows, like ''[[Pokémon (TV series)|Pokémon]]'', airing on WLMT.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1999-09-23|title=WPTY shuffles, moves the WB network to "free" TV late nights|work=[[The Commercial Appeal]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1999-09-23|title=WB|work=[[The Commercial Appeal]]}}</ref>
|-
! 7
| [[Donald Trump]] announces his [[Donald Trump 2000 presidential campaign|2000 presidential campaign]] on an episode of ''[[Larry King Live]]''.
|-
! 10
| The [[professional wrestling]] [[pay-per-view]] event, [[Heroes of Wrestling]] is broadcast from the [[Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis|Casino Magic]] hotel and casino in [[Bay St. Louis, Mississippi|Bay St. Louis]], [[Mississippi]]. Although the event was heavily promoted, it was only purchased by 29,000 households. Additionally, the event itself was generally regarded to be of poor quality: ''[[Wrestling Observer]]'' rated it the worst major wrestling event of 1999,<ref name=ppvdisappoints>{{cite web|url= http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingArchive/oct11_her.html|archive-url= https://archive.today/20120715153357/http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingArchive/oct11_her.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= July 15, 2012|title= Heroes PPV a disappointment|access-date= 2007-05-13}}</ref> with its editor [[Dave Meltzer]] giving a rating of "[[absolute zero]]" to a tag team match featuring [[The Bushwhackers|Luke Williams and Butch Miller]] facing [[Nikolai Volkoff]] and [[The Iron Sheik]]. Meltzer's colleague, [[Bryan Alvarez]] of ''Figure Four Weekly'', has repeatedly referred to this match as the worst he has ever seen and rated it "minus more stars than there are in the universe"<ref>[http://www.wrestlecrap.com/classic22.html Heroes of Wrestling: Sucked Long Before Jake Used a Snake as a Penis]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
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! 27
| The fourth and deciding game of the [[1999 World Series|World Series]] airs on [[Major League Baseball on NBC|NBC]]. This is to date, NBC's 39th and final [[List of World Series broadcasters|World Series]]. The [[1999 New York Yankees season|New York Yankees]] defeat once again the [[1999 Atlanta Braves season|Atlanta Braves]], winning their second title in a row and 25th in franchise history.
|}

===November===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
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! 19
| [[John Carpenter (game show contestant)|John Carpenter]] becomes the first player on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s game show ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)|Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]'' to win $1,000,000. Carpenter is also the first known contestant in the history of American game show to win $1,000,000.
|}

===December===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! 1
| [[Richard Pryor]] [[List of The Norm Show episodes#Season 2 (1999–2000)|appears]] in the cold open of the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] sitcom ''[[The Norm Show|Norm]]'' in what would prove to be his final television appearance. He would die in 2005, 6 years later.
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! 15
| [[NASCAR]] strikes a deal with [[NASCAR on Fox|Fox Sports]], [[FX (TV network)|FX]], [[NASCAR on NBC|NBC]], and [[NASCAR on TBS|TBS]] (later moved to [[NASCAR on TNT|TNT]]) worth $2.4 billion for a new six-year package,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.motorsportstv.com/2001_tv_deal.htm |title=2001 TV Deal |access-date=2017-09-14 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000918001829/http://www.motorsportstv.com/2001_tv_deal.htm |archive-date=September 18, 2000 }} Quote: While many fans were upset that ESPN and CBS lost the rights, insiders say that their bids were close to $100 million annually under the winning bids from Fox and NBC.</ref> covering the Winston Cup (now [[NASCAR Cup Series|NASCAR Cup]]) Series and Busch (now [[Comcast Cable|Xfinity]]) Series schedules. NASCAR wanted to capitalize on its increased popularity even more, so the organization decided that future deals would be centralized; that is, the networks would negotiate directly with NASCAR for a regular schedule of telecasts. The old deal arrangement saw each track negotiate with the networks to broadcast their races. As a result, NASCAR had races on [[NASCAR on CBS|CBS]], [[NASCAR on TNN|TNN]], [[NASCAR on ESPN|ESPN]], ABC, NBC, and TBS. However, NBC, which had just entered the sport, showed only one race in [[2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series|2000]]. NASCAR wanted to increase the number of races by each partner, and have as many races on broadcast networks as possible, to prevent fans from missing races.
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! 31
| [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] participates in the global broadcast ''[[2000 Today]]'' with ''[[ABC 2000 Today]]''. [[Peter Jennings]] anchors ABC's broadcast of the special from [[New York City]], joined later by [[Dick Clark]] who hosts the countdown in [[Times Square]].
|}