Editing 2001 in American television (section)

==Events==

===January===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!rowspan="2"|1
| After being acquired by [[MTV Networks]], [[The Box (American TV channel)|The Box]], a request video music channel shuts down, replaced by [[MTV2]] on terrestrial stations.
|-
| In [[Hartford, Connecticut]], [[UPN]] affiliate WTXX (now [[The CW|CW]] affiliate [[WCCT-TV]]) and [[The WB|WB]] affiliate WBNE (now [[MyNetworkTV]] affiliate [[WCTX]]) swap affiliations due to WTXX's impending purchase by [[Tribune Broadcasting]], owners of [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] affiliate [[WTIC-TV]] (which at the time operated WTXX under a [[Local marketing agreement|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#List of HBO channels|HBO Family]].
|-
!7
| [[Extreme Championship Wrestling]]'s final nationally and globally televised event, [[Guilty as Charged (2001)|Guilty as Charged]] airs on [[pay-per-view]]. It would see [[The Sandman (wrestler)|The Sandman]] defeating [[Steve Corino]] and [[Justin Credible]] for the [[ECW World Heavyweight Championship|world title]], only for [[Rhyno|Rhino]] to defeat The Sandman to win the title. [[Rob Van Dam]] initially challenged Rhino for the title, but was attacked by [[Jerry Lynn]]. Despite interference and with help from [[Joel Gertner]], he won the main event.
|-
!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 Broadcasting Company|Fox]] affiliation from sister station [[KIDZ-LD|KIDZ-LP]], which in turn becomes a full-time [[UPN]] affiliate.
|-
!28
| [[NFL on CBS|CBS]] broadcasts [[Super Bowl XXXV]], their first since [[Super Bowl XXVI]] at the end of the [[1991 NFL season|1991 season]]. [[Greg Gumbel]], becomes the first [[African Americans|African-American]] sportscaster to do network televised play-by-play on a major professional sports championship. The [[2000 Baltimore Ravens season|Baltimore Ravens]] would beat the [[2000 New York Giants season|New York Giants]] 34–7.
|}

===February===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!5
| [[Kelly Ripa]] joins ''[[Live! with Kelly|Live!]]'' as a permanent co-host with [[Regis Philbin]].
|-
!18
| [[NASCAR on Fox|Fox]] broadcasts its inaugural [[NASCAR]] telecast, the [[2001 Daytona 500|Daytona 500]]. In the final lap, [[Dale Earnhardt]] is [[Death of Dale Earnhardt|killed]] after getting into a head-on collision.
|}

===March===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!6
| [[TEENick]] first airs as a Sunday night block on [[Nickelodeon]].
|-
!18
| [[World Championship Wrestling]] produces their final pay-per-view, [[WCW Greed|Greed]].
|-
!26
| On [[TNT (American TV network)|TNT]], ''[[WCW Monday Nitro]]'' broadcasts its final show from [[Panama City Beach, Florida]], with a simulcast with the [[WWE|WWF]]'s (now [[WWE]]'s) ''[[WWE Raw|Monday Night RAW]]'' television series (then airing on [[Spike (TV network)|TNN]]), officially ending a six-year ratings struggle in [[professional wrestling]] known as the [[Monday Night Wars|Monday Night War]]. Live professional wrestling events wouldn't be broadcast on TNT again until the launch of ''[[AEW Dynamite]]'' in 2019.
|}

===April===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! 1 
 |[[WrestleMania X-Seven]] from the [[Reliant Astrodome]] in [[Houston|Houston, Texas]], is broadcast on [[pay-per-view]]. The event would receive acclaim from critics and fans.
|-
! 2
| [[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 [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] game show ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (American game show)|Who Wants to Be a Millionaire]]'', making him the biggest winner in American game show history.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.triviahalloffame.com/olmstead.aspx|title=Interview: Kevin Olmstead, mega-Millionaire|publisher=Trivia Hall of Fame|accessdate=2010-04-18}}</ref>
|}

===May===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! rowspan="2" |17
| [[NBC]] airs the hour-long season seven finale of ''[[Friends]]'' titled "[[The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding]]".
|-
| On [[The WB]], [[Shannen Doherty]] makes her [[All Hell Breaks Loose (Charmed)|final appearance]] as [[Prue Halliwell]] on ''[[Charmed]]''.
|-
!18
| The [[28th Daytime Emmy Awards]] are presented on [[NBC]].
|-
!22
| 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 (TV series)|Roswell]]'' will move to the network for the fall 2001 season.
|-
!23
| On [[UPN]], ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' airs its series finale with a two-part episode "[[Endgame (Star Trek: Voyager)|Endgame]]".
|}

===June===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!12
| [[TNT (American TV network)|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 [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s soap opera ''[[General Hospital]]'', dissolving their fictional two-decade union.
|-
!19
| The [[BET Awards 2001|inaugural BET Awards]] is broadcast.
|}

===July===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!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 [[All Grown Up!|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 [[WOAI-TV|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 [[KPYX|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.
|}

===August===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
| 10
| ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' [[List_of_Samurai_Jack_episodes#Season_1_(2001)|premieres]] on [[Cartoon Network]]. 
|-
| 31 
| ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'' airs its [[Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood_(season_31)#Episode_5_(Celebrate_the_Arts)|final episode]] on [[PBS Kids]]. [[Fred Rogers]] would die two years later of [[stomach cancer]] at the age of 74.
|}

===September===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!2
| [[Adult Swim]], an adult-oriented programming block, debuts on its [[Turner Broadcasting System|Turner]] sister cable channel [[Cartoon Network]].
|-
!3
| [[Thuy Trang]], the actress best known for her role as the yellow ranger, [[Trini Kwan]] from ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' unexpectedly dies at the age of 27 in a car accident in [[San Francisco]].
|-
!5
| [[CBS]]'s travel-based reality-competition, ''[[The Amazing Race (American TV series)|The Amazing Race]]'', which would later become one of the most successful franchises in television, premieres its [[The Amazing Race 1|first episode]].
|-
!7
| Ed Toutant wins $1,860,000 on ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (American game show)|Who Wants to Be a Millionaire]]''.<ref name="Toutant">{{cite web|url=https://www.aol.com/article/2010/09/29/million-dollar-game-show-winners-what-happens-after-the-money-c/19644881/|title=Million Dollar Game Show Winners: What Happens After the Money Comes In|work=Aol.com|publisher=Daily Finance|last=Berr|first=Jonathan|date=September 29, 2010|accessdate=July 30, 2014}}</ref> 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<ref>{{cite episode|series=Who Wants to Be a Millionaire |season=3|number=1|date=September 7, 2001|network=ABC}}</ref> and wins the jackpot.<ref name="Toutant"/>
|-
!8
| [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] broadcasts the final episode of ''[[Murder in Small Town X]]'', in which [[New York City]] firefighter [[Ángel Juarbe, Jr.]] wins. Juarbe is killed three days later during the [[collapse of the World Trade Center]].
|-
! rowspan="2" |11
| Viewers around the world witness a [[September 11 attacks|terrorist attack]] on the [[United States]], and the [[Collapse of the World Trade Center|collapse]] of the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|Twin Towers]] in [[New York City]] live on television. Additionally, the broadcast towers of [[WABC-TV]] and [[WNBC]], the respective flagship stations of [[American Broadcasting Company|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 show]]s 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, [[news ticker|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 ''[[WWE SmackDown|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 (American season)|Big Brother 2]]'', which was delayed by the attacks. Runner-up Nicole Nilson-Schafrich wins $50,000.
|-
!21
| All four major US networks – [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], [[CBS]], [[Fox Broadcasting Company|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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/09/22/MN112627.DTL&type=printable|title=Musicians, actors honor heroes, raise money for attack victims|date=September 22, 2001|first=John|last=Carman|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|page=A1}}</ref>
|-
!24
| The start of [[2001–02 United States network television schedule|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 (TV series)|JAG]]'' and [[NBC]]'s New York-based ''[[Third Watch]]'', have to be reformatted in consideration of the attacks.
|-
!26
| [[UPN]] airs the [[Broken Bow (Star Trek: Enterprise)|two-hour series premiere]] of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]''. ''Enterprise'' is UPN's replacement for ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' (as well as the last iteration of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' franchise).
|-
!29
| [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] affiliate WVSX (now [[WVNS-TV]]) in [[Lewisburg, West Virginia]], changes its affiliation to [[CBS]], giving the [[Beckley, West Virginia|Beckley]]-[[Bluefield, West Virginia|Bluefield]]-[[Oak Hill, West Virginia|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, West Virginia|Charleston]] and the end of the [[Foxnet]] cable service prompts WVNS-TV to establish a Fox-affiliated DT2 subchannel.
|}

===October===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!2
| The two-hour [[Bargaining (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|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 [[The Gift (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|season 5 finale]]). The 3rd season premiere of ''[[Roswell (TV series)|Roswell]]'' (also from The WB) first aired on UPN a week later on October 9.
|-
!3
| In the aftermath of the [[September 11 attacks]], several planned series and events are canceled; 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 [[Charmed Again|first appearance]] as [[Paige Matthews]], the long-lost younger half-sister of [[Piper Halliwell|Piper]] and [[Phoebe Halliwell]], on [[The WB]]'s ''[[Charmed]]''.
|-
!15
| In ''[[Wheel of Fortune (American game show)|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.
|-
!20
| ''[[The Concert for New York City|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.
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"|24
| [[The Walt Disney Company]] completes its purchase of [[History of Freeform (TV channel)#Fox Family|Fox Family]] for $2.9 billion.
|-
| ''[[Wolf Lake]]'' aired its final episode on [[CBS]] due to weak [[Nielsen ratings|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.
|-
!25
| [[Sony Pictures|Sony Pictures Entertainment]] merged the television units of [[Columbia TriStar Television]] and [[Columbia TriStar Television|Columbia TriStar Television Distribution]] into one unified division, [[Columbia TriStar Television|Columbia TriStar Domestic Television]], partly because of Japanese ownership, all of Sony's television employees lost various amount of jobs in favor of Sony's new broadcasting/cable/syndication unit. Columbia TriStar Domestic Television would produce the Columbia TriStar programs for the [[2001–02 United States network television schedule|2001-2002 TV season]].
|}

===November===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
! rowspan="2" |4
| The [[53rd Primetime Emmy Awards]] are presented on [[CBS]]. The original date was postponed 2 months ago when the [[September 11 attacks]] occurred.<ref>[https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117916283?refcatid=32&printerfriendly=true The 53rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards] from ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' (November 6, 2001)</ref>
|-
| Game 7 of the [[2001 World Series|World Series]] is broadcast on [[Major League Baseball on Fox|Fox]]. The [[2001 Arizona Diamondbacks season|Arizona Diamondbacks]] win their first title, defeating the three-time champion [[2001 New York Yankees season|New York Yankees]] which marked the end of their dynasty. The game ended with a base hit walk-off by [[Luis Gonzalez (outfielder, born 1967)|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 [[Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2001|2001]] edition of the show is broadcast on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] with 12.4 million viewers tuning in.<ref name="VUFO">{{cite news|url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:NYPB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F26D19721B8C940&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=0D0CB579A3BDA420|title=Victoria's Undies Fall Off|accessdate=March 6, 2009|date=November 17, 2001|work=[[New York Post]]|author=Kaplan, Don}}</ref><ref name="IMDB01">{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300611/|title=The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (2001) |accessdate=March 7, 2009|publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]]}}</ref> 
|}

===December===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! Event
|-
!13
| On [[CBS]], lawyers and best friends team, Rob Frisbee and Brennan Swain, won the [[The Amazing Race 1|inaugural season]] of ''[[The Amazing Race (American TV series)|The Amazing Race]]'' and the US$1,000,000 grand prize.
|-
!31 
| ''[[New Year's Eve Live (CNN program)|New Year's Eve Live]]'' airs its first edition on [[CNN]].
|}