Editing 1994 in American television (section)

=== February ===
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! Date || Event
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!1
|American pay television channel [[Encore (TV channel)|Encore]] launches seven new themed multiplex channels (Westerns, True Stories, Love Stories, WAM!: America's Kidz Network, Action and Mystery), primarily on [[Tele-Communications Inc.|TCI]] cable systems, becoming the first premium service to offer a suite of thematic channels. [[Starz (TV channel)|Starz]], which features more recent movie fare than its parent channel, also debuts on this date as part of the Encore multiplex and would eventually become a rival to [[HBO]], [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]], [[Cinemax]] and [[The Movie Channel]].
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!12
|KTSP-TV in Phoenix changes its call letters to [[KSAZ-TV]], reflecting its newly adopted "Spirit of Arizona" slogan.<ref name="Ariz940213">{{Cite news |last=Shaffer |first=Mark |date=February 13, 1994 |title=Channel 10 catches spirit, changes name to KSAZ |page=B1 |work=Arizona Republic |location=Phoenix, Arizona |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28880055/channel-10-catches-spirit-changes-name/ |url-status=live |access-date=December 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215074827/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28880055/channel-10-catches-spirit-changes-name/ |archive-date=December 15, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
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!19
|During the opening monologue on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', guest host [[Martin Lawrence]] makes sexually explicit jokes about female genitalia and feminine [[hygiene]], which results in NBC banning him from appearing on the network (for the next year) and ''SNL'' (for life).  In repeats of the episode, the offending section of the monologue is replaced by a title card read by an off-screen player (writer [[Jim Downey (comedian)|Jim Downey]]), saying that although ''SNL'' is neutral about the issues mentioned by Lawrence, network policy prevents his remarks from being re-broadcast, and that the incident almost cost the entire cast of ''SNL'' their jobs.
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!21
|[[Sony Pictures|Sony Pictures Entertainment]] merged [[Columbia Pictures Television]] and [[TriStar Television]] into [[Columbia TriStar Television]]. Two of the Sony owned game shows (''[[Wheel of Fortune (American game show)|Wheel of Fortune]]'' and ''[[Jeopardy!]]'') will be produced by the new unit for Sony's then-new future programs. CPT and TriStar TV are still in-active until 1999 and the beginning of 2001, respectively.
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!23
|[[CBS Olympic broadcasts|CBS]]'s coverage of the short program in [[Figure skating at the 1994 Winter Olympics – Ladies' singles|women's]] [[Figure skating at the 1994 Winter Olympics|figure skating]] at the [[1994 Winter Olympics|Winter Olympics]] in [[Lillehammer]], [[Norway]] (fueled by the media frenzy from a scandal in which associates of figure skater [[Tonya Harding]] attacked [[Nancy Kerrigan]]) immediately becomes one of the highest rated prime time television programs in American history.
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!25
|[[Bob Costas]] hosts his final episode of ''[[Later (talk show)|Later]]'' on [[NBC]] with a one-hour retrospective titled "One Last Time".
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!28
|[[Greg Kinnear]] debuts as host of [[NBC]]'s ''[[Later (talk show)|Later]]''. 
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