The year 2001 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 2001. [edit] Events - January 1 - Digital television officially begins in Australia
- January 18 - Channel 4 launches E4, a digital entertainment channel, at 8.15pm.
- January 22 - News at Ten returns to ITV, having been axed two years earlier. It is once again presented by Trevor McDonald.
- March 26 - WCW Monday Nitro airs it's final show from Panama City Beach, Florida with a simulcast with the WWF's (Now WWE's) Monday Night RAW television show, officially ending a six year ratings battle in professional wrestling known as the Monday Night Wars.
- June 18 - Luke and Laura Spencer, widely regarded as the soap opera pairing that helped coin the term "supercouple", signed divorce papers on General Hospital, dissolving their fictional two-decade union.
- July 11 - ONdigital is rebranded ITV Digital.
- August 5 - RHI Entertainment acquires The Jim Henson Company's half of Odyssey Network.
- August 11 - ITV in the UK changes its name to ITV1, due to the growing number of other ITV services, including ITV2, ITV Digital, and the ITV Sport Channel, which launches on the same day.
- September 1 - All four commercial television stations in Vancouver, British Columbia change network affiliations, the largest such change in a single market in television history.
- September 3 - Discovery Kids Canada launches in Canada.
- September 7 - BBC Canada, G4 Canada, Book Television and many other Canadian channels launches in Canada.
- September 8 - Fox airs the final episode of the game show Murder in Small Town X, in which New York City firefighter Angel L. Juarbe, Jr. won. Juarbe was killed on Sept. 11 during the collapse of the World Trade Center.
- September 11 - Viewers around the world witness a terrorist attack on the United States, and the collapse of the Twin Towers towers in New York City, live on television. Additionally, the ABC and NBC affiliates' broadcast towers are knocked out by the attacks, but New Yorkers can still view them on cable and satellite. Most broadcasters abandon regular programming - American networks for more than a week - and numerous major daily talk shows go off the air for several weeks until their hosts feel comfortable in returning to the airwaves.
- The start of the 2001-2002 fall season in the US is delayed as a result of the attacks, with some shows such as The West Wing substituting special episodes dealing with the event in lieu of their originally scheduled season premieres. Some series, such as the military-themed JAG and New York-based Third Watch have to be retooled to encompass the aftermath of the attacks.
- In addition, several planned series and events were cancelled; most notably, 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.
- All four major US networks air America: A Tribute to Heroes a two-hour telethon to raise money for the families of those killed in the attacks.
- Concert For New York: A Tribute To Heroes airs on VH1, with performances by Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Billy Joel and others. It raises funds for the families of those killed in the attacks.
- Although they were first seen in 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 used it to allow viewers to keep track of the latest developments during the attacks.
- September 17 - The game show Card Sharks is revived with host Pat Bullard, but due to its dramatically different gameplay, it disappears after just 13 weeks.
- September 20 - Dr. Will Kirby is crowned the winner of Big Brother 2, which was delayed by the attacks of September 11, 2001. Runner-Up Nicole Nilson-Schafrich wins $50,000.
- November 5 - BBC 2W, a new digital channel for Wales, is launched.
- November 19 - BBC Two introduces a new set of four computer generated idents at 7.00am, replacing the previous set of over 20 (four of which dating back to 1991). ITV2 rebrands on the same day.
- November 30- The Series Finale of CG cartoon series ReBoot airs. Finishes on Cliffhanger.
- December 22 - The pilot for Harry Hill's TV Burp is aired on ITV1. The first full series is shown from November next year.
- December 25 - Only Fools and Horses returns for the first of three Christmas specials after previously ending in 1996. The special (If They Could See Us Now) gets 21.35 million viewers, the UK's highest rated show in both 2001 and the entire decade as of 2007.
- Canada rolls out dozens of new digital cable channels (see List of Canadian digital television channels for complete list).
- Canadian sports network TSN changes its logo to match with ESPN's though the N isn't slashed.
[edit] Debuts [edit] Television shows [edit] Ending this year [edit] Changes of network affiliation [edit] Notable TV movies and events [edit] Deaths - January 1 - Ray Walston, 86, actor (My Favorite Martian )
- January 18 - Al Waxman, 65, actor (Lt. Samuels on Cagney & Lacey)
- February 20 - Bob Weiskopf, 86, writer (I Love Lucy)
- February 27 - Stan Margulies, 80, producer (Roots, The Thorn Birds)
- March 8 - Edward Winter, 63, actor
- March 12 - Morton Downey, Jr., 67, television personality
- March 15 - Ann Sothern, 92, actress (Private Secretary, My Mother the Car)
- March 21 - Norma MacMillan, 79, voice actor
- March 22 - William Hanna, 90, cofounder (with Joseph Barbera) of famous Hanna-Barbera animation studio
- April 11 - George Hersee, 76, BBC engineer who designed Test Card F
- April 15 - Joey Ramone, 49, actor/songwriter of the Ramones
- May 2 - Ted Rogers, 65, Comedian and host of 3-2-1
- May 12 - Perry Como, 88, singer, TV host
- May 19 - Pat Falken Smith, 75, soap opera writer
- May 22 - Whitman Mayo, 70, actor (Grady Wilson on Sanford and Son)
- May 31 - Arlene Francis, 93, actress and game show panelist (What's My Line?)
- June 2 - Imogene Coca, 92, actress and comedienne (Your Show of Shows)
- June 21 - Carroll O'Connor, 76, actor who played Archie Bunker on All in the Family
- August 3 - Christopher Hewett, 79, actor (Mr. Belvedere)
- August 4 - Lorenzo Music, 64, writer and actor who co-created The Bob Newhart Show and did the voices of Carlton the doorman on Rhoda and Garfield the cat in the animated version of Jim Davis comic character
- August 25 - Aaliyah, 22, singer
- September 11 - David Angell, 55, writer (Cheers, Frasier), killed in the World Trade Center attacks
- October 9 - Dagmar, 79, 1950's television sex symbol
- October 15 - Ralph Levy, 81, director
- October 17 - Jay Livingston, 86, songwriter (themes to Bonanza and Mister Ed)
- December 22 - Lance Loud, 50, member of the family documented in An American Family
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