The year 2004 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 2004. For the American TV schedule, see: 2004-05 United States network television schedule. [edit] Events | Date | Event | | January 30 | ITV's News at Ten ends for a second time, with its replacement, the News at Ten Thirty, launching on Monday. | | February | The Jetix brand was introduced for the first time. | | February 1 | After the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, American television gets heavily censored as the FCC tightens its rules on idecency. | | February 2 | ITV plc is formed from the merger of Carlton and Granada. The News at Ten Thirty also debuts. | | February 9 | Kerry McFadden wins the third series of ITV1's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. 14.99 million watch the final, the programme's highest rated episode to this day. | | March 1 | The Price is Right airs its 6,000th episode. | | March 15 | Game Show Network rebranded as "GSN" | | March 20 | Christopher Eccleston is announced as the ninth actor to play The Doctor in Doctor Who. | | March 28 | Māori Television starts broadcasting in New Zealand. | | April 2 | TV Tokyo in Japan premières eight shows during the first week of the month. | | April 16 | Cartoon Network's Toonami ends its weekday run after 7 years. | | April 17 | Cartoon Network's Toonami moves from 5 p.m. Weekdays to 7 p.m. (prime time) Saturdays, and extends by four hours (from two to six). | | April 21 | Blue Heelers screens a live episode. | | May 6 | Friends ended it's run for 10 years. it airs the final episode, The Last One. The show was moved to the Friends spinoff, Joey. | | May 13 | Frasier airs its final episode, "Goodnight Seattle". | | May 15 | Jimmy Fallon makes his last appearance as a cast member of Saturday Night Live on its season finale. | | May 28 | TechTV merges with G4 to form G4techTV, one of the most controversial mergers in television history as less than a year later, the merged network becomes G4 once again. | | June 2 | A contestant on Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, Utah, begins a long run as champion. | | June 4 | Kitten Pinder is evicted from the Big Brother UK house, shouting against the Queen and the aristocracy on the way out. | | June 14 | Quiz TV launches in the UK, one of the country's first phone-in quiz channels. Many more launched over the next few years, though Quiz TV itself would close down in 2006. | | June 17 | In the UK, the live feed of Big Brother is taken off air for a few hours as the housemates threaten to kill each other. | | June 24 | The highest rated audience of the year is recorded in the UK as 20.66 million watch England's football match against Portugal in the quarter finals of Euro 2004. This was also the last programme to get over 20 million viewers as of 2007. [1] | | September | with the start of the 2004-2005 television season in the United States, most of the major networks were now no longer producing original content for broadcast on Saturday nights, citing years of declining ratings. Beginning this season, Saturday becomes primarily a night for rebroadcasts of episodes from earlier in the week or movies. Fox Network is an exception, as it maintains its block of inexpensive, reality-based shows on Saturday. | | September 9 | Captain N: The Game Master, the NBC/DIC canceled series, celebrates its 15th Anniversary. | | September 21 | Drew Daniel is crowned the winner of the American version of Big Brother 5. Runner-Up Michael "Cowboy" Ellis wins $50,000. | | September 28 | Longtime veteran Marcy Walker makes what has been termed by soap sources as her final appearance on All My Children after two decades of being affiliated with the program. | | October 2 | Amy Poehler succeeds Jimmy Fallon as Tina Fey's co-anchor on NBC's Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update skit, making the first Weekend Update female duos. | | October 2 | Nickelodeon and it's sister channels begin debuting it's special educational programming, Worldwide Day of Play. following the Let's Just Play campaign. | | November 1 | Toon Disney removes a great number of the programs it was originally intended to show in order to make room for Jetix. | | November 1 | The Young and the Restless airs its milestone 8,000th episode. | | *November 7 | Dallas airs a special nondescript series entitled: Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork. | | November 18 | The video for the new charity single Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid 20 airs simultaneously on all five main UK television networks, as well as over twenty satellite and cable stations. This unprecedented broadcast attracts over fourteen million viewers between 5:50 and 6 p.m.. | | November 30 | After seventy-four consecutive wins, Ken Jennings finally loses on Jeopardy!, to competitor Nancy Zerg. | | Late-November | All My Children rises to #2 in the daytime Nielsen ratings for the first time since the mid-1990s, rivaling ABC's soap General Hospital for the second slot. | | December 1 | Tom Brokaw steps down as anchorman of NBC Nightly News and is replaced by Brian Williams. | | *December 6 | Joe Pasquale wins the fourth series of ITV1's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! | | December 15 | CNN's financial news channel, CNNfn, signs off. | | December 16 | All My Children airs its milestone 9,000th episode. | | December 29 | Rogers Media buys remaining 20% ownership of Rogers Sportsnet from Fox's Los Angeles affiliate KTTV. General Electric, owner of NBC, purchases Universal Studios from Vivendi, leaving all six U.S. broadcast networks part of a company which also owns a film studio. Foe the first time in its history, Nielsen Media Research, the official American television ratings service, began counting original shows on premium channels in its prime-time ratings.[1] At the time, most of these aired on competitors HBO and Showtime, but Starz has since began producing original shows. | [edit] Debuts [edit] Television shows - See also 2004-05 United States network television schedule
- Lou Dobbs Tonight (1980–2009)
- Mystery! (1980–present)
- Entertainment Tonight (1981–present).
- This Week (1981–present).
- America This Morning (1982–present).
- CCTV New Year's Gala, China (1982–present)
- Nature (1982-present)
- Timewatch, UK (1982–present)
- Waratte Iitomo, Japan (1982–present)
- What Now New Zeland (1982–present)
- American Masters (1983–present).
- America Undercover (1983–present).
- Frontline (1983–present).
- Taggart, UK (1983–present)
- The Bill, UK (1984–present)
- Jeopardy! (1964-1975, 1978-1979, 1984-present).
- SportsCentre, Canada (1984–present)
- EastEnders, UK (1985–present)
- Neighbours, Australia (1985–present)
- Comic Relief (UK) (1986-present).
- Casualty (UK) (1986-present).
- The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986-present).
- The Bold and the Beautiful (1987-present).
- ChuckleVision (UK) (1987-present).
- The American Experience (1988-present).
- America's Most Wanted (1988-present).
- Fair City, Ireland (1988–present)
- Home and Away, Australia (1988–present)
- Les Guignols de l'info, France (1988–present)
- This Morning (1988–present)
- COPS (1989–present)
- Domingão do Faustão (Brazil) (1989-present).
- Inside Edition (1989–present)
- The New Yankee Workshop (1989–present)
- Primetime (1989–present)
- The Simpsons (1989–present)
[edit] 1990-1993 [edit] 1994-1996 [edit] 1997-1999 - Y Clwb Rygbi, Wales (1997–present)
- Dream Team, UK (1997–2007)
- Family Affairs, UK (1997–2005)
- Johnny Bravo (1997-2003)
- King of the Hill (1997-present)
- South Park (1997–present)
- Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007)
- The Practice (1997-2004)
- Becker (1998-2004)
- CatDog (1998-2004)
- Charmed (1998–2006)
- City Confidential (1998–present)
- Cold Case Files (1998–present)
- Comedy Central Presents (1998–present)
- The King of Queens (1998–2007)
- Nightline, New Zealand (1998–present)
- Sex and the City (1998-2004)
- That '70s Show (1998–2006)
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998-2005)
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK) (1998-present).
- Will & Grace (1998-2006)
- 60 Minutes II (1999-2005)
- Early Today (1999-present)
- Ed, Edd n Eddy (1999-present).
- Family Feud (1976-1985, 1988-1995, 1999-present).
- Judge Mathis (1999-present).
- Home Movies (1999-2004).
- Judging Amy (1999-2005).
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-present)
- Movie Surfers (1998–present)
- Passions (1999-2007, 2007-2008).
- Pokémon (Japan, U.S.) (1997,1998-present).
- Rocket Power (1999-2004).
- Shocking Behavior: Caught on Tape (1999-present).
- The Sopranos (1999-2007).
- SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-present).
- Tenacious D (1999-present).
- Third Watch (1999-2005).
- Total Request Live (1998–present)
- True Life (1998–present)
- The West Wing (1999-2006)
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (U.S.) (1999-2002).
- WWE SmackDown (1999-present).
[edit] Returning in 2004 [edit] Original Air Dates [edit] Ending this year [edit] Changes of Network Affiliation
[edit] Deaths [edit] Movies [edit] References |