1996 in television

For the American network television schedule, please see 1996-97 American network television schedule.

Debuts

• January 2 - The Demon Headmaster premieres on BBC One in the UK (1996-1998).
• January 15 - Our Friends in the North, a nine-part serial spanning the 1960s to the 1990s in the lives of four friends, debuts on BBC Two.
• February 7 - Dragon Ball GT premieres as being the third of its Dragon Ball series aired on Fuji TV in Japan, almost after 10 years.
• April 27 - Dexter's Laboratory premieres on Cartoon Network (1996-present).
• July 22 - The Daily Show premieres (1996-present).
• August 26 - 7th Heaven premieres on the WB (1996-present).
• September 16 - Judge Judy premieres (1996-present).
• September 13 - Everybody Loves Raymond premieres on CBS (1996-2005).
• September 17 - Spin City premieres on ABC (1996-2002).
• October 7 - Hey Arnold! premieres on Nickelodeon (1996-2004).
• October 20 - Canada's Sesame Street switches to showing exclusively Canadian content, renaming itself Sesame Park 1996-2002), as it no longer uses any American made segments from Sesame Street.
• October 21 - The Newsroom premieres on CBC (first limited run series aired in 1996-1997, second series aired in 2003-2004).
• Dragonball Z premieres in the U.S.