1997 in television

Events

• January 3 - NBC's The Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time.
• January 6 - The UK's Channel 4 closes down for the last time. From 6am, the channel broadcasts 24 hours a day.
• January - The U.S. television networks adopt ratings systems for their programming, similar to those used for motion pictures.
• February 9 - The Simpsons surpasses The Flintstones as the longest-running prime-time animated series in terms of episodes aired.
• March 30 - Channel 5, the UK's fifth & last terrestrial channel launches.
• June 6 - Actress Farrah Fawcett makes a bizarre appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Fawcett tells long, rambling stories without a point, fails to understand simple questions, and gets easily distracted by things like blinking lights on the set.
• July 15 - A tribute episode is aired on Another World in honor of core cast member Victoria Wyndham's twenty-five years with the program.
• August 31 - BBC1 continues to air through the whole night in the UK for the first time, simulcasting with BBC World to bring news updates of Diana, Princess of Wales's car accident.
• September ? After several years of anchoring ABC's successful "TGIF" Friday night situation comedy programming block, Family Matters and Step by Step switch networks to CBS. Both shows, which were in their waning years (and would be cancelled in 1998), anchor CBS's new Friday night lineup of family-friendly programming.
• October 13 - Canadian cable channels like Comedy Network, Food Network, HGTV, Prime, Teletoon began launching, Speedvision was introduced there.
• November 2 - a third production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's version of Cinderella airs on ABC. This version, starring Brandy Norwood and Whitney Houston, is produced by The Walt Disney Company, who made their own version of the story as an animated film in 1950.
• November 8 - BBC1 closes down for the last time, making BBC2 the last terrestrial channel to still closedown at night. From the next day, BBC News 24 broadcasts on BBC1 through the night.
• November 9 - BBC News 24 launched.