2001 in television

Events

• February 25 - *NSYNC is featured on an episode of The Simpsons entitled "New Kids On The Blecch".
• 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.
• 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 11 - Viewers around the world are horrified as they witness a terrorist attack on the United States, and the collapse of the Twin 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. 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, ' and ', dealing with a terrorist attack on New York City.
• ' 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.
• Continually scrolling news headlines along the bottom of the screen become a standard feature on CNN and other news broadcasters after they are used to great affect during coverage of the attacks.
• November 5 - BBC 2W, a new digital channel for Wales, is launched.
• Canada rolls out hundreds 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 is not slashed.