In American television in 1997, notable events included television show debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel initiations, closures, and rebrandings, as well as information about controversies and disputes.
Events
Date
Event
January 1
The television rating system, a system similar to the one used for motion pictures, goes into effect.
Schindler's List makes its network television debut on NBC. The film is broadcast virtually unedited and is the first telecast to receive a TV-M (now TV-MA) rating under the TV Parental Guidelines that had been established earlier in the year.
Disney Channel is revamped with the cable television premiere of Pocahontas. The film would have its network television premiere on ABC one year later. Disney Channel continues to convert from subscription television to a basic cable channel.
Farrah Fawcett makes a bizarre appearance on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman. Fawcett tells long, rambling stories without a purpose, fails to understand simple questions, and gets easily distracted by things like blinking lights on the set.
June 21
The Professional Bowlers Tour ends after 36 years on ABC. CBS assumes the rights to the tour and will televise several events over the next two years.
WFFF-TV in Burlington, Vermont, signs-on the air, giving the Burlington/Plattsburgh market its first full-time Fox affiliate (prior to this, Fox programming was seen on a secondary basis on CBS affiliate WCAX-TV).[3]
Various networks broadcast the Princess Diana funeral; 2.7 million viewers at home watched this special.
September 8
KDAF-TV gives up the rights on Fox Kids to KDFI, as KDFW airs news, talk shows, paid/real estate and E/I-complaint programming instead of the block (KDFI also airs said programs, as well as Fox programs, just in case for local news emergencies and sports preemptions).
After several years of being a part of ABC's successful "TGIF" sitcom programming block, Family Matters and Step by Step switch to CBS to form the basis of the "CBS Block Party", a direct competitor to TGIF. Both series, as well as the Block Party, would be cancelled after one season.
Jeopardy!'s 3,000th syndicated episode airs. The categories in the Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! rounds from its debut episode in 1984 are used on this episode.
Game 7 of the World Series is broadcast on NBC. The Florida Marlins defeat the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first baseball wild card team to win the world championship. This was the first World Series that NBC would broadcast in its entirety since 1988. NBC aired only Games 2-3 and the decisive sixth game of the 1995 World Series, while ABC aired the other three and a seventh game had it been necessary.
Rick Rude becomes the only person to appear on both USA Network's Raw and TNT's Monday Nitro on the same night. Whereas the Raw that aired that night was pre-recorded six days in advanced, Rude appeared on a live edition of Nitro about an hour earlier.
WVIT becomes an NBC O&O for the second time, and Paramount Stations Group had purchased WLWC and WWHO, dropping off newscasts, although Paramount had to run these two as a WB affiliate until 2000, while getting UPN to secondary status.
December 15
World Wrestling Federation chairman Vince McMahon announces the introduction of the Attitude Era (a term used by WWF for its adult-oriented programming) on Raw Is War, during a segment entitled "The Cure for the Common Show". The WWF Attitude's scratch logo also makes its on-screen debut within the episode, replacing the New Generation's block logo.
December 24
TNT and TBS broadcast "24 Hours of A Christmas Story", consisting of 12 consecutive airings of the 1983 film from the evening of Christmas Eve to the evening of Christmas Day.[6]
CBS Eye on People launches in 2 million homes with fourteen original programs supplied by CBS News, including live talk show Off 10th, 60 Minutes More, and 48 Hours Later. The channel received low carriage, and was later sold to Discovery Communications before being closed.
In 1997, News Corporation it would launch a Fox Sports network in Michigan, and won a surprise bid for local cable television rights to Detroit Pistons games. Fox Sports Detroit then acquired broadcast rights to Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers games from competitor Pro-Am Sports System, and launched on September 17 in the for the NHL and MLB seasons.
Plex: Encore 1 replaced both Encore+, and Intro Television, which showed sampler blocks of different cable networks. Like Encore+, Plex aired programs from a different Encore multiplex channel each day. Plex rebranded as MoviePlex in October.
NewSport, a 24-hour sports news channel owned by Rainbow Programming Holdings, had struggled to receive carriage throughout its run, receiving only 10 million subscribers at its peak. NewSport's slow growth compared to competitor ESPNews resulted in Rainbow closing NewSport on July 9.
In 1997, Fox/Liberty Networks won an unexpected bid for the local cable television rights to Detroit Red Wings games from Pro-Am Sports System, then announced plans to launch a regional sports network to compete with PASS. Fox Sports Detroit won a bid for broadcast rights to the Detroit Pistons and Detroit Tigers contracts on August 26. On August 30, PASS owner Post-Newsweek sold its remaining Tigers and Pistons contracts and sportscaster John Keating's contract to Fox Sports Detroit before its launch, then shut down Pro-Am Sports System at midnight on November 1, 1997.
