In American television in 2002, notable events included television series debuts, finales, cancellations, and new channel initiations.
Events
January
Date
Event
1
KRON-TV/San Francisco ends its affiliation with NBC after 52 years and becomes an independent station after Young Broadcasting, which purchased the station for $823 million in November 1999 from the deYoung family (who also sold the San Francisco Chronicle to the Hearst Corporation), refuses to agree to demands made by NBC to manage KRON under the conventions of a network-owned station (which included rebranding from "KRON 4" to "NBC 4", and airing the entire network schedule in pattern with pre-emptions reduced to those necessitated due to extended breaking news coverage). San Jose-based WB affiliate KNTV (which served as the ABC affiliate for the South Bay from 1960 until 2000, when it agreed to disaffiliate at the request of the Bay Area's primary ABC station, O&O KGO-TV) assumes the NBC affiliation and soon afterward is sold to the network by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, whose remaining Bay Area station, KBWB-TV (now independent station KOFY-TV), consequently became the market's sole WB affiliate.
Pat Summerall calls his 26th and final Super Bowl overall for television and radio. This was also the eighth final Super Bowl telecast (and final NFL telecast of any kind) to be called by Summerall and John Madden. The duo called five for CBS and three for Fox. The New England Patriots win their first championship ever against the St. Louis Rams, leading a start of their dynasty.
CBS buys KCAL (channel 9) in Los Angeles, California from Young Broadcasting for $650 million, making it a sister station to KCBS channel 2.
The final Family Guy episode airs after Fox announces its cancellation (however, record DVD sales and high ratings in syndication convince Fox to bring it back in 2005).
The 63rd and final episode of Once and Again is broadcast by ABC. This would mark Evan Rachel Wood's final appearance as a main cast member on a television series until Westworld premieres on HBO in 2016.
17
The ABC soap opera General Hospital broadcasts its milestone 10,000th episode.
Jeopardy! hosted a Million Dollar Masters Tournament held at Radio City Music Hall in commemoration of host Alex Trebek's 4,000th episode. Brad Rutter won the tournament aired May 14 and the $1,000,000 grand prize. The day after the finals, Jeopardy! celebrates the airing of Trebek's 4,000th episode in syndication.[1]
5
NBC broadcasts a three-hour 75th anniversary special.
6
One Life to Live broadcasts a full week of episodes broadcast live from the ABC New York studios.
In CBS, Vecepia Towery was named the Sole Survivor in Survivor: Marquesas. That episode was also panned with criticism over the infamous tiebreaker dubbed "Purple Rock" leading to the elimination of frontrunner Paschal English. As of today, this is the last reunion special hosted by someone other than the host Jeff Probst, Rosie O'Donnell hosted the special.
After negotiations concerning a new affiliation agreement with CBS fail, WJXT (channel 4) in Jacksonville, Florida becomes an independent station on this date, with former UPN affiliate WTEV-TV (channel 47) assuming the market's CBS affiliation. This also results in an affiliation change in nearby Gainesville (where WJXT had long been the market's default CBS affiliate), as WB/UPN affiliate WGFL joins CBS (giving the Gainesville market its first-ever CBS affiliate).[2]
August
Date
Event
September
Date
Event
1
Clear Channel reverts the KMOL-TV branding in San Antonio back to the WOAI-TV branding, since Clear Channel traded WFTC to Fox in return for two network-based affiliates originally by Chris Craft, KTVX, and KMOL.
2
Disney Channel stops broadcasting its afternoon and late night programming blocks "Zoog Disney" and "Vault Disney".
Fox Kids (which had been on the air since 1990) airs for the final time, as Fox had sold the block's program library to Disney, parent company of rival network ABC. It was replaced the following week (on September 14) by the 4Kids-programmed FoxBox.[3]
8
In Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, FoxO&OWFTC swaps affiliations with sister station and UPN affiliate KMSP-TV, due to Fox's desire to place their programming on a stronger station (in addition to being on VHF, KMSP-TV has higher ratings, a stronger signal, and a well-established news department).[4]
Major upheavals take place on Saturday mornings, as three of the four major networks change their programming on this day, with NBC preparing to do the same. Fox, having sold Fox Kids Worldwide to The Walt Disney Company the previous year, ends Fox Kids and sells its airtime to 4Kids Entertainment, who begins programming their new children's programming block FoxBox. Disney, having acquired Fox Kids' program library, re-launches Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC as ABC Kids. CBS, whose then and now-corporate sibling Nickelodeon programs its lineup, rebrands its Nick Jr. on CBS block as Nick on CBS and refocuses it on 2–11 year old children.[3][5]
Lisa Donahue is the winner of CBS's contest Big Brother 3 and wins the $500,000 prize; runner-up Danielle Reyes wins $50,000.
28
After being on the air for over ten years, NBC's Saturday morning block TNBC airs for the final time. The following week, NBC's deal with Discovery Networks takes effect, resulting in the launch of Discovery Kids on NBC.
Discovery Science Channel becomes the first Discovery Networks-owned cable network to drop the Discovery branding from its name, rebranding as the Science Channel.
^"Jeopardy!'streak". Associated Press. Brad Rutter of Lancaster, Penn., earned a total of $1,155,102 after winning a Million Dollar Masters Tournament.
