1996–97 United States network television schedule

1996 in American television 1997 in American television

List of American television programs currently in production

Daytime: 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99

Prime time: 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99

Late night: 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99

The 1996–1997 United States network television schedule is for the United States broadcast television on all six commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 1996 and ending in August 1997. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.

New series highlighted in bold.

Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.^[1]

  Yellow indicates the programs in the top 10 for the season.

  Cyan indicates the programs in the top 20 for the season.

  Magenta indicates the programs in the top 30 for the season.

Other Legend

•   Light blue indicates local programming.
•   Gray indicates encore programming.
•   Blue-gray indicates news programming.
•   Light green indicates sporting events.
•   Light Purple indicates movies.
•   Red indicates series being burned off and other regularly scheduled programs, include

PBS is not included; member stations have local flexibility over most of their schedules and broadcast times for network shows may vary.

Sunday[]

Network		7:00 PM	7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	America's Funniest Home Videos	America's Funniest Home Videos	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman		The ABC Sunday Night Movie
	Winter	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman		America's Funniest Home Videos	America's Funniest Home Videos
	Spring	America's Funniest Home Videos	America's Funniest Home Videos	Second Noah
	Summer	Second Noah		America's Funniest Home Videos	America's Funniest Home Videos
CBS		60 Minutes (#11/13.3)		Touched by an Angel (#10/13.6)		CBS Sunday Movie (#14/12.1)
Fox	Fall	Big Deal		Fox Sunday Movie / MLB Playoffs and World Series
	Late Fall	Married... with Children	Married... with Children	The Simpsons	Ned & Stacey	The X-Files (#21/11.4) (Tied with Cosby)		Local Programming
	Winter	Various Specials			King of the Hill
	Summer	Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
NBC	Fall	Dateline NBC		3rd Rock from the Sun (#27/10.8) (Tied with Law & Order)	Boston Common	NBC Sunday Night Movie (#18/11.5) (Tied with The Drew Carey Show)
	Summer				NewsRadio
The WB	Fall	Kirk	Brotherly Love	The Parent 'Hood	The Steve Harvey Show	Unhappily Ever After	Life with Roger	Local Programming
	Follow Up	Brotherly Love
	Winter		Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher
	June	Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher	The Parent 'Hood	The Steve Harvey Show			The Wayans Bros.
	July			Buffy the Vampire Slayer
	August			The Jamie Foxx Show	The Jamie Foxx Show

Monday[]

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Dangerous Minds		Monday Night Football (#7/16.0)
	Winter			The ABC Monday Night Movie
	Spring	Spy Game
	Follow Up	Relativity
	May	Various Specials
	Summer	World of Discovery
	August	Preseason NFL Football
CBS	Fall	Cosby (#21/11.2) (Tied with The X-Files)	Pearl	Murphy Brown	Cybill (#30/10.5) (Tied with Chicago Hope and Dateline NBC)	Chicago Hope (#30/10.5) (Tied with Dateline NBC and Cybill)
	Follow Up		Ink
	Spring		Everybody Loves Raymond	Cybill (#30/10.5) (Tied with Chicago Hope and Dateline NBC)	Ink
	May		Murphy Brown
	Summer		Everybody Loves Raymond		Murphy Brown
Fox	Fall	Melrose Place		Party Girl	Lush Life	Local Programming
	Winter			Ned and Stacey	Married... with Children
	Follow Up			Married... with Children
	Spring				Pauly
	May				Married... with Children
	Summer	MAD TV Primetime	The Ruby Wax Show
	Mid-Summer	Various Specials		Roar
NBC	Fall	The Jeff Foxworthy Show	Mr. Rhodes	The NBC Monday Movie (#23/11.0) (Tied with Walker, Texas Ranger, Mad About You and Caroline in the City)
	Spring		Boston Common
	Summer	The NBC Monday Movie (#23/11.0) (Tied with Walker, Texas Ranger, Mad About You and Caroline in the City)				Dateline NBC
	Follow Up	Suddenly Susan	Fired Up	Caroline in the City (#23/11.0) (Tied with Walker, Texas Ranger Mad About You and The NBC Monday Movie)	Wings
UPN	Fall	In the House	Malcolm & Eddie	Goode Behavior	Sparks	Local Programming
	Winter			Sparks	Goode Behavior
The WB	Fall	7th Heaven		Savannah
	Spring			Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Note: On CBS, the debut of Ink was delayed by a month due to production problems, resulting in another new sitcom, Pearl, which aired temporarily in its slot before moving to its own originally designated Wednesday time period in late October.

Tuesday[]

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Roseanne	Life's Work	Home Improvement (#9/14.0)	Spin City (#17/11.7)	NYPD Blue (#13/12.5)
	Winter		Ellen (Repeats)
	Spring	Home Improvement (Repeats)	Soul Man			The Practice
	Summer	Roseanne	Life's Work			NYPD Blue (#13/12.5)
	August		Grace Under Fire
CBS		Promised Land		CBS Tuesday Movie
Fox		Fox Tuesday Night Movie				Local Programming
NBC	Fall	Mad About You (#23/11.0) (Tied with Walker, Texas Ranger, Caroline in the City and The NBC Monday Movie)	Something So Right	Frasier (#16/11.8)	Caroline in the City (#23/11.0) (Tied with Walker, Texas Ranger Mad About You and The NBC Monday Movie)	Dateline Tuesday (#20/11.4)
	July		The Naked Truth
	August		NewsRadio		Just Shoot Me!
UPN	Fall	Moesha	Homeboys in Outer Space	The Burning Zone		Local Programming
	Spring		Social Studies
	Follow Up		Homeboys in Outer Space
	Mid-Summer		Social Studies	Malcolm & Eddie	In the House

Wednesday[]

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Ellen (#29/10.6)	Townies	Grace Under Fire	The Drew Carey Show (#18/11.5) (Tied with The NBC Sunday Night Movie)	Primetime Live (#15/11.9)
	Winter	Grace Under Fire	Coach	The Drew Carey Show (#18/11.5) (Tied with The NBC Sunday Night Movie)	Ellen (#29/10.6)
	Spring				Arsenio
	Follow Up				Ellen (#29/10.6)
CBS	Fall	The Nanny	Almost Perfect	CBS Wednesday Movie
	Late October		Pearl	Almost Perfect	Public Morals	EZ Streets
	Follow Up			CBS Wednesday Movie
	Winter			Coast to Coast		Orleans
	Spring		Temporarily Yours	Feds		EZ Streets
	Follow Up		Dave's World	CBS Wednesday Movie
	Summer		Pearl
	Mid-Summer		Murphy Brown	Coast to Coast		48 Hours
Fox	Fall	Beverly Hills, 90210		Party of Five		Local Programming
	Spring			Pacific Palisades
	Summer	Various Specials
NBC	Fall	Wings	The John Larroquette Show	NewsRadio	Men Behaving Badly	Law & Order (#27/10.8) (Tied with 3rd Rock from the Sun)
	Follow Up		3rd Rock from the Sun (Repeats)
	Winter		Chicago Sons
	Spring	NewsRadio		Wings	Just Shoot Me!	Prince Street
	Follow Up		The Single Guy		Men Behaving Badly	Law & Order (#27/10.8) (Tied with 3rd Rock from the Sun)
	Summer		Wings		Chicago Sons
	Mid-Summer	NBC Wednesday Night Movie
UPN		The Sentinel		Star Trek: Voyager		Local Programming
The WB	Fall	Sister, Sister	Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher	The Wayans Bros.	The Jamie Foxx Show
	Spring		Smart Guy	The Jamie Foxx Show	The Wayans Bros.
	Summer		The Parent 'Hood
	Mid-Summer		The Steve Harvey Show
	Follow Up		Smart Guy	The Wayans Bros.	The Steve Harvey Show

Note: On CBS, due to the effect of the debut delay of Ink on Monday, the first month of the new season on this night aired Almost Perfect at 8:30 p.m., followed by CBS Wednesday Movies at 9 p.m. The originally planned fall Wednesday lineup took shape at the end of October with Pearl taking over at 8:30 p.m., Almost Perfect moving to 9 p.m., Public Morals debuting at 9:30 p.m., and EZ Streets debuting at 10 p.m. This lasted for only one week in late October. CBS cancelled Public Morals after it aired the 1st, and only, episode. This meant Almost Perfect would soon be cancelled. EZ Streets would be given a 2nd chance in the spring.

Thursday[]

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	High Incident		Murder One		Turning Point
	Winter			The ABC Thursday Night Movie
	Spring			Vital Signs		Turning Point
	Mid-Summer			Turning Point		Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher	Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher
	Follow Up					Various ABC News Specials
CBS	Fall	Diagnosis: Murder		Moloney		48 Hours
	Mid-Summer	Promised Land		Diagnosis: Murder
Fox		Martin	Living Single	New York Undercover		Local Programming
NBC	Fall	Friends (#4/16.8) (Tied with The Naked Truth)	The Single Guy (#8/14.1)	Seinfeld (#2/20.5)	Suddenly Susan (#3/17.0)	ER (#1/21.2)
	Winter				The Naked Truth (#4/16.8) (Tied with Friends)
	Spring		Suddenly Susan (#3/17.0)			Law & Order (#27/10.8) (Tied with 3rd Rock from the Sun)
	Follow Up				Fired Up (#6/16.5)	ER (#1/21.2)
	Summer		Men Behaving Badly		Suddenly Susan (#3/17.0)
	August				3rd Rock from the Sun

Friday[]

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Family Matters	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Clueless	Boy Meets World	20/20 (#12/12.8)
	Follow Up		Boy Meets World	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Clueless
	Spring				Step by Step
	Summer	Step by Step			Clueless
	August				Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
CBS	Fall	Dave's World	Everybody Loves Raymond	Mr. & Mrs. Smith		Nash Bridges
	December			Various Specials
	January			JAG
	Spring	JAG		Orleans
	Summer	Dave's World	Life... and Stuff	JAG
	Mid-Summer	Ordinary Extraordinary
Fox	Fall	Sliders		The X-Files		Local Programming
	Late Fall			Millennium
NBC	Fall	Unsolved Mysteries		Dateline NBC (#30/10.5) (Tied with Chicago Hope and Cybill)		Homicide: Life on the Street
	Follow Up					Crisis Center
	Spring					Homicide: Life on the Street
	Summer					Profiler
	Mid-Summer					Homicide: Life on the Street

Saturday[]

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Second Noah		Coach	Common Law	Relativity
	Winter	The ABC Saturday Night Movie
	Spring	Dangerous Minds		The ABC Saturday Night Movie
	April	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman		Leaving L.A.		Gun
	Summer	Family Matters	Hangin' with Mr. Cooper	Dangerous Minds		Spy Game
	Mid-Summer			Various Specials		The Practice
CBS		Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman		Early Edition		Walker, Texas Ranger (#23/11.0) (Tied with Mad About You, Caroline in the City and The NBC Monday Movie)
Fox	Fall	COPS	COPS	Married... with Children	Love and Marriage	Local Programming
	Winter			America's Most Wanted
	Spring		America's Most Wanted	Lawless
	Late Spring		COPS	America's Most Wanted
NBC	Fall	Dark Skies		The Pretender		Profiler
	Late Spring	Various Specials
	Summer	The Pretender		NBC Saturday Night Movie

Note: America's Most Wanted would debut in November at 9:00 on Fox. Married... with Children moved to Sundays at 7-8pm in November, Mondays at 9:30 in January, and Mondays at 9pm in February. Lawless was canceled after one episode.

By network[]

ABC[]

CBS[]

Fox[]

NBC[]

UPN[]

The WB[]

References[]