In
American television during 2004 notable events included television series debuts, finales, cancellations, and new channel initiations.
Events
January
Date
Event
7
The Apprentice, a reality show franchise produced by
Mark Burnett involving a test of skill to be 'hired' into a company, which was hosted by businessman
Donald Trump (who would later become the
nation's president in
2016), premieres its first episode. David Gould would be the first person fired.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire aired a spin-off of Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire which offered its biggest cash prize in a game show history of $10,000,000. Only one contestant, Robert Essig, won at least $1,000,000 during the run, and no contestants won the top prize of $10,000,000.
PBS launched the HD network for the purpose of offering high definition and widescreen content 24 hours per day, seven days per week onto most PBS stations.[2]
4
Rich Fields debuts as the new announcer for The Price is Right, a role he would hold until the end of Season 38.
8
Tiffany is named the new host of
BET's The Center. Young Sir, who has been filling in since
Amerie left last fall, takes over as the new host of BET.com Countdown.
In
Casper, Wyoming,
independent station/
Pax TV affiliate
KTWO-TV (having lost
NBC to
KCWY in September of last year) finally becomes an
ABC affiliate after ABC's outgoing affiliate
KFNB reaches an agreement with KTWO-TV ending its affiliation three months earlier than scheduled. KFNB then becomes a
Fox affiliate, while sister station K26ES (now
KWYF-LD) elevates its secondary
UPN affiliation to full-time status.
15
Game Show Network began making the switch to their new rebranding, GSN.
18
The 57th episode of The Powerpuff Girls "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" airs in Canada on
YTV, having been banned in the United States due to religious controversy.
C-SPAN aired a press conference being held in the
White House Rose Garden in which President
George W. Bush and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair spoke about the war in
Iraq and other issues. The event was far more watched than almost any other C-SPAN broadcast of the year, getting "shockingly high"
Nielsen ratings. A similar broadcast on March 27 of the previous year was similarly widely viewed.[3]
May
Date
Event
6
Friends ends its run after 10 years, broadcasting the last episode, "
The Last One", on
NBC. A spinoff, Joey, debuts on NBC the following season.
Fantasia Barrino wins the third season of
Fox's American Idol. This series also marked the first time it topped viewerships in the television ratings of this season.
27
Fox announced the cancellation of television special Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay, which was intended to air on June 7, 2004. The cancellation followed intense media backlash, such as from
GLAAD, over the special's portrayal of gay men; the network attributed the cancellation to "creative reasons".[4]
28
TechTV merges with
G4 to form
G4techTV, one of the most controversial mergers of television history as less than a year later, the merged network becomes
G4 once again.
ABC broadcasts its
finalNHL game for 17 years, which also turns out to be the last one before the
lockout that canceled the league's 2004–05 season. Through
ESPN, the network resumes airing NHL games in the
2021-22 season.
Cartoon Network unveils a new logo for the first time in 11 years and a new branding that involve various animated characters living around a realistic CGI-themed city. The new branding known as "CN City", replaced the previous Powerhouse branding which had been in use for the past 7 years.
In
Charlottesville, Virginia,
NBC affiliate
WVIR-TV, long the only commercial station in its market, receives competition for the first time ever when
WCAV signs-on as a
CBS affiliate. Shortly thereafter, WCAV adds
WVAW-LP as an
ABC affiliate.
ABC affiliate
WDTN in
Dayton, Ohio swaps affiliations with
NBC affiliate
WKEF, reversing a swap that took place in 1980.
September
Date
Event
4
A series premiere promo for the Canadian animated series Atomic Betty, which is set to premiere on sister cable network
Cartoon Network on September 17, accidentally airs on
Kids' WB during the split screen credits of the Pokémon: Advanced episode "A Poké-Block Party".
In Chicago, independent station
WCIU drops
Kids' WB. The city's WB affiliate
WGN-TV, which had previously declined the block in favor of newscasts and sitcoms, picks up the block, and thus clears the entire WB schedule for the first time.
Kathleen Herles announces her retirement as voice of Dora on Dora the Explorer. Her final episode, "Dora Saves the Mermaids", would not air until November 2007.
28
Longtime veteran
Marcy Walker makes her final appearance on the ABC soap opera All My Children after two decades of being affiliated with the program.
The fifth and final aired episode of Dr. Vegas aired on
CBS. This marked the last time that
Amy Adams appeared as a regular cast member on a television series, before returning many years later with Sharp Objects.
Longtime
CBS News anchor and manager editor
Dan Rather announces he will step down in March.
30
After seventy-four consecutive wins,
Ken Jennings finally loses on Jeopardy!, to competitor
Nancy Zerg. Jennings' final cash winnings total is $2,522,700 making him the richest winner of American television history.
For the first time in its history,
Nielsen Media Research, the official American television ratings service, began counting original shows on pay
televisionpremium channels in its
prime-time ratings.[8] At the time, most of these were broadcast by competitors
HBO and
Showtime, but
Starz has since begun producing original shows.