The following is a list of events affecting American television in 2000. Events listed include television series debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel initiations, closures and rebrandings, as well as information about controversies and disputes.
Chris-Craft Broadcasting (the 50% owner of UPN) filed a lawsuit against Viacom in the New York Supreme Court to block it's partner's merger with CBS, claiming that a pact signed between the two partners in 1997 had prevented either from owning "any interest, financial or otherwise" in "any competing network," including CBS, for a four-year period through January 2001. The following month, New York Supreme Court ruled against Chris-Craft's move for a permanent injunction to curtail the Viacom-CBS merger and the enforcement of Viacom's ultimatum.
15
Rick Rockwell marries stranger Darva Conger watched by 22 million viewers on the Foxreality showWho Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? While he and Darva are honeymooning, it becomes apparent that Rockwell—who is sometimes a comedian—had a restraining order against a former girlfriend, and he was not really a multi-millionaire. As a result, Fox cancels a rerun scheduled the next week, and does not broadcast any new installments. In addition the couple end their relationship soon after the show's taping.
David Legler wins a combined $1,765,000 from the six episodes he appeared on the NBC game show, Twenty One, surpassing Curtis Warren's total of $1,546,988, and becoming, at the time, the largest winner in game show winnings totals. (Warren had set the record 4 days earlier on Fox's Greed, winning $1,000,000 by correctly answering a special Million Dollar Moment question.)
21
David Letterman resumes hosting Late Show with David Letterman on CBS following his quintuple heart bypass surgery in January. On the show, Letterman (whose father died of heart failure in his 50s) brings all of the doctors that had performed the operation out on stage with him, including Dr. O. Wayne Isom and physician Louis Aronne, who makes frequent appearances on the show. In an unusual show of emotion, Letterman is nearly in tears as he thanks the doctors. The episode will earn an Emmy Award nomination.
18
Just as FCC's duopoly rules relaxed, Fox Television Stations buy out KDFI from Dallas Media Inventors, creating the first television duopoly to be owned by Fox (the same strategy was used when Fox bought the Chris-Craft company and WPWR-TV the following year).
Viacom finally acquired Chris-Craft Broadcasting's 50% share of UPN for $5 million. Meaning that UPN is fully owned by Viacom, and Chris-Craft's UPN stations (including New York and Los Angeles) lost their statuses as O&Os and automatically became affiliates of the network, with the network's de facto owned-and-operated flagship stations that Viacom owned.
WWHO in Columbus, Ohio and WLWC in Providence, Rhode Island became primary UPN affiliates, and eventually these stations becoming secondary WB affiliates.
The Fox series Get Real airs its 20th and final aired episode (leaving 2 more unaired). Both Annie Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg subsequently appeared in successful movie roles.
May
Date
Event
1
The WWF garners the 2nd highest rated episode of Raw is War with a 7.4 rating,[1] which was the highest of the millennium,[1] while their top star The Rock draws an 8.3 rating in a Steel Cage Match against Shane Mcmahon for the WWF Championship, which was the highest rated wrestling segment of the millennium, [citation needed] only 2nd to the highest rated segment in WWF history featuring The Rock, with This is your life on the September 27, 1999 edition of Raw Is War.[2]
5
Boy Meets World ends its seven-season run with its series finale on ABC.
The WB broadcasts the third-season finale of Dawson's Creek, entitled "True Love". The episode features the first male gay kiss on U.S. primetime television, which has been called "a milestone in the timeline of gay representation in pop culture".[3]
31
The first season of CBS's long-running reality competition of Survivor, titled Survivor: Borneo, based on Sweden's game show Expedition Robinson, premieres its first episode. Sonja Christopher was the first contestant to be eliminated.
July
Date
Event
3
KNTV (channel 11) in San Jose, California drops its ABC affiliation for the Monterey Bay area and begins carrying minimal programming from The WB. (At that time, The WB affiliate for the Bay Area was KBWB channel 20).
5
The first season of CBS's long-running reality competition of Big Brother, based on the Dutch series of the same name, premieres its first episode. It was the only televised U.S. season to use the traditional format to eliminate contestants via televoting, however, as the season received negative reception.
Will & Grace moves permanently to Thursday nights, ending two years of airing the series on different nights. On July 25, Frasier moves back to Tuesday nights after two years on Thursday nights due to competition from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, confirming the swap NBC had discussed their schedule in May.
28
Kathie Lee Gifford made her final appearance as co-host on Live!, after 17 years (eleven and a half years for national syndication). Regis Philbin will continue to serve the only host until Kelly Ripa introduced as new co-host the following year.
August
Date
Event
3
KBEJ Channel 2, (now KCWX) commences programming in Fredericksburg, Texas, taking the Austin market's UPN affiliation from low-powered station KVC 13 and returning full-time UPN service to San Antonio (between KRRT (now KMYS)'s switch to The WB in 1998 and KBEJ's sign-on, NBC affiliate KMOL-TV aired UPN programming on a secondary basis).
In CBS, corporate trainer Richard Hatch was declared the inaugural "Sole Survivor" in Survivor and won the $1,000,000 grand prize; Kelly Wiglesworth was named the runner-up.
September
Date
Event
4
Canadian series Caillou and Clifford the Big Red Dog premiere on PBS Kids in the United States. On the same day, the Dora the Explorer episode "Three Little Piggies", airs on Nick Jr.
The 2000 Summer Olympics are televised by NBC. Opening ceremonies are watched by 27 and a half million viewers.
16
After the completion of Viacom's $37 billion merger with the CBS Corporation, CBS Kidshow ended its run and replaces it with Nick Jr. on CBS, programmed by new corporate sister Nickelodeon.
Eddie McGee wins the first U.S. season of Big Brother and won the $500,000 grand prize. It is the only season at the time the final vote was determined by public viewers instead of a Jury vote.
30
PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch debuts. The block is programmed for PBS by Canada-based Nelvana, which had programmed the CBS Kidshow until the block was cancelled by CBS on September 16.[4]
October
Date
Event
2
Triple Play is played for the first time on CBS's The Price Is Right, and was the first pricing game in history to offer three cars.
NBC broadcasts Game 6 of the American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners. With Bob Costas and Joe Morgan at the call, the Yankees would defeat the Mariners 9–7, to advance to the World Series against their cross–townrivals, the Mets. As previously mentioned, this proved to be NBC's final Major League Baseball telecast until the 2022 season.
26
The Game 5 of the World Series airs on Fox. The New York Yankees win their third consecutive title (and first since the Oakland Athletics from 1972 to 1974) and 26th in franchise history, defeating their crosstown opponent the New York Mets 4–2.
30
Lancaster, Pennsylvania's college student Brad Rutter made his historical first appearance in the Jeopardy! game show, and he would go on set a record for its largest J! career winnings as of 2005 ($4,788,440), and as of 2020, becoming one of the largest winners in American game show history with winnings accumulating over $5,000,000, including $100,000 he won from Million Dollar Mind Game in 2014.
Wheel of Fortune airs a Halloween-themed episode for celebrities on charity. The celebrities in Halloween costumes were Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, fitness instructor Richard Simmons and American figure skater Tara Lipinski.
The final episode of All That's first-run airs on Nickelodeon. After 13 episodes the show was put on hiatus. To keep the show running, the producers compiled a series called Best of All That. Eventually, Nickelodeon canceled All That, due to crew disputes and a general desire to move on. However, All That still had a strong following and was one of the most popular shows on the network. Nickelodeon planned to revive the show, starting from scratch.
December
Date
Event
7
The SpongeBob SquarePants holiday special episode "Christmas Who?", airs on Nickelodeon.
14
Barker's BeautiesJanice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley both quit CBS' series The Price Is Right. (On her broadcast run, Pennington has been on the series since its premiere during 1972.) Starting the following day, auditions to find new Barker's Beauties are held for several months. In the end, Claudia Jordan and Heather Kozar are selected as permanent models.
