See also: 1996 in television, other events of 1997, 1998 in television and the list of 'years in television'.

Table of contents
1 Events
2 Debuts
3 Popular Television Shows
4 Ending this year
5 Births
6 Deaths

Events

  • January - The U.S. television networks adopt ratings systems for their programming, similar to those used for motion pictures.
  • January 3 - NBC's Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time.
  • February 9 - The Simpsons surpasses The Flintstones as the longest-running prime-time animated series.
  • June 6 - Actress Farrah Fawcett makes a bizarre appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Fawcett tells long, rambling stories without a point, fails to understand simple questions, and gets easily distracted by things like blinking lights on the set.
  • October 13 - Canadian cable channels like Comedy Network, Food Network, HGTV, Prime, Teletoon began launching, Speedvision was introduced there.

Debuts

Popular Television Shows

Ending this year

Births

Deaths