In American television in 2000, notable events included 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).
Boomerang, a satuday-morning block from Cartoon Network, is launched as a cable television channel. The channel's visual identity (made by Primal Screen) would become well-known for its bumpers involving vintage Hanna-Barbera toys from the 1960s to 1980s. The bumpers have remained the same for almost fifteen years until the channel relaunched with a new logo in January 2015.
3
WWHO in Columbus, Ohio and WLWC in Providence, Rhode Island became primary UPN affiliates, and eventually becoming secondary WB affiliates.
12
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.
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".[2]
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
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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
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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).
23
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.
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, the CBS Kidshow block is replaced 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.
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.
