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.
