In American television in 2009, notable events included television show debuts, finales, cancellations, and new channel launches.
Notable events January Date Event1After 51 years as an NBC affiliate, KBTV/Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas joins the Fox network. The NBC affiliation moves over to the digital subchannel of ABC affiliate KBMT.Major League Baseball launches MLB Network, becoming the last of the four major American sports leagues to launch its own channel. 3Fox replaces the 4Kids TV block, with two hours from 8–10 am going to the affiliates, and 10 am–noon EST becoming Weekend Marketplace (infomercials). 5NBC affiliate WGBC in Meridian, Mississippi switches its primary affiliation to Fox, taking the affiliation from WTOK-DT2. NBC programming then moves to WGBC-DT2. The move is made to allow Fox programs to be offered in HD. 9Nickelodeon begins a year-long celebration of SpongeBob SquarePants tenth anniversary.2009 Is The Year To Get 'Happy Squared' As Nickelodeon Celebrates 10 Years of SpongeBob SquarePants from prnewswire.com15Hawaii became the first state in the United States to have all of its television stations switch to digital television.William Petersen appears for the last time as a regular cast member on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Supervisor Gil Grissom. 20 The First inauguration of Barack Obama is broadcast live across all major American broadcast and cable news networks. It draws a combined domestic television audience of over 37.8 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched political events in U.S. history. 26Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich goes on a media blitz appearing on NBC's The Today Show, ABC's The View, and CNN's Larry King Live while his impeachment trial continues in his homestate. Blagojevich is later removed from office on January 29.
February Date Event1Super Bowl XLIII, which saw the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Arizona Cardinals 27–23 and give the Steelers their history-making sixth Super Bowl win ever for the franchise, was televised live on NBC in the U.S. Immediately after the Super Bowl, the NBC comedy The Office airs an hour long two part episode called "Stress Relief". The episode was the most viewed episode of The Office, received 22.9 million viewers and received widespread acclaim. The episode was written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by Jeffrey Blitz. Time magazine would name it the best overall television episode of any series in 2009.The TEENick block airs for the last time on Nickelodeon. 2The Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon rebrands as Nick's Play Date. 10MyNetworkTV announced that they would switch from a network to a syndication programming service. 11President Barack Obama signed the DTV Delay Act into law, officially moving the digital television transition in the United States cutoff date to June 12, 2009. 12Charter Communications files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.Bloomberg.com February 12, 2009 Charter to File Bankruptcy as Part of Restructuring(February 12, 2009) 13Toon Disney was replaced by Disney XD. 15On Fox, The Simpsons is broadcast in HD for the first time, with the season 20 episode "Take My Life, Please". The event also includes a new opening, during which Bart writes "HDTV is worth every cent" for this episode's chalkboard gag. 17368 American television stations permanently shut off their analog signals on the original February 17 date of the DTV transition in the United States and began broadcasting exclusively in digital. 53 stations qualify for nightlight service status, meaning they must use their analog signals only for DTV transition public service announcements and severe weather alerts. All others must wait until June 12 to go all digital (see DTV Delay Act for further details). 20After 16 years on the air, the last episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien airs on NBC. Conan's favorite band The White Stripes was the final guest. Will Ferrell (impersonating former U.S. President George W. Bush) and former sidekick/O'Brien's Tonight Show announcer Andy Richter made surprise appearances, and pre-recorded clips of John Mayer and Abe Vigoda were shown. Late Night leaves Studio 6A at NBC's Rockefeller Center studios in New York after 27 years. 22The 81st Academy Awards presentation was televised live on ABC. Slumdog Millionaire won eight awards including Best Picture, and 14 other films won at least one award. 37 million viewers in the United States watched the ceremony.
March Date Event 1The traditional Nielsen ratings February sweeps are moved to March.Nielsen Moves Feb. 2009 Sweep To March from Broadcasting & Cable 2Late Night with Jimmy Fallon premiered on NBC. The Roots is the house band. Oscar winner Robert De Niro, Grammy winner Van Morrison, and singer/actor Justin Timberlake were Jimmy's first guests. Former host Conan O'Brien also made a cameo appearance. Late Night moves to Studio 6B (the former WNBC-TV news studio) at NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center. 9NBC's flagship station, WNBC in New York City, launches New York Nonstop, an entertainment/lifestyle channel. 16Ion Television affiliates launch their HD channel. 19President Barack Obama appears on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, marking the first time a sitting president has appeared on a late-night talk show. 23American satellite television provider DirecTV paid $4 billion to extend its exclusive contract for the NFL Sunday Ticket package until 2014. After the 2014 season, DirecTV had exclusive U.S. rights for the package for 20 straight seasons, since the package's (and DirecTV's) inception in 1994.
April Date Event2The TV Guide Network announces that they would no longer carry local television listing grids on their channel. However, in 2010, they were still displayed only on local cable providers.Emmy Award-winning medical drama ER airs its series finale on NBC after a one-hour retrospective. 7The television special Charlie Brown's All-Stars returns to American television for the first time since 1982, airing on ABC.Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown All Stars 16Sportscaster John Madden announces his retirement at age 73.On CBS, Bob Barker returns to the set of his former game show of 35 years, The Price Is Right, to promote his new book, Priceless Memories.20The CW arrives in Guam with the on-air debut of KTKB-LP.The CW affiliate WLGA/Columbus, Georgia becomes an independent station. The CW affiliation moves to a subchannel for NBC affiliate WLTZ, known as CW Ga-Bama. 23Nick GAS shuts down on Dish Network and replaced by a west coast feed of Cartoon Network. 27ABC launches an HD subchannel network called Live Well HD Network. The channel initially airs on its O&Os before expanding it to other affiliates a year later. 28CBS's drama NCIS airs a two-part pilot for its spin-off series NCIS: Los Angeles when the first part of "Legend" airs on this night. The second part airs the following Tuesday.
May Date Event 1–3Nickelodeon airs the three-part The Fairly OddParents special Wishology over three days. 5The CW announces that it would give its Sunday night schedule back to its affiliates. Therefore, The CW only broadcast on the weekdays and Saturday mornings, until the Sunday slot was restored in 2018. 6Noggin and The N become separate networks on Dish Network. 16After 14 years, MADtvs series finale airs on Fox with host Fred Willard, and includes guest appearances by former cast members Alex Borstein, Mo Collins, Artie Lange, Will Sasso and Debra Wilson.20The CW aired the original series finale of The Game, which resulted in there being no scripted series (comedy or drama) on American network television with a predominantly African-American cast.On Fox, Kris Allen won the eighth installment of American Idol. 25Cartoon Network, for the first time, broadcasts the three movies of the popular anime series Sailor Moon; Sailor Moon R: The Movie, Sailor Moon S: The Movie, and Sailor Moon Super S: The Movie, after seven years of not airing in the United States.
June Date Event 1The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien premieres at 11:35 p.m. EDT on NBC, with Will Ferrell and Pearl Jam as the show's first guests. Tonight moves to Stage 1 at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California. 12All remaining NTSC full-service television stations in the United States shut down their analog television services and began broadcasting digital television signals only (see DTV transition in the United States for further details).12Four months after the Steelers' Super Bowl win the city of Pittsburgh sees another championship with the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup their third in franchise history and their first since 1992. Game 7 was the last to be broadcast on analog television before switching to digital.25The "King of Pop" Michael Jackson dies at his Los Angeles home at the age of 50.29American cable news channel MSNBC launches its high definition version, becoming the last of the Big 3 cable news channels to do so.The Michael Jackson-themed episode for American Idol (season 8) is re-aired on Fox due to his death on June 25.
July Date Event7A memorial service for Michael Jackson, who died on June 25, is broadcast live around the world, with an estimated audience of one billion.Sci Fi Channel renames itself "Syfy". Warehouse 13 is the first show on the network (with the new name), which premiered on this day.13New Vision Television files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.WLIO-DT2 in Lima, Ohio, previously a CW affiliate before simulcasting parent station WLIO, joins Fox (with MyNetworkTV as its secondary affiliation). Fox's former affiliate WOHL-CA, who had been sold to WLIO on February 5, would sign off on July 31 in preparation for a flash-cut to digital channel 35 (as WOHL-CD), and return to the air as an ABC affiliate (with CBS on DT2) on September 28. ABC and CBS's former affiliates (WLQP-LP and WLMO-LP) sign off their analog signals on that same date in preparation for a possible flash-cut to digital. 14The 2009 MLB All-Star Game is broadcast on Fox. The ceremonial first pitch is thrown by President Barack Obama. 27Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, announced that he is leaving the company.
August