1998–99 United States network television schedule
The following is the 1998–99 network television schedule for the six major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 1998 through August 1999. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1997–98 season. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.
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New series highlighted in bold.
Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.[1]
- Yellow indicates the programs in the top 10 for the season.
- Cyan indicates the programs in the top 20 for the season.
- Magenta indicates the programs in the top 30 for the season.
Other Legend
- Light blue indicates local programming.
- Gray indicates encore programming.
- Blue-gray indicates news programming.
- Light green indicates sporting events.
- Light Purple indicates movies.
- Red indicates series being burned off and other regularly scheduled programs, including specials.
PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, is not included; member stations have local flexibility over most of their schedules and broadcast times for network shows may vary. Also not included is Pax TV (now Ion), a venture of Paxson Communications (now Ion Media) that debuted on August 31, 1998; although Pax carried a limited schedule of first-run programs in its early years, its schedule otherwise was composed mainly of syndicated reruns.
Sunday
Monday
Note: UPN only broadcast the first two episodes of Power Play. On August 16, 1999, ABC aired the series episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire at 8:30pm EST. It was the only 30 minute episode to air on a Monday night.
Tuesday
NOTE: On Fox, Brimstone was supposed to premiere 9-10, but it was moved up to Friday.
Wednesday
Thursday
| Network | 8:00 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:30 PM | 10:00 PM | 10:30 PM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Vengeance Unlimited | ABC Thursday Night Movie | ||||
| Follow Up | Various Specials | ||||||
| Winter | Vengeance Unlimited | ||||||
| Follow Up | Cupid | ABC News Specials | |||||
| Spring | America's Funniest Home Videos | The Drew Carey Show (Repeats) | Spin City (Repeats) | ||||
| Summer | ABC Thursday Night Movie | Vanished | |||||
| August | Whose Line Is It Anyway? | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire | Various Specials | Nightline in Primetime | |||
| CBS | Fall | Promised Land | Diagnosis: Murder (#30/9.0) (Tied with 60 Minutes II) |
48 Hours | |||
| Winter | Diagnosis: Murder (#30/9.0) (Tied with 60 Minutes II) |
Turks | |||||
| Spring | Promised Land | ||||||
| Follow Up | Diagnosis: Murder (#30/9.0) (Tied with 60 Minutes II) | ||||||
| Mid-Summer | Diagnosis: Murder | ||||||
| Fox | Fall | World's Wildest Police Videos | Fox Files | Local Programming | |||
| Follow Up | Various Specials | ||||||
| December | Fox Files | ||||||
| February | Various Specials | ||||||
| March | Fox Files | ||||||
| May | Various Specials | ||||||
| Late June | Family Guy | The PJs | |||||
| NBC | Fall | Friends (#2/15.7) | Jesse (#5/13.7) (Tied with Veronica's Closet) |
Frasier (#3/15.6) | Veronica's Closet (#5/13.7) (Tied with Jesse) |
ER (#1/17.8) | |
| Spring | Will & Grace | ||||||
| Summer | Jesse (#5/13.7) (Tied with Veronica's Closet) |
Will & Grace | |||||
| UPN | Fall | UPN Thursday Night at the Movies | Local Programming | ||||
| Mid-Summer | Mercy Point | Mercy Point | |||||
| August | Various Specials | ||||||
| The WB | Fall | The Wayans Bros. | The Jamie Foxx Show | The Steve Harvey Show | For Your Love | ||
| Spring | Smart Guy | ||||||
| Follow Up | The Wayans Bros. | ||||||
Note: On Fox, Hollyweird was supposed to premiere 9:00-10:00 but it was canceled due to a conflict with Shaun Cassidy.
Friday
Note: On Fox, the one-hour drama Brimstone premiered at 8:00 on October 23, 1998.
Saturday
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | America's Funniest Home Videos | Fantasy Island | Cupid | |||
| Winter | The ABC Saturday Night Movie | Fantasy Island | |||||
| Follow Up | Various programming and The ABC Saturday Night Movie | ||||||
| Spring | America's Funniest Home Videos | The Big Moment | The ABC Saturday Night Movie | ||||
| May | America's Funniest Home Videos | ||||||
| June | America's Funniest Home Videos | The Big Moment | |||||
| July | America's Funniest Home Videos | ||||||
| August | America's Funniest Home Videos | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire | |||||
| CBS | Fall | Early Edition | Martial Law | Walker, Texas Ranger (25/9.2) (Tied with Spin City and Dateline NBC) | |||
| Winter | Sons of Thunder | ||||||
| Spring | Walker, Texas Ranger (25/9.2) (Tied with Spin City and Dateline NBC) | ||||||
| Fox | COPS | COPS (R) | America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back |
Local programming | |||
| NBC | Fall | Wind on Water | The Pretender | Profiler | |||
| Follow Up | The Pretender (Repeats) / Best of SNL Specials / Various Specials | ||||||
| Summer | The Pretender | NBC Saturday Night Movie | |||||
By network
ABC
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Not returning from 1997–98:
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CBS
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Not returning from 1997–98:
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Fox
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New series |
Not returning from 1997–98:
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NBC
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Not returning from 1997–98:
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UPN
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Not returning from 1997–98:
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The WB
- Returning series
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Not returning from 1997–98:
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Note: The * indicates that the program was introduced in midseason.
References
- Highest-rated series is based on the annual top-rated programs list compiled by Nielsen Media Research and reported in: Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows (9th ed.). New York: Ballantine. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.