Events
- January 18 - Channel 4 launches E4, a digital entertainment channel, at 8.15pm.
- January 22 - News at Ten returns to ITV, having been axed two years earlier. It is once again presented by Trevor McDonald.
- June 18 - Luke and Laura Spencer, widely regarded as the soap opera pairing that helped coin the term "supercouple", signed divorce papers on General Hospital, dissolving their fictional two-decade union.
- July 11 - ONdigital is rebranded ITV Digital.
- August 11 - ITV in the UK changes its name to ITV1, due to the growing number of other ITV services, including ITV2, ITV Digital, and the ITV Sport Channel, which launches on the same day.
- September 1 - All four commercial television stations in Vancouver, British Columbia change network affiliations, the largest such change in a single market in television history.
- September 7 - BBC Canada launches in Canada.
- September 11 - Viewers around the world witness a terrorist attack on the United States, and the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City, live on television. Additionally, the ABC and NBC affiliates' broadcast towers are knocked out by the attacks, but New Yorkers can still view them on cable. Most broadcasters abandon regular programming - American networks for more than a week - and numerous major daily talk shows go off the air for several weeks until their hosts feel comfortable in returning to the airwaves.
- The start of the 2001-2002 fall season in the US is delayed as a result of the attacks, with some shows such as The West Wing substituting special episodes dealing with the event in lieu of their originally scheduled season premieres. Some series, such as the military-themed JAG and New York-based Third Watch have to be retooled to encompass the aftermath of the attacks.
- In addition, several planned series and events were cancelled; most notably, a mini-series planned for spring 2002, which would have united the cast of Law & Order, Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent, dealing with a terrorist attack on New York City.
- Concert For New York: A Tribute To Heroes airs on VH1, with performances by Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Billy Joel and others. It raises funds for the families of those killed in the attacks.
- Continually scrolling news headlines along the bottom of the screen are first seen after the Fox News Channel first used it to allow for viewers to keep track of the latest developments during the attacks. This graphic was soon adapted by all other cable news and some broadcast channels, continuing to this day.
- November 5 - BBC 2W, a new digital channel for Wales, is launched.
- November 19 - BBC Two introduces a new set of four computer generated idents at 7.00am, replacing the previous set comprised of over 20 (four of which dating back to 1991). ITV2 rebrands on the same day.
- December 22 - The pilot for Harry Hill's TV Burp is aired on ITV1. The first full series is shown from November next year.
- Canada rolls out hundreds of new digital cable channels (see List of Canadian digital television channels for complete list).
- Canadian sports network TSN changes its logo to match with ESPN's though the N is not slashed.
Debuts
Television shows
- See also 2001-02 United States network television schedule
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
Ending this year
Changes of network affiliation
Notable TV movies and events
Deaths
- March 12 - Morton Downey, Jr., 67, television personality.
- March 21 - Norma MacMillan, 79, voice actor.
- March 22 - William Hanna, 90, cofounder (with Joseph Barbera) of famous Hanna-Barbera animation studio.
- April 11 - George Hersee, 76, BBC engineer who designed Test Card F.
- April 15 - Joey Ramone, 49, actor/songwriter of the Ramones.
- June 21 - Carroll O'Connor, 76, actor who played Archie Bunker on All in the Family.
- August 4 - Lorenzo Music, 64, writer and actor who co-created The Bob Newhart Show and did the voices of Carlton the doorman on Rhoda and Garfield the cat in the animated cartoon Garfield and Friends.
2001 | Years in television
2001 à la télévision | TV-året 2001