The 1996–97 United States network television schedule for the six major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers the primetime hours from September 1996 through August 1997. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series canceled after the 1995–96 season.
PBS is not included; member stations have local flexibility over most of their schedules and broadcast times for network shows may vary.
Each of the 30 highest-rated shows released in May 1997 is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.[1]
New series highlighted in bold.
Repeat airings or same-day rebroadcasts are indicated by (R).
All times are U.S. Eastern and Pacific Time (except for some live sports or events). Subtract one hour for Central, Mountain, Alaska and Hawaii-Aleutian times.
All sporting events air live in all time zones in U.S. Eastern time, with local and/or late-night programming (including Fox affiliates during the 10 p.m. ET/PT hour) by affiliates after game completion.
Legend
- 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 scheduled programs, including specials.
Sunday
Monday
Note: On CBS, the debut of Ink was delayed by a month due to production problems, resulting in another new sitcom, Pearl, which aired temporarily in its slot before moving to its own originally designated Wednesday time period in late October.
Tuesday
| 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 | Roseanne | Life's Work | Home Improvement (9/14.0) | Spin City (17/11.7) | NYPD Blue (13/12.5) | |
| Winter | Ellen (R) | ||||||
| Late winter | The Practice | ||||||
| Spring | Home Improvement (R) | Soul Man | NYPD Blue (13/12.5) | ||||
| Late spring | Roseanne | Life's Work | |||||
| Summer | Grace Under Fire (R) | ||||||
| CBS | Promised Land | CBS Tuesday Movie | |||||
| Fox | Fox Tuesday Night Movie | Local programming | |||||
| NBC | Fall | Mad About You (23/11.0) (Tied with Walker, Texas Ranger, Caroline in the City and The NBC Monday Movie) | Something So Right | Frasier (16/11.8) | Caroline in the City (23/11.0) (Tied with Walker, Texas Ranger Mad About You and The NBC Monday Movie) | Dateline Tuesday (20/11.4) | |
| Summer | The Naked Truth (R) | ||||||
| Mid-summer | NewsRadio (R) | Just Shoot Me! (R) | |||||
| UPN | Fall | Moesha | Homeboys in Outer Space | The Burning Zone | Local programming | ||
| Winter | Social Studies | ||||||
| Spring | Homeboys in Outer Space | ||||||
| Summer | Social Studies (R) | Malcolm & Eddie (R) | In the House (R) | ||||
Wednesday
Note: On CBS, due to the effect of the debut delay of Ink on Monday, the first month of the new season on this night aired Almost Perfect at 8:30 p.m., followed by CBS Wednesday Movies at 9 p.m. The originally planned fall Wednesday lineup took shape at the end of October with Pearl taking over at 8:30 p.m., Almost Perfect moving to 9 p.m., Public Morals debuting at 9:30 p.m., and EZ Streets debuting at 10 p.m. This lasted for only one week in late October. CBS cancelled Public Morals after it aired the 1st, and only, episode. This meant AlmostPerfect would soon be cancelled. EZ Streets would be given a 2nd chance in the spring.
Thursday
| 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 | High Incident | Murder One | Turning Point | |||
| Winter | The ABC Thursday Night Movie | ||||||
| Late winter | Vital Signs | Turning Point | |||||
| Summer | Turning Point | ABC News programming | |||||
| CBS | Fall | Diagnosis: Murder | Moloney | 48 Hours | |||
| Summer | Promised Land (R) | Diagnosis: Murder (R) | |||||
| Fox | Martin | Living Single | New York Undercover | Local programming | |||
| NBC | Fall | Friends (4/16.8) (Tied with The Naked Truth) | The Single Guy (8/14.1) | Seinfeld (2/20.5) | Suddenly Susan (3/17.0) | ER (1/21.2) | |
| Winter | The Naked Truth (4/16.8) (Tied with Friends) | ||||||
| Late winter | Suddenly Susan (3/17.0) | Law & Order (27/10.8) (Tied with 3rd Rock from the Sun) | |||||
| Spring | Fired Up (6/16.5) | ER (1/21.2) | |||||
| Late spring | Men Behaving Badly (R) | Suddenly Susan (R) | |||||
| Summer | 3rd Rock from the Sun (R) | ||||||
Friday
| Network | 8:00 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:30 PM | 10:00 PM | 10:30 PM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Family Matters | Sabrina the Teenage Witch | Clueless | Boy Meets World | 20/20 (12/12.8) | |
| Mid-fall | Boy Meets World | Sabrina the Teenage Witch | Clueless | ||||
| Late Winter | Step by Step | ||||||
| Spring | Step by Step | Clueless (R) | |||||
| Summer | Hangin' with Mr. Cooper | ||||||
| CBS | Fall | Dave's World | Everybody Loves Raymond | Mr. & Mrs. Smith | Nash Bridges | ||
| Late fall | Special programming | ||||||
| Winter | JAG | ||||||
| Spring | JAG | Orleans | |||||
| Late spring | Dave's World | Life... and Stuff | JAG (R) | ||||
| Summer | Ordinary Extraordinary | ||||||
| Fox | Fall | Sliders | The X-Files (21/11.4) (Tied with Cosby) | Local programming | |||
| Mid-fall | Millennium | ||||||
| NBC | Fall | Unsolved Mysteries | Dateline NBC (30/10.5) (Tied with Chicago Hope and Cybill) | Homicide: Life on the Street | |||
| Winter | Crisis Center | ||||||
| Spring | Homicide: Life on the Street | ||||||
| Late spring | Profiler (R) | ||||||
| Summer | Homicide: Life on the Street (R) | ||||||
Note: CBS picked up JAG after NBC cancelled it due to low ratings and it became a success afterwards.
This is the last season of Family Matters and Step by Step and the only season of Clueless to air on ABC's TGIF block, until the following season, the former two shows were picked up by CBS and Clueless moved to UPN on Tuesdays.
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 | Second Noah | Coach | Common Law | Relativity | ||
| Winter | The ABC Saturday Night Movie | ||||||
| Late winter | Dangerous Minds | The ABC Saturday Night Movie | |||||
| Spring | Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | Leaving L.A. | Gun | ||||
| Late spring | Family Matters (R) | Hangin' with Mr. Cooper | Dangerous Minds (R) | Spy Game | |||
| Summer | Special programming | The Practice (R) | |||||
| CBS | Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman | Early Edition | Walker, Texas Ranger (23/11.0) (Tied with Mad About You, Caroline in the City and The NBC Monday Movie) | ||||
| Fox | Fall | COPS | COPS (R) | Married... with Children | Love and Marriage | Local programming | |
| Mid-fall | America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back | ||||||
| NBC | Fall | Dark Skies | The Pretender | Profiler | |||
| Spring | Special programming | ||||||
| Summer | The Pretender | NBC Saturday Night Movie | |||||
Note: America's Most Wanted would return in November at 9:00 on Fox. Married... with Children moved to Sundays at 7-8pm in November, Mondays at 9:30 in January, and Mondays at 9pm in February. Lawless which aired on March 27, 1997, replacing the second half of America's Most Wanted was canceled after one episode.