# 1973 in American television

This is a list of American television-related events in 1973.

## Events

| Date | Event |
| March 11 | Charlottesville, Virginia finally receives a television station when NBC affiliate WVIR-TV signs-on. |
| March 23 | Concentration, the longest-running game show at the time, airs for the 3,796th and final time on NBC, ending its run after 14 years and seven months. The show was the longest-running daytime game show to date until 1987, when the record was eclipsed by The Price is Right, which began its run in 1972. |
| April 3 | WIIL-TV (now WAWV-TV) signs on the air, giving the Terre Haute market its first full-time ABC affiliate. |
| April 16 | A TV documentary about the career of Paul McCartney, entitled James Paul McCartney, airs on ABC in the U.S. |
| May 10 | ABC concludes its initial run at broadcasting the National Basketball Association, marking the last NBA broadcast on ABC until the network regained the rights prior to the 2002–03 season. CBS would take over the over-the-air rights as the NBA's broadcast television partner the next season. ABC's final NBA broadcast sees the New York Knicks defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals 102-93, which clinched the Knicks’ NBA Championship. |
| May 17 | Daytime television on ABC is interrupted by news coverage of the hearings pertaining to the Watergate scandal. Following ABC's coverage on this day, CBS televises the next day's hearings, followed the day after that by NBC. The three networks continue cycling coverage in this way until August 7. |
| July 2 | CBS debuts the 1970s version of Match Game, which will become the #1-rated daytime television program for 1973, 1974, and 1975, and the #1 game show for its first four years on the air. |
| September 15 | The fourth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show premieres on CBS with Betty White making her first appearance on the show as Sue Ann Nivens. |
| September 20 | Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in a televised tennis match held at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Billed as The Battle of the Sexes, the global television audience, including viewers watching on ABC in the United States, is estimated at 90 million viewers in 36 countries. |
| October 4 | WMBB in Panama City, Florida signs-on the air, returning NBC to the market after WJHG-TV dropped that affiliation to become a full-time ABC affiliate the previous year. |
| October 8 | WHFV signs-on the air from Fredericksburg, Virginia as an NBC affiliate. |
| November 20 | The animated Thanksgiving special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving premieres on CBS. It ends up winning an Emmy Award the following year. |
| December 12 | On CBS, Kojak’s trademark lollipop makes its debut in the episode “Dark Sunday”. |
| December 19 | After reading a news item that said the federal government had fallen behind in getting bids to supply toilet tissue, Johnny Carson inadvertently triggers an unprecedented three-week panic when he announces, on NBC's The Tonight Show, that there is an acute shortage of toilet paper in the United States. The panic was settled in January 1974. |
| December 28 | CBS affiliate KZTV in Corpus Christi, Texas signs-on satellite station KVTV, bringing CBS programming into the Laredo market. |

## Television programs
### Debuting this year

| Date | Title | Network |
| January 6 | Schoolhouse Rock! | ABC |
| January 28 | Barnaby Jones | CBS |
| March 20 | Police Story | NBC |
| March 26 | The Young and the Restless | CBS |
| March 26 | The $10,000 Pyramid | CBS |
| July 17 | The Wizard of Odds | NBC |
| July 17 | The New Treasure Hunt | Syndicated |
| September 8 | Star Trek: The Animated Series | NBC |
| September 8 | Super Friends | ABC |
| September 10 | Lotsa Luck | NBC |
| September 14 | Adam's Rib | ABC |
| September 21 | Needles and Pins | NBC |
| October 15 | The Tomorrow Show | NBC |
| October 24 | Kojak | CBS |
| | Greatest Sports Legends | Syndicated |

### Ending this year

| Date | Show | Debut |
| January 16 | Bonanza | 1959 |
| March 1 | The Mod Squad | 1968 |
| March 3 | Bridget Loves Bernie | 1972 |
| March 12 | Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In | 1968 |
| March 12 | The Doris Day Show | 1968 |
| March 23 | Love is a Many Splendored Thing | 1967 |
| March 23 | Where the Heart Is | 1969 |
| March 24 | Lassie | 1954 |
| March 30 | Ghost Story | 1972 |
| March 30 | Mission: Impossible | 1966 |
| May 20 | Laugh-In | 1968 |
| August 24 | The Mod Squad | 1968 |
| September 2 | Lidsville | 1971 |
| September 9 | The Doris Day Show |
| September 9 | Bridget Loves Bernie | 1972 |
| September 9 | Runaround | 1972 |
| October 27 | The New Scooby-Doo Movies | 1972 |
| December 28 | Adam's Rib | 1973 |
| December 28 | Needles and Pins | 1973 |

## Networks and services
### Network launches

| Network | Type | Launch date | Notes |
| Trinity Broadcasting Network | Cable/satellite and over-the-air | Unknown date | Founded by Paul Crouch, the station began after he purchased KLXA-TV to start a religious television network by converting the former independent station into the network's flagship, which eventually became KTBN-TV. |
| Star Channel | Cable television | April 1 | Now The Movie Channel |
| MGM Family Network | Cable television | 9 September | |

## Television stations
### Sign-ons

| Date | City of License/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| February 22 | Greensboro, North Carolina | WUNL-TV | 26 | PBS via UNC-TV | |
| March 11 | Charlottesville, Virginia | WVIR-TV | 29 | NBC | |
| April 3 | Terre Haute, Indiana | WIIL-TV | 38 | ABC | |
| May 30 | Youngstown, Ohio | WNEO | 45 | PBS | |
| June 2 | Montclair, New Jersey | WNJN | 50 | PBS | Part of the New Jersey Network |
| June 2 | New Brunswick/Trenton, New Jersey | WNJB | 58 | PBS | Part of the New Jersey Network |
| June 29 | Las Cruces, New Mexico | KRWG-TV | 22 | PBS | |
| July 26 | Zanesville, Ohio | WOUC-TV | 44 | PBS | Satellite of WOUB-TV in Columbus, Ohio |
| September 16 | Eagle Butte, South Dakota | KPSD-TV | 13 | PBS | Part of South Dakota Public Broadcasting |
| October | Portsmouth, Ohio (Huntington, West Virginia/Ashland, Kentucky) | WPBO-TV | 42 | PBS | |
| October 4 | Panama City, Florida | WDTB-TV | 13 | NBC | |
| October 8 | Fredericksburg, Virginia | WHFV | 69 | NBC | |
| November 5 | Los Angeles, California | KLCS | 58 | PBS | |
| November 18 | New York City | WSNL-TV | 67 | Independent | |
| December 28 | Laredo, Texas | KVTV | 13 | CBS | |

### Network affiliation changes

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| October 4 | Panama City, Florida | WJDM-TV | 7 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | ABC (exclusive) | Rejoined NBC in 1982 |
| Unknown date | Fayetteville, Arkansas | KNAC-TV | 5 | NBC (exclusive) | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| Unknown date | Fontana, California/Los Angeles, California | KLXA-TV | 40 | Bilingual independent | TBN (O&O) | Licensed reassigned to Santa Ana in 1983, became KTBN-TV in 1977 |

### Station closures

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Sign-on date | Notes |
| December 7 | Fayetteville, Arkansas | KGTM-TV | | NBC | February 8, 1969 | |
| Unknown date | LaSalle, Illinois | WEEQ | 35 | NBC | November 7, 1957 | Satellite of WEEK-TV/Peoria, Illinois |