# 1971 in American television

This is a list of American television-related events in 1971.

## Events

| Date | Event |
| January 1 | During the evening's broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on NBC, cigarette advertisements were broadcast in the United States for the final time. This is due to the ban on cigarette advertisements passed into law a year earlier. |
| January 12 | CBS airs the first episode of All in the Family, with a disclaimer at the beginning of the program warning viewers about potentially offensive content. Within a year, it became television's most popular program, and started a trend toward realism in situation comedies. |
| February 7 | ABC affiliate WBKO (formerly WLTV) in Bowling Green, Kentucky activates its new transmission facility. This comes after operating with limited power in the aftermath of the WLTV transmitter sabotage by dynamite in September 1969. |
| February 23 | The documentary, The Selling of the Pentagon is broadcast on CBS. |
| May | CBS releases its schedule for the Fall 1971 season, canceling all four of the network's rural-oriented series, including Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry R.F.D., and Hee Haw, the latter of which continued to be in production for first-run syndication for an additional 21 years. This action was also known as the “rural purge”. |
| August 1-September 5 | CBS airs the acclaimed 6-hour BBC miniseries The Six Wives of Henry VIII, starring Keith Michell, in six separate installments, airing on six consecutive Sundays. |
| September 13 | U.S. network prime time programming shrinks as the original Prime Time Access Rule takes effect. NBC, unable to take advantage, immediately feels the pinch and fails to win any of the 1971–72 season's first thirteen weeks in terms of the Nielsen ratings. |
| November | A 12-year streak in the ratings for the CBS soap opera As the World Turns' ends as that program lost the #1 slot for the first time since 1959. |
| December 23 | NBC airs the 1964 Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, for the final time (in this case, KUAM-TV in Guam), as CBS picked up the rights for that special beginning the following year. The special would return to NBC in 2024. |

## Television programs
### Debuts

| Date | Debut | Network |
| January 10 | Masterpiece Theatre | PBS |
| January 12 | All in the Family | CBS |
| August 1 | Comedy Playhouse | CBS |
| August 1 | The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour | CBS |
| September 11 | The Funky Phantom | ABC |
| September 11 | Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch | CBS |
| September 11 | The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show | CBS |
| September 11 | The Jackson 5ive | ABC |
| September 11 | Lidsville | ABC |
| September 11 | Sabrina, the Teenage Witch | CBS |
| September 17 | McMillan & Wife | NBC |
| September 17 | O'Hara, U.S. Treasury | CBS |
| September 18 | The New Dick Van Dyke Show | CBS |
| October 25 | The Electric Company | PBS |

### Programs changing network affiliation

| Show | Moved from | Moved to |
| Hee Haw | CBS | Syndication |
| Lassie | CBS | Syndication |
| Let's Make a Deal | ABC | Syndication |
| The Lawrence Welk Show | ABC | Syndication |
| The Road Runner Show | ABC | CBS |

### Ending this year

| Date | Show | Network | Debut |
| January 1 | Headmaster | CBS | 1970 |
| January 7 | Nancy | NBC | 1970 |
| February 24 | To Rome with Love | CBS | 1969 |
| March 4 | Family Affair | CBS | 1966 |
| March 19 | That Girl | ABC | 1966 |
| March 19 | The Name of the Game | NBC | 1968 |
| March 23 | Julia | NBC | 1968 |
| March 23 | The Beverly Hillbillies | CBS | 1962 |
| March 28 | Hogan's Heroes | CBS | 1965 |
| March 29 | Mayberry R.F.D. | CBS | 1968 |
| March 31 | The Johnny Cash Show | ABC | 1969 |
| April 2 | Dark Shadows | ABC | 1966 |
| April 27 | Green Acres | CBS | 1965 |
| May 5 | The Johnny Cash Show | ABC | 1969 |
| June 6 | The Ed Sullivan Show | CBS | 1948 |
| June 25 | A World Apart | ABC | 1970 |
| August 1 | The Red Skelton Show | NBC | 1951 |
| September 5 | The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (Returned in 2008 as The Banana Splits Reboot) | NBC | 1968 |
| September 5 | Comedy Playhouse | CBS | 1971 |
| October 22 | What's New | PBS | 1959 (on NET) |
| Unknown date | NBC Experiment in Television | NBC | 1971 |

## Networks and services
### Network launches

| Network | Type | Launch date | Notes | Source |
| New Jersey Network | Over-the-air state network | April 5 | The PBS affiliated state network serving New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and the New York City area. | |

## Television stations
### Sign-ons

| Date | City of License/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| January 25 | Indianapolis, Indiana | WHMB-TV | 40 | Religious independent | |
| February | South Bend, Indiana | WNIT | 34 | PBS | |
| February 3 | Pueblo, Colorado | KTSC | 8 | PBS | |
| February 28 | Louisville, Kentucky | WDRB | 41 | Independent | Now a Fox network affiliate. |
| April 5 | Trenton, New Jersey | WNJT | 52 | PBS | Flagship of the New Jersey Network |
| April 7 | Gainesville, Florida | WCJB-TV | 20 | NBC | |
| April 11 | Baltimore, Maryland | WBFF-TV | 45 | Independent | Now a Fox network affiliate. |
| May 31 | Paducah, Kentucky | WDXR-TV | 29 | Independent | Became a satellite station of Kentucky Educational Television in 1978. |
| June 4 | Wilmington, North Carolina | WUNJ-TV | 39 | PBS/UNC-TV | |
| June 6 | Atlanta, Georgia | WHAE-TV | 46 | Independent | now a CBS affiliate |
| June 27 | Peoria, Illinois | WTVP | 47 | PBS | |
| July 4 | Mississippi State/Starkville, Mississippi | WMAB-TV | 2 | PBS/MSETV | |
| July 7 | Pocatello/Idaho Falls, Idaho | KBGL-TV | 10 | PBS | Part of Idaho Public Television |
| July 24 | Battle Creek, Michigan | WUHQ-TV | 41 | ABC | |
| July 28 | Fort Smith, Arkansas | KFPW-TV | 40 | CBS | |
| August 3 | Lebanon, New Hampshire | WRLH | 31 | NBC | Returned to the air after an almost three-year hiatus |
| August 9 | Watertown, New York | WNPE-TV | 16 | PBS | |
| August 15 | Houston, Texas | KVRL | 26 | Independent | |
| August 23 | Traverse City, Michigan | WGTU | 29 | ABC | |
| September 5 | Norwood, New York | WNPI-TV | 18 | PBS | Satellite of WNPE-TV/Watertown |
| September 12 | Austin, Texas | KVUE | 24 | ABC | |
| September 26 | Springfield, Massachusetts | WGBY-TV | 57 | PBS | |
| October 11 | Visalia/Fresno, California | KMPH-TV | 26 | Independent | |
| October 16 | Baton Rouge, Louisiana | WRBT | 33 | ABC | |
| October 23 | Sarasota, Florida | WXLT-TV | 40 | ABC | |
| October 31 | Muncie, Indiana | WIPB | 49 | PBS | |
| December | Rochester, Minnesota | KAVT-TV | 15 | PBS | |
| December 5 | Columbia, Missouri | KCBJ-TV | 17 | ABC | |
| December 21 | Fairbanks, Alaska | KUAC-TV | 9 | PBS | |
| December 31 | Boise, Idaho | KAID | 4 | PBS | Part of Idaho Public Television |
| Unknown date | Indianapolis, Indiana | WURD | 44 | Religious independent | |
| Unknown date | Toledo, Ohio | ToledoVision5 | 5 (cable-only) | Independent | |

### Network affiliation changes

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| July 24 | Cadillac-Traverse City, Michigan | WWTV | 9 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | |
| July 24 | Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan | WWUP-TV | 10 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | |
| October | Anchorage, Alaska | KENI-TV | 2 | ABC | NBC | |
| October | Anchorage, Alaska | KYUR | 13 | NBC | ABC | |
| December 5 | Columbia, Missouri | KRCG | 13 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | |
| December 5 | Warrensburg/Sedalia, Missouri | KMOS-TV | 6 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | At the time of this change, KMOS (now a PBS member station) was a satellite of KRCG. |

### Station closures

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Sign-on date | Notes |
| March 16 | Midland, Texas | KDCD-TV | 18 | Independent | December 19, 1961 (first incarnation) January 15, 1968 (second incarnation) | |
| April 15 | San Francisco, California | KUDO | 38 | Independent | December 28, 1968 | Returned to the air as KVOF-TV on October 4, 1974. |
| September 15 | Jacksonville, Illinois | WJJY-TV | 14 | ABC | August 18, 1969 | |
| Unknown date | Muncie, Indiana | WLBC-TV | 49 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | June 14, 1953 | Returned to the air October 31 as PBS member station WIPB |