# 1957 in American television

This is a list of American television-related events in 1957.

## Events

| Date | Event |
| January 6 | Elvis Presley makes his final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. |
| January 14 | George Reeves guest stars as Superman in an episode of the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy. |
| January 25 | Steve Allen makes his final appearance as host of NBC's The Tonight Show. He is replaced by Jack Lescoulie and the show is changed from a talk/variety show format to be more like the series Today, with the title Tonight! America After Dark. |
| March 23 | The 1957 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship Game, in which the North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Kansas Jayhawks 54-53, was telecast on five television stations in North Carolina from Kansas City, through the remote facilities of WUNC-TV. Castleman D. Chesley, a local television producer, produced the coverage of this game. This was the inspiration of the establishment of a syndicated package of live men's basketball games of the NCAA's Atlantic Coast Conference, which made its premiere in January 1958. |
| March 31 | The first TV version of Cinderella, starring 21-year-old Julie Andrews, and with songs by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, is broadcast in color by CBS. |
| April 4 | "The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue", the 180th and final first run episode of I Love Lucy, is filmed at Desilu Studios. Its May 6 broadcast on CBS marks the end of an era in early television comedy. |
| June | On Tonight! America After Dark, Jack Lescoulie is unsuccessful, so NBC hires Al "Jazzbo" Collins as master of ceremonies. Collins doesn't last long; NBC is already planning to replace him and restore the original format as The Tonight Show, in which Jack Paar becomes the permanent host, starting with the program's July 29 episode. |
| September 7 | NBC introduces its first animated version of its "living color" peacock logo, starting with the day's episode of Your Hit Parade. |
| Unknown date | When Nat King Cole's television series is unable to get a sponsor, Frankie Laine is the first artist to cross TV's color line, foregoing his usual salary of $10,000.00 to become the first white artist to appear as a guest. Other major performers follow suit, including Mel Tormé and Tony Bennett, but, despite an increase in ratings, the show still fails to acquire a national sponsor. |
| Unknown date | Westinghouse introduces the first rectangular tube color television. Due to issues with convergence (aligning the guns to get a single image), the sets are withdrawn from the market. Rectangular color tubes wouldn't be successfully sold until some time in the mid-1960s. |
| Unknown date | Hollywood takes over New York as the dominant city where prime time TV programs were filmed, upgrading most of the TV genre, changing from live broadcasts to filmed series. |

## Television programs
### Debuts

| Date | Debut | Network |
| January 4 | Blondie | NBC |
| January 4 | Mr. Adams and Eve | CBS |
| February 4 | Whirlybirds | Broadcast syndication |
| March 18 | Tales of Wells Fargo | NBC |
| May 10 | Date with the Angels | ABC |
| June | The New Adventures of Charlie Chan | Broadcast syndication |
| June 10 | Tom Terrific | CBS |
| July 1 | Richard Diamond, Private Detective | CBS |
| July 29 | Tonight Starring Jack Paar | NBC |
| September 14 | Have Gun – Will Travel | CBS |
| September 14 | Sally | NBC |
| September 15 | Bachelor Father | CBS |
| September 17 | The Eve Arden Show | CBS |
| September 17 | Sugarfoot | ABC |
| September 18 | Wagon Train | NBC |
| September 19 | Boots and Saddles | Broadcast syndication |
| September 20 | M Squad | NBC |
| September 20 | The Thin Man | NBC |
| September 21 | Colonel Bleep | Broadcast syndication |
| September 21 | Perry Mason | CBS |
| September 22 | Maverick | ABC |
| September 23 | The Restless Gun | NBC |
| September 24 | The Californians | NBC |
| September 29 | DuPont Show of the Month | CBS |
| September 30 | Alcoa Theatre | NBC |
| September 30 | Goodyear Theatre | NBC |
| September 30 | Suspicion | NBC |
| September 30 | Who Do You Trust? | ABC |
| October 3 | The Real McCoys | ABC |
| October 4$^{:336}$ | The Court of Last Resort | NBC |
| October 4 | Leave It to Beaver | CBS |
| October 4 | Trackdown | CBS |
| October 7 | How to Marry a Millionaire | Broadcast syndication |
| October 8 | Casey Jones | Broadcast syndication |
| October 10 | The Gray Ghost | Broadcast syndication |
| October 10 | Zorro | ABC |
| October 11 | Harbor Command | Broadcast syndication |
| October 14 | Decoy | Broadcast syndication |
| October 16 | Tombstone Territory | ABC |
| October 18 | Colt .45 | ABC |
| October 18 | The Frank Sinatra Show | ABC |
| October 20 | The Twentieth Century | CBS |
| November 1 | 26 Men | Broadcast syndication |
| November 6 | The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour | CBS |
| December 14 | The Ruff and Reddy Show | NBC |

### Ending this year

| Date | Show | Network | Debut | Notes |
| February 9 | Science Fiction Theatre | Syndication | April 9, 1955 | |
| February 22 | Coke Time with Eddie Fisher | NBC | April 29, 1953 | |
| February 24 | Annie Oakley | First-run syndication | January 9, 1954 | |
| February 27 | The Adventures of Hiram Holliday | CBS | October 3, 1956 | |
| March 11 | Stanley | NBC | September 24, 1956 | |
| March 16 | You're On Your Own | CBS | December 22, 1956 | |
| March 17 | Mama | CBS | July 1, 1949 | |
| March 26 | Do You Trust Your Wife? | CBS | January 3, 1956 | |
| April 8 | Life is Worth Living | ABC | February 12, 1952 (on DuMont) | |
| April 14 | Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers | NBC | October 21, 1956 | |
| May 5 | Air Power | CBS | November 11, 1956 | |
| May 6 | I Love Lucy | CBS | October 15, 1951 | |
| May 25 | Caesar's Hour | NBC | September 27, 1954 | |
| May 27 | Producers' Showcase | NBC | October 18, 1954 | |
| June 6 | The Lone Ranger | ABC | September 15, 1949 | |
| June 9 | The Roy Rogers Show | NBC | December 30, 1951 | |
| June 9 | You Are There | CBS | February 1953 | |
| June 12 | The 20th Century Fox Hour | CBS | October 1955 | |
| June 13 | Washington Square | NBC | October 21, 1956 | |
| June 14 | Wire Service | ABC | October 4, 1956 | |
| June 18 | The Kaiser Aluminum Hour | NBC | July 3, 1956 | |
| June 22 | The Jackie Gleason Show | CBS | September 20, 1952 | |
| June 24 | Robert Montgomery Presents | NBC | January 30, 1950 | |
| June 25 | The Jonathan Winters Show | NBC | October 2, 1956 | |
| June 26 | Ford Theatre | ABC | October 17, 1948 | |
| July 5 | The West Point Story | CBS | October 5, 1956 | |
| July 5 | Blondie | NBC | January 4, 1957 | |
| July 18 | The Dinah Shore Show | NBC | November 27, 1951 | |
| August 30 | The Bob Crosby Show | CBS | September 14, 1953 | Returned to the air on NBC for a run in the 1958 summer season |
| August 30 | Kukla, Fran and Ollie | WBKB | October 13, 1947 | |
| September 3 | Conflict | ABC | September 18, 1956 | |
| September 12 | Lux Video Theatre | NBC | October 2, 1950 (on CBS) | |
| September 17 | Summer Playhouse | NBC | July 6, 1954 | |
| September 22 | The Alcoa Hour | NBC | October 16, 1955 | |
| September 28 | Dollar a Second | NBC | September 20, 1953 | |
| September 29 | Goodyear Television Playhouse | NBC | October 14, 1951 | |
| December 21 | Circus Boy | CBS | September 23, 1956 (on NBC) | |
| December 26 | Tales of the Texas Rangers | CBS | August 27, 1955 | |
| December 27 | The Sheriff of Cochise | NTA Film Network | September 21, 1956 | |

## Television stations
### Station launches

| Date | Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Notes/References |
| January 21 | San Antonio, Texas | KSAT-TV | 12 | ABC | |
| February 6 | Williston, North Dakota | KUMV-TV | 8 | NBC (primary) ABC/CBS (primary) | Semi-satellite of KMOT in Minot, North Dakota |
| March 1 | Casper, Wyoming | KTWO-TV | 2 | CBS (primary) ABC/NBC (secondary) | |
| March 9 | Monroe, Louisiana | KLSE | 13 | NBC | |
| March 18 | Tupelo, Mississippi | WTWV | 9 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| April 1 | New Orleans, Louisiana | WYES-TV | 8 | NET | Now a PBS affiliate, and on channel 12 |
| April 28 | Charlotte, North Carolina | WSOC-TV | 9 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| May 5 | Honolulu, Hawaii | KHVH-TV | 13 | Independent | |
| May 22 | Bryan, Texas | KBTX-TV | 3 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| May 28 | Paducah, Kentucky | WPSD-TV | 6 | NBC | |
| June 29 | Greenfield, Massachusetts | WRLP | 32 | NBC | |
| July 9 | Kalispell, Montana | KGEZ-TV | 9 | Independent | |
| July 15 | Reliance/Pierre, South Dakota | KPLO-TV | 6 | Satellite of KELO-TV/Sioux Falls |
| July 24 | Ensign, Kansas | KTVC | 6 | CBS | |
| August 2 | Miami, Florida | WPST-TV | 10 | ABC | |
| September 1 | Jacksonville, Florida | WFGA-TV | 12 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| September 1 | Norfolk, Virginia | WAVY-TV | 10 | ABC | |
| September 1 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | WIIC-TV | 11 | NBC (primary) NTA Film Network (secondary) | |
| September 2 | Wilmington, Delaware (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) | WHYY-TV | 35 | NET | Now a PBS affiliate on channel 12 |
| September 7 | New Orleans, Louisiana | WWL-TV | 4 | CBS | |
| September 16 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | KTCA | 2 | NET | |
| September 17 | Omaha, Nebraska | KETV | 7 | ABC | |
| September 21 | Hartford, Connecticut | WTIC-TV (original) | 3 | Independent | |
| September 28 | Fort Wayne, Indiana | WPTA | 21 | ABC | |
| September 30 | Lexington, Kentucky | WKYT-TV | 27 | Independent | |
| October 7 | Corvallis, Oregon | KOAC-TV | 7 | NET | Part of Oregon Public Broadcasting |
| October 27 | Beaumont, Texas | KPAC-TV | 4 | NBC | |
| October 28 | Florence, Alabama | WOWL-TV | 15 | NBC | |
| October 28 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | WMVS | 10 | NET | |
| October 30 | Indianapolis, Indiana | WLWI-TV | 13 | ABC | |
| November 1 | Binghamton, New York | WINR-TV | 40 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| November 1 | Glendive, Montana | KXGN-TV | 5 | CBS/NBC (joint primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| November 7 | LaSalle, Illinois | WEEQ | 35 | NBC | Satellite of WEEK-TV/Peoria, Illinois |
| November 17 | Clarksburg, West Virginia | WBOY-TV | 12 | ABC | |
| November 26 | Boston, Massachusetts | WHDH-TV | 5 | ABC | |
| December 21 | Amarillo, Texas | KVII-TV | 7 | ABC | |
| December 22 | Riverton, Wyoming | KWRB-TV | | ABC (primary) CBS/NBC (secondary) | |

### Network affiliation changes

| Date | Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation |
| August 31 | Fort Worth/Dallas, Texas | WBAP-TV | 5 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | NBC (exclusive) |
| September 1 | Dallas, Texas | WFAA | 8 | NBC | ABC |
| October 27 | Daytona Beach/Orlando, Florida | WESH-TV | 2 | Independent | NBC |

### Station closures

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | First air date | Notes/Ref. |
| February 13 | Elmira, New York | WTVE | 24 | ABC | June 13, 1953 | |
| September 8 | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania | WCMB-TV | 27 | Independent | September 8, 1954 | |
| April 13 | Miami, Florida | WGBS-TV | 23 | NTA Film Network | December 24, 1954 | |
| April 30 | Portland, Oregon | KLOR | 12 | ABC | March 8, 1955 | Merged with KPTV, which moved from channel 27 to channel 12 |
| May 11 | Winston-Salem/Greensboro, North Carolina | WTOB-TV | 26 | ABC | September 18, 1953 |
| May 31 | Sacramento, California | KCCC-TV | 40 | Independent | September 30, 1953 | |
| August 6 | Tulare/Fresno, California | KVVG | 27 | Independent | November 16, 1953 | |
| August 31 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | WENS | 16 | Independent | August 25, 1953 | |
| October 25 | Jacksonville, Florida | WJHP-TV | 36 | Independent | December 13, 1953 | |
| October 31 | Bethlehem, Pennsylvania | WLEV-TV | 51 | NBC | April 21, 1953 | |
| November 1 | Easton, Pennsylvania | WGLV | 57 | ABC | November 1, 1957 | |
| December 31 | Ann Arbor, Michigan | WPAG-TV | 20 | Independent | 1953 |
| December 31 | Raleigh, North Carolina | WNAO-TV | 28 | ABC (primary) CBS/NBC/DuMont (secondary) | July 12, 1953 | |