1954 in television


The year 1954 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1954.

Events

  • January 1 – NBC broadcasts the Rose Parade from Pasadena, California in NTSC color. The broadcast uses a new mobile color TV studio and the program is carried across the continent on 21 stations. RCA strategically places Color TV sets in public viewing areas such as hotel lobbies because the first sets only become available to the public in the spring.
  • January 3 – Programma Nazionale began transmissions in Italy, making it the first TV network in Italian television.
  • January 5 – WAYS-TV, predecessor of WCCB, signed on the air. It was North Carolina's second UHF station, as well as the second television station in the Charlotte market.
  • January 10 – CBMT opens in Montreal, making that city the first in Canada to have 2 stations operating. The new station uses the English language, leaving CBFT to continue entirely in French.
  • January 11 – The first weather forecast with an in-vision presenter is televised in the UK.
  • January 12 – Experimental television begins in Norway.
  • February 28 – Telma became the first television station in Morocco. It was closed down after 15 months on the air and was left without an official TV station until 1962.
  • March 28 – WKAQ-TV became the first television station in Puerto Rico.
  • April – The American Broadcasting Company broadcasts the Army-McCarthy hearings live and in their entirety.
  • May 1
  • *WAPA-TV becomes the second television station in Puerto Rico.
  • *Télévision suisse romande TSR is launched as the first Italian broadcaster in Switzerland.
  • May 17–23 – One week of experimental television broadcasts are aired in Sweden, the first such programs in the country.
  • June 5 – The last new episode of the comic variety program, Your Show of Shows, airs.
  • June 6 – The Eurovision network makes its first official transmission: it broadcasts the Narcissus Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, followed by an evening program from Rome, including a tour of the Vatican City, an address from Pope Pius XII and an apostolic blessing.
  • June 13 – Canal Nacional, predecessor of Canal 1, launched as the first Colombian television station.
  • July 5 – First actual news bulletin, News and Newsreel, aired on BBC Television, replacing Television Newsreel.
  • September 11 – The Miss America Beauty Contest airs for the first time on national television in the United States. 27 million viewers watched as Lee Ann Meriwether wins the title. Meriwether would later become a television actress, co-starring in Barnaby Jones.
  • September 16 – CBET-DT began transmissions as CKLW-TV at 2:50 p.m., it was the first television station in Windsor.
  • September 26 – WCAX-TV signs on the air as WMVT, making it the first television station in Vermont.
  • October 2 – The Jimmy Durante Show premieres on NBC.
  • October 29 – Sveriges Radio begins broadcasting TV in Sweden and apart from news and a weather forecast, the first Swedish TV programme is "En skål för televisionen" led by Lennart Hyland. For the first few months, Swedish TV is broadcast one evening a week and for about an hour each time.
  • November 3 – Disney's Alice in Wonderland airs on ABC in the United States.
  • November 6 – LTV began broadcasting for the first time in Latvia and the oldest in the Baltic countries.
  • November 19 – Télé Monte-Carlo launched in Monaco, the first microstate to have a television network.
  • December 12 – BBC Television broadcasts its famous, and controversial, adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
  • The Television Act 1954 authorises setting up the infrastructure for British commercial television.
  • The British Academy Television Awards, the most prestigious awards of the British television industry, are first awarded.
  • The RCA CT-100 and Westinghouse 15" color sets hit the market. Neither are big sellers.

Programs/programmes

Series on the air in 1954

Debuts

Television debuts