Certain American television events in 2026 have been scheduled. Events listed include television show debuts, finales, and cancellations; channel launches, closures, and rebrandings; stations changing or adding their network affiliations; information on controversies, business transactions, and carriage disputes; and deaths of those who made various contributions to the medium.
Notable events January Date Event Ref. 2The spinoff of cable channels previously owned by NBCUniversal (among them CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), and USA Network) into a separate publicly traded company controlled by Comcast shareholders called Versant formally completes just before midnight (ET). Bravo remained under the NBCUniversal umbrella, due to the channel being a major content provider to Peacock. 3 Two days before he was originally scheduled to do so, and in order to cover the U.S. attack on Venezuela and arrest of its president Nicolás Maduro, Tony Dokoupil makes his first appearance as anchor of the CBS Evening News. 4 The 31st Critics' Choice Awards airs on E! and USA Network from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. Chelsea Handler returns for her fourth consecutive year as host. 5 The board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting formally votes to dissolve the organization, a move that comes six months after a rescission act was signed into law by president Donald Trump that withdrew $1.1 billion in funding to CPB, which it used to fund PBS, radio counterpart NPR, and most notably local member stations and their parent organizations who relied more heavily on federal funds to cover the costs of station operations and programs. 8 Nine Major League Baseball teams (the St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers, as well as both Florida teams) announce they have terminated their contracts with FanDuel Sports Network and would explore transitioning to other unspecified platforms. The move comes as FDSN parent Main Street Sports Group, which exited a lengthy bankruptcy process at the beginning of 2025, reportedly missed a rights payment deadline for at least one team (the Cardinals) among the 29 MLB, NBA, and NHL teams whose games are carried by FDSN, and a proposal to sell itself to British-based streaming service DAZN (and avoid a shutdown of operations) reportedly failed. 11 The 83rd Golden Globe Awards airs on CBS from The Beverly Hilton with Nikki Glaser as host.12 Three days before it was scheduled to air, an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit guest starring Timothy Busfield is postponed after an arrest warrant was issued for the actor following allegations of child sexual abuse made against him by the parents of child actors from Fox's The Cleaning Lady, a series cancelled several months before where he served as a director and executive producer.14 The Washington Nationals announce they would become the seventh Major League Baseball team to join the league's in-house service, MLB Local Media, for production and distribution of their local television broadcasts beginning with the 2026 season. The move means an end to the Nationals' 21-year relationship with MASN, the regional network primarily owned by the Baltimore Orioles that involuntarily controlled the Nats' television rights since that club relocated from Montreal to Washington, D.C. in 2005, which had long been part of the Orioles' home territory.26Amid the ongoing effort to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery and the potential split of its cable assets, the company signs a six-year contract ensuring WBD-owned Turner Classic Movies access to the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography, which began airing on the channel on February 2.30Amid the national shutdown by the University of Minnesota, the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy pauses production for the day after its crew members were absent in support. Filming resumed the following day.31The Walt Disney Company and the National Football League announce that, with federal regulators having granted approval, they have completed a deal to have the NFL acquire a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN, in exchange for NFL Network and NFL RedZone becoming ESPN-owned-and-operated networks.
February Date Event Ref. 1 The 68th Annual Grammy Awards airs on CBS from Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena, and streams on Paramount+. Notable winners include Bad Bunny's Debí Tirar Más Fotos (for Album of the Year), Kendrick Lamar and SZA's "Luther" (for Record of the Year), and Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell's "Wildflower" (for Song of the Year). Trevor Noah returned as the host for the sixth consecutive year, and according to producer Ben Winston, it was Noah's final time hosting the event. It was also the final Grammys ceremony to be broadcast by CBS, ending a 53-year run for the network that began in 1973; Disney-ABC is set to begin a ten-year contract to carry the Grammys with the next ceremony starting in 2027. KGO-TV/San Francisco rebrands its newscasts as ABC 7 Eyewitness News and (along with co-owned Los Angeles station KABC-TV) switches over to using an updated, unified version of the Circle 7 logo in line with their fellow owned-and-operated stations WABC-TV/New York City and WLS-TV/Chicago, marking the first time that the ABC-owned station used the Eyewitness News or Action News brand for its newscasts (The Eyewitness News branding was first used by CBS station KPIX-TV from 1965 to 1994 and again from 1995 to 2013). 2 Less than a month after terminating their contracts with FanDuel Sports Network (see 1/8 entry), Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Tampa Bay Rays announce they would partner with MLB Local Media for production and distribution of their local telecasts beginning in 2026. The Detroit Tigers would announce on February 9, that both they and the NHL's Detroit Red Wings, both of which are owned by Ilitch Holdings, would also join MLB Local Media. 5 NBC News and Today co-host Savannah Guthrie announces she would take a leave of absence, in the search of her mother Nancy Guthrie, who was reported missing during the week and later revealed to have been kidnapped from her Tucson, Arizona, home on February 1. Guthrie withdrew from her hosting duties for the opening ceremony of NBC's live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. She was replaced by Mary Carillo for the live coverage, while Today co-host Craig Melvin would also withdraw from his co-hosting duties for NBC's Olympics coverage on this date in help for the search. It marked the first time that Guthrie and Melvin missed NBC's Olympics coverage since 2014 and 2016 respectively. 6–22 The 2026 Winter Olympics airs on NBC and streams on Peacock. Highlights include the American women's and men's ice hockey teams winning the gold medals over their Canadian counterparts in overtime, with the men's ice hockey game (the first gold medal for the men's Team USA since 1980) having 26 million American viewers, ranking among the most-watched hockey telecasts in American history, while the women's game peaked at over seven million viewers during its overtime period, a record for a women's hockey telecast. 8 The Seattle Seahawks defeat the New England Patriots 29–13 to win Super Bowl LX, which was broadcast at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on NBC, with Spanish language coverage on Telemundo and streaming on Peacock. The game drew particular attention for its halftime show with Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny as its headliner, who performed his set almost entirely in Spanish (a first for the event); opposition to the selection led to a competing halftime counterprogram, the All-American Halftime Show, featuring country musicians and drawing several million viewers against the official broadcast. 11On the day Rehab Addict was scheduled to return on HGTV with new episodes, the network announces the show's immediate cancellation and removal from HBO Max and Discovery+, as well as the firing of its host, Nicole Curtis, following a video being posted online of Curtis using a racial slur during filming for the series.Charter Communications announces it would purchase New England Cable News from NBCUniversal, and that it would merge NECN's operations with Spectrum News channels in New England (including those in Massachusetts and Maine) under the name Spectrum News NECN. 13 Following the death of James Van Der Beek due to colorectal cancer, Fox announces it would reair the special The Real Full Monty on February 18 to honor the actor, replacing repeats of The Masked Singer and Fear Factor: House of Fear. A QR code was displayed throughout the broadcast to encourage viewers to donate to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. With the sale of its last remaining broadcast license, WTVH/Syracuse, New York, to Deerfield Media, Granite Broadcasting discontinues operations. 16 Anderson Cooper departs as a correspondent for 60 Minutes after contributing to the news program since 2006. His departure came amidst turbulence within CBS's news division.26Hours after the board of Warner Bros. Discovery declares an increased competing bid by Paramount Skydance superior, Netflix, Inc. announces it would decline to add to the $83 billion purchase price it struck in a December 2025 agreement with WBD and not match Paramount's bid. Pending regulatory approval, this leads to Paramount to acquire all of WBD including its film and television production operations and cable networks including CNN, TBS, and TNT (Netflix had intended to only acquire WBD's film and television studios as well as the HBO premium channels and HBO Max, while the cable networks would have been spun off to a separate company).28While anchoring CNN and CNN International's overnight breaking news coverage on the strikes in Iran by Israeli and the United States on CNN Newsroom, at the network's studio in Abu Dhabi, host Becky Anderson was forced to evacuate as the tones of the city's emergency sirens became audible in the background of the studio feed.
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