1954 in television

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

Events

• January 1 – NBC broadcasts the Rose Parade from Pasadena, California in NTSC color. The broadcast uses a new mobile color TV studio (truck) 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 – RAI launched in Italy.
• 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.
• 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.
• May 17–23 – One week (the so-called "Sandrewsveckan" or "Sandrews 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 13 – First television in Colombia broadcast.
• 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 (1973–1980).
• October 2 – The Jimmy Durante Show premieres on NBC (1954–1956).
• 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" ("A Toast to Television") led by Lennart Hyland. For the first few months (until spring 1955), 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 19 – TMC Monte Carlo launched in Monaco, the first microstate television
• 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

Births

Deaths