Events
- Australian television celebrates its 40th birthday with celebrations lasting throughout the year. The actual birthday was on 16 September.
- Jessica Rowe joins Ten News Sydney in January to co-anchor with Ron Wilson for the next nine years.
- 1 January – To celebrate the start of the new year, ABC-TV debuts a series of new idents featuring people doing various activities using inspiration and fun. As they do so, they draw the ABC's famous worm logo. The logo then fades before the video fades to black and the words "it's your abc" appear.
- 16 February – A brand new state-based news and currents affairs program titled Stateline premieres on ABC at 6:00 pm and was shown every Friday evening. The show focus on issues.
- 19 February – Australia's favourite koala Blinky Bill returns to the ABC for a brand new series titled Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion at 4:30 pm. The series follows the adventures of Blinky and the gang who were lost while on an excursion and helping other animals in a situation while trying to find their way back to Greenpatch.
- April – Constable Wayne Patterson, portrayed by Grant Bowler, is killed in a car crash on the Blue Heelers episode An Act of Random Violence. Bowler departed the series.
- 3 April – The Ferals return to the ABC with a five minute sequel series titled Feral TV at 5:25 pm. The series also introduces new characters such as Kerry the Cane Toad and Rodney the Cockroach and follows the mischievous animals and their mishaps at a pirate television station.
- 28 May – The Animals of Farthing Wood, a British children's animated series based on the books by Colin Dann premieres on ABC at 5:00pm.
- June – Liz Hayes quits the Today Show after 11 years and joins the 60 Minutes team, Tracy Grimshaw replaces Hayes on Today to co-host for the next nine years before leading up to A Current Affair from 2006 onwards.
- 12 July – After 12 years John Burgess retires as host of Wheel of Fortune. The following Monday, former Sale of the Century quizmaster, Tony Barber returns to TV and begins hosting a failed run which lasts for the remainder of the year. WOF relocates from Adelaide to Sydney during this time. Wheel of Fortune was nearly cancelled at the end of 1996 after dismal ratings, but the show continued its long run instead.
- 18 July – Australian long running children's television series Play School celebrates its 30th birthday with a one hour special on ABC at 4:00 pm.
- August – After a stand-off over who would air the show first with Seven owning the rights to the early seasons and Nine the current seasons, despite Seven not renewing the Warner Bros. output deal,[1] the first season of Friends screens on the Seven Network, almost two years after it premiered in the United States. Season two begins on the Nine Network in December.
- 19 September – 1.9 million watch Kerri-Anne Kennerley and treasurer Peter Costello dancing the Macarena live on the Midday Show.
- 1 December – Grant Piro presents the final episode of Couch Potato for 1996 on ABC with reruns of the Australian children's educational TV series Lift Off and the American children's mystery TV series Ghostwriter. This also marks his very last day as presenter of the series since 1991.
New channels
Debuts
Domestic
International
Changes to network affiliation
This is a list of programs which made their premiere on an Australian television network that had previously premiered on another Australian television network. The networks involved in the switch of allegiances are predominantly both free-to-air networks or both subscription television networks. Programs that have their free-to-air/subscription television premiere, after previously premiering on the opposite platform (free-to air to subscription/subscription to free-to air) are not included. In some cases, programs may still air on the original television network. This occurs predominantly with programs shared between subscription television networks.
International
Subscription premieres
This is a list of programs which made their premiere on Australian subscription television that had previously premiered on Australian free-to-air television. Programs may still air on the original free-to-air television network.
International
Television shows
ABC TV
Seven Network
Nine Network
Network Ten
Ending this year
| Date |
Show |
Channel |
Debut |
| 10 December |
G.P. |
ABC |
1989 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Goggle-Eyes
Cro
Madison
Sailor Moon
Insektors
