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1957–58 United States network television schedule
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The following is the 1957–58 network television schedule for the four major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 1957 through March 1958. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1956–57 season.
As in previous seasons, both CBS and ABC continued to add Westerns to their schedule, filling prime time with as many "oaters" (as they were derisively called) as possible. In addition to several returning Westerns which the network retained on its fall 1957 schedule, ABC's new western series included Sugarfoot and Broken Arrow on Tuesday nights, Tombstone Territory on Wednesdays, Colt .45 on Fridays, and Maverick on Sundays.
ABC, third in the network Nielsen ratings, placed its new Western Maverick in a difficult time slot: Sunday night against two hit series: The Steve Allen Show on NBC, and The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. ABC aired Maverick one half-hour prior to the Allen and Sullivan programs; the strategy was designed to "hook the audience before it fell into its usual viewing habits". This risky approach proved successful, as CBS' powerhouse Sunday night lineup slipped in the ratings, with Sullivan's show barely missing the top 30 after being among the ten most-watched programs of the previous season.
NBC, late to the Western format, also began plugging Westerns into its fall schedule. New NBC Western series debuting in the 1957–58 season included Wagon Train, The Restless Gun, and The Californians (though one NBC executive insisted The Californians was not a Western but a drama set in California in the 1850s).
Another programming shift occurred at NBC: the network's flagship news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, moved to the 7:15 PM weekday timeslot, for the first time going head to head against both ABC's and CBS's news programs. The face-off between the three networks' news programs would become the standard model for U.S. broadcast television; the three networks still air their network news programs against one another.
1958 saw a number of executive changes at the networks; these presidential shifts would affect the network television schedules. Oliver Treyz became the president of ABC on February 17, Louis G. Cowan became the president of CBS on March 12, and NBC programmer Robert Kintner became the president of NBC on July 11. Dr. Allen B. DuMont resigned as chairman of the board of the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation on May 13, and the name of the company was changed to Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation. According to Castleman and Podrazik (1982) the final DuMont Network program, Monday Night Fights aired for the last time on August 4, 1958, carried on only five stations nationwide. NBC's Kraft Television Theatre, which had debuted in 1947 and was the oldest program still left on television, was cancelled in spring 1958. It was the dawn of a new era in television; producer David Susskind, who had produced KTT at the end, would call 1958 "the year of the miserable drivel".
Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.
Legend
- Light blue indicates local programming.
- Gray indicates encore programming.
- Blue-gray indicates news programming.
- Light green indicates sporting events.
- Red indicates series being burned off and other irregularly scheduled programs, including specials and movies.
- Light gold indicates programming produced outside of the United States.
- Lime highlights indicates the number-one most watched program of the season.
- Yellow highlights indicates the top-10 most watched programs of the season.
- Cyan highlights indicates numbers 11-20 most watched programs of the season.
- Magenta highlights indicates numbers 21-30 most watched programs of the season.
- Highlights indicates that it falls in multiple of the above categories.
Schedule
- New series are highlighted in bold.
- Repeat airings or same-day rebroadcasts are indicated by (R).
- All times are U.S. Eastern and Pacific Time (except for some live sports or events). Subtract one hour for Central, Mountain, Alaska and Hawaii–Aleutian times.
Sunday
| Network | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ABC | Fall | Winter | Spring | Summer | CBS | NBC | Fall | Winter | Summer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *You Asked For It* | ***Maverick*** | ***Bowling Stars*** | *Open Hearing* | ***All-American Football Game of the Week*** | ***Scotland Yard*** | Local programming | ||||||||||||
| Local programming | ***Adventure at Scott Island*** | |||||||||||||||||
| *The Mike Wallace Interview* | ||||||||||||||||||
| ***Anyone Can Play*** | ||||||||||||||||||
| *Lassie* (22/27.8) | *The Jack Benny Show* (28/27.1) / ***Bachelor Father*** | *The Ed Sullivan Show* (27/27.3) | *General Electric Theatre* (7/31.5) | *Alfred Hitchcock Presents* (12/30.3) | ||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *Cheyenne*) | *The $64,000 Challenge* | *What's My Line?* | ||||||||||||||||
| *The Original Amateur Hour* | ***Sally*** | *The Steve Allen Show* (In COLOR) | *The Dinah Shore Chevy Show* (In COLOR) | *The Loretta Young Show* (30/26.6) | ||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *Zorro* and *The Real McCoys*) | Local Programming | |||||||||||||||||
| *My Friend Flicka* (In COLOR) (R) | ***No Warning!*** | |||||||||||||||||
| Various programming | ***The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé Show*** (In COLOR) | *The Chevy Show* (In COLOR) | ***Decision*** |
Notes:
- On CBS, Air Power, narrated by Walter Cronkite, aired from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. from May 4 to October 19, 1958. It consisted entirely of reruns of the series from the 1956–1957 season.
- On NBC, the summer anthology series Decision consisted of a mix of unsold television pilots and reruns of episodes of The Ford Television Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, and Screen Directors Playhouse.
Monday
| Network | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ABC | Fall | Winter | Spring | Summer | CBS | NBC | Fall | Summer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local programming (7:00) / | ***American Bandstand*** | ***The Guy Mitchell Show*** | *Bold Journey* | *The Voice of Firestone* | *Lawrence Welk's Top Tunes and New Talent* | Local programming | |||||||||||
| ***O.S.S.*** | ***Love That Jill*** | ***Anybody Can Play*** | ***This is Music*** | ||||||||||||||
| ***American Odyssey*** | ***Campaign Roundup*** | ||||||||||||||||
| *Cowtown Rodeo* | ***Polka Go-Round*** | ||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | *The Adventures of Robin Hood* | *The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show* | *Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts* | *The Danny Thomas Show* (2/35.3) | *December Bride* (9/30.7) | *Studio One in Hollywood* | |||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | ***The Price Is Right*** (In COLOR) | ***The Restless Gun*** (8/31.4) | *Tales of Wells Fargo* (3/35.2) | *Twenty-One* (26/27.6) | ***Turn of Fate*** / *Goodyear Theatre* | ***Suspicion*** | |||||||||||
| ***Haggis Baggis*** (In COLOR) |
Tuesday
| Network | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ABC | Fall | Summer | CBS | Fall | Winter | Late winter | Summer | NBC | Fall | Summer | August |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local programming (7:00) / | *Cheyenne* (12/30.3) | |||||||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *Alfred Hitchcock Presents*) / ***Sugarfoot*** (23/27.7) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *Wagon Train* and *Father Knows Best*) | *The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp* (6/32.6) | *Broken Arrow* | *Telephone Time* | *The West Point Story* | Local programming | |||||||||||||||
| ***Confession*** | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | *Name That Tune* | *The Phil Silvers Show* | ***The Eve Arden Show*** | *To Tell the Truth* | *The Red Skelton Show* (15/28.9) (In COLOR) | *The $64,000 Question* (19/28.1) | ||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *This Is Your Life*) | ***Assignment: Foreign Legion*** | |||||||||||||||||||
| Local programming | ||||||||||||||||||||
| *Mr. Adams and Eve* | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ***Bid 'N' Buy*** | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | *The Nat King Cole Show* | ***The Eddie Fisher Show*** (In COLOR) / *The George Gobel Show* (In COLOR) | *Meet McGraw* | *The Bob Cummings Show* | ***The Californians*** | Local programming | ||||||||||||||
| ***The Investigator*** (In COLOR) | ***Dotto*** | |||||||||||||||||||
| ***Colgate Theatre*** |
Notes:
- Confession, with host Jack Wyatt, began as a local program in the Dallas, Texas, market in early 1957. It premiered as a summer replacement on ABC on June 19, 1958, in advance of the 1958–59 television season.
- Colgate Theatre consisted on unsold pilots.
Wednesday
| Network | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ABC | Fall | Winter | Late winter | CBS | Fall | Spring | NBC | Fall | Summer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local programming (7:00) / | *Disneyland* | ***Tombstone Territory*** | *The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet* | ***The Walter Winchell File*** | *The Wednesday Night Fights* (10:00) / *Famous Fights* (10:45) | |||||||||||||
| *Date with the Angels* | ||||||||||||||||||
| ***The Betty White Show*** | ||||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | *I Love Lucy* (R) | ***The Big Record*** (In COLOR) | *The Millionaire* (17/28.5) | *I've Got a Secret* (5/33.4) | *Armstrong Circle Theatre* / *The United States Steel Hour* | |||||||||||||
| ***Leave It to Beaver*** | ***The Big Record*** (In COLOR) | |||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | ***Wagon Train*** (23/27.7) | |||||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *Sugarfoot* and *Father Knows Best*) | *Father Knows Best* (23/27.7) | |||||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *Sugarfoot* and *Wagon Train*) | *Kraft Television Theatre* (In COLOR) | *This Is Your Life* (19/28.1) | ||||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *The $64,000 Question*) | Local programming | |||||||||||||||||
| ***It Could Be You*** |
Thursday
| Network | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ABC | Fall | Winter | Summer | CBS | Fall | Winter | NBC | Fall | Summer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local programming (7:00) / | *Circus Boy* | ***Zorro*** (30/26.6) | ||||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *The Loretta Young Show* and *The Real McCoys*) | ***The Real McCoys*** (30/26.6) | |||||||||||||||||
| (Tied with *The Loretta Young Show* and *Zorro*) | ***The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom*** | ***O.S.S.*** | *Navy Log* | Local programming | ||||||||||||||
| *Navy Log* | *Make Me Laugh* | |||||||||||||||||
| ***The Andy Williams Show*** | ***Confession*** | |||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | *Sergeant Preston of the Yukon* | ***Harbormaster*** | *Climax!* (In COLOR) | *Playhouse 90* | ||||||||||||||
| *Richard Diamond, Private Detective* | ||||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | ***Tic-Tac-Dough*** (In COLOR) | *You Bet Your Life* (10/30.6) | *Dragnet* | *The People’s Choice* | *The Ford Show* (14/29.7) | *The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney* (In COLOR) | *The Jane Wyman Show* | |||||||||||
| ***The Price Is Right*** (In COLOR) | ***Music Bingo*** |
Notes:
- On CBS, Shower of Stars (In COLOR) aired on an irregular basis at 8:30 p.m.
- From January 2 to June 26, 1958, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, starring David Janssen, aired for a second season on the CBS Thursday schedule at 8 p.m. Eastern. It returned to the air for a third season from February to September 1959.
Friday
| Network | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ABC | Fall | Winter | CBS | Fall | Late winter | Mid-spring | Summer | NBC | Fall | Spring | Summer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local programming (7:00) / | *The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin* | *The Adventures of Jim Bowie* | ***The Patrice Munsel Show*** | ***The Frank Sinatra Show*** | *Date with the Angels* | ***Colt .45*** | Local programming | |||||||||||||
| *The Walter Winchell File* | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | ***Leave It to Beaver*** | ***Trackdown*** | *Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre* (21/27.9) | *Mr. Adams and Eve* | *Schlitz Playhouse* | *The Lineup* (18/28.4) | *Person to Person* | |||||||||||||
| *The Phil Silvers Show* | ||||||||||||||||||||
| *The Boing Boing Show* (R) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Local programming (7:00) / | *Saber of London* | ***The Court of Last Resort*** | *The Life of Riley* | ***M Squad*** | ***The Thin Man*** | *Gillette Cavalcade of Sports* (10:00) / *Red Barber's Corner* (10:45) | ||||||||||||||
| ***Jefferson Drum*** | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ***The Big Game*** |
Saturday
| Network | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ABC | Fall | Late winter | Summer | CBS | Fall | Mid-spring | NBC | Fall | Winter | Spring | Summer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ***Keep It in the Family*** | *Country Music Jubilee* | *Lawrence Welk's Dodge Dancing Party* | *The Mike Wallace Interview* | Local programming | |||||||||||||||
| ***The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show*** | *Midwestern Hayride* | ||||||||||||||||||
| *The Billy Graham Crusade* | |||||||||||||||||||
| ***Perry Mason*** | ***Dick and the Duchess*** | *The Gale Storm Show* (16/28.8) | ***Have Gun – Will Travel*** (4/33.7) | *Gunsmoke* (1/43.1) | Local programming | ||||||||||||||
| ***Top Dollar*** | |||||||||||||||||||
| *People Are Funny* (29/27.0) | *The Perry Como Show* (11/30.5) (In COLOR) | ***The Polly Bergen Show*** / ***Club Oasis*** | ***The Gisele MacKenzie Show*** | ***What's It For?*** | *Your Hit Parade* (In COLOR) | ||||||||||||||
| *The Original Amateur Hour* | |||||||||||||||||||
| ***Turning Point*** | |||||||||||||||||||
| ***The Bob Crosby Show*** (In COLOR) | / ***Club Oasis with Spike Jones*** | *The Joseph Cotten Show* (R) |
Notes:
- Opening Night consisted of reruns of episodes of the ABC series Ford Theatre from the 1956–1957 season.
- Turning Point was a dramatic anthology series consisting of two unsold pilots and reruns of episodes from other anthology series.
- The Joseph Cotten Show consisted of reruns of the 1956–1957 series On Trial.
By network
[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]
Returning Series
- The Adventures of Jim Bowie
- The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
- The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin
- The Billy Graham Crusade
- Bold Journey
- Broken Arrow
- Cheyenne
- Circus Boy (moved from NBC)
- Country Music Jubilee
- Date with the Angels
- Disneyland
- Famous Fights
- John Daly and the News
- Jubilee USA
- Lawrence Welk's Dodge Dancing Party
- Lawrence Welk's Top Tunes and New Talent
- The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
- Midwestern Hayride
- Navy Log
- Open Hearing
- Telephone Time
- The Voice of Firestone
- The Wednesday Night Fights
- The West Point Story (moved from CBS)
- You Asked for It
New Series
- All-American Football Game of the Week
- American Bandstand
- American Odyssey *
- The Andy Williams Show *
- Anybody Can Play *
- The Betty White Show *
- Bowling Stars (moved from NBC as National Bowling Championships)
- Campaign Roundup *
- Colt .45
- Confession *
- Cowtown Rodeo *
- The Dick Clark Show *
- The Frank Sinatra Show
- The Guy Mitchell Show
- Adventure at Scott Island (moved from CBS as Harbourmaster)
- Keep It in the Family
- Love That Jill *
- Make Me Laugh *
- Maverick
- The Mike Wallace Interview
- O.S.S.
- The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom
- The Patrice Munsel Show
- Polka Go-Round *
- Scotland Yard
- Sugarfoot
- This is Music *
- Tombstone Territory
- The Walter Winchell File
Not returning from 1956–57:
- Air Time '57
- The Big Beat
- Circus Time
- Compass
- Conflict
- Crossroads
- Deadline for Action
- Focus
- Industries for America
- It's Polka Time
- Kukla, Fran and Ollie
- Life Is Worth Living
- The Lone Ranger
- Masquerade Party
- Omnibus
- Press Conference
- The Ray Anthony Show
- Treasure Hunt
- The Vise (Moved to NBC and retitled Saber of London)
[[CBS]]
Returning Series
- The $64,000 Challenge
- The $64,000 Question
- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- Armstrong Circle Theatre
- Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
- Climax!
- The Danny Thomas Show (moved from ABC)
- December Bride
- Douglas Edwards with the News
- The Ed Sullivan Show
- The Gale Storm Show
- General Electric Theater
- The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
- Gunsmoke
- I Love Lucy (repeats)
- I've Got a Secret
- The Jack Benny Show
- Lassie
- Masquerade Party
- The Millionaire
- Mr. Adams and Eve
- Person to Person
- The Phil Silvers Show
- Playhouse 90
- The Red Skelton Show
- Richard Diamond, Private Detective
- Schlitz Playhouse
- Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
- Shower of Stars
- The Spike Jones Show
- Studio One in Hollywood
- To Tell the Truth
- The United States Steel Hour
- What's My Line
- Zane Grey Theatre
New Series
- Assignment: Foreign Legion
- Bachelor Father
- Bid 'n' Buy *
- The Big Record
- The Boing Boing Show
- Dick and the Duchess
- DuPont Show of the Month
- The Eve Arden Show
- Frontier Justice *
- Harbourmaster
- Have Gun - Will Travel
- High Adventure
- Leave It to Beaver
- Perry Mason
- Top Dollar *
- Trackdown
- The Twentieth Century
Not returning from 1956–57:
- The 20th Century Fox Hour
- The Bob Cummings Show (moved to NBC)
- The Brothers
- Dr. Christian
- Giant Step
- The Herb Shriner Show
- Hey, Jeannie! (Moved to first-run syndication, retitled The Jeannie Carson Show)
- High Finance
- I Love Lucy (first-run episodes)
- My Friend Flicka
- Pick the Winner
- Private Secretary
- The Vincent Lopez Show
- You're On Your Own
[[Dumont Television Network|Dumont]]
Not returning from 1956–57:
- Ethel Barrymore Theatre
[[NBC]]
Returning Series
- American Profile
- The Art Linkletter Show
- The Bob Cummings Show (moved from CBS)
- Chet Huntley Reporting
- The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
- Dragnet
- Father Knows Best
- The Ford Show
- The George Gobel Show
- Gillette Cavalcade of Sports
- Goodyear Theatre
- The Huntley–Brinkley Report
- Kraft Television Theatre
- The Life of Riley
- Meet McGraw
- The Nat King Cole Show
- Omnibus (moved from ABC)
- The Original Amateur Hour
- People Are Funny
- The People's Choice
- The Perry Como Show
- Red Barber's Corner
- Saber of London (Moved from ABC, formerly known as The Vise)
- The Steve Allen Show
- Tales of Wells Fargo
- This Is Your Life
- Twenty-One
- Wide Wide World
- You Bet Your Life
- Your Hit Parade
New Series
- The Big Game *
- The Bob Crosby Show *
- The Californians
- Club Oasis with Spike Jones *
- Colgate Theatre *
- The Court of Last Resort
- Decision *
- Dotto
- Dragnet
- The Eddie Fisher Show
- The Gisele MacKenzie Show
- The Investigator *
- It Could Be You *
- The Jane Wyman Show
- Jefferson Drum *
- The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney
- M Squad
- Music Bingo *
- No Warning!
- The Price Is Right
- The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé Show
- The Subject Is Jazz *
- Suspicion
- The Thin Man
- This is Music *
- Tic-Tac-Dough
- Turn of Fate (Alcoa Theatre)
- Wagon Train
- What's It For?
Not returning from 1956–57:
- The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
- The Andy Williams and June Valli Show
- The Big Moment
- The Big Story
- Blondie
- Break the $250,000 Bank
- Caesar's Hour
- Circus Boy (Moved to ABC)
- The Dinah Shore Show
- Dollar a Second
- The Jonathan Winters Show
- The Joseph Cotten Show
- The Julius LaRosa Show
- The Kaiser Aluminum Hour
- National Bowling Championships (moved to ABC as Bowling Stars)
- Panic!
- Producer's Showcase
- Robert Montgomery Presents
- Saturday Color Carnival
- Stanley
- Summer Playhouse
- Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers
- The Web
- Wire Service
[[NTA Film Network|NTA]]
New series
- How to Marry a Millionaire
- Man Without a Gun
- Premiere Performance
Note: The * indicates that the program was introduced in midseason.
Notes
References
References
- Castleman, Harry. (1982). "Watching TV: Four Decades of American Television". McGraw-Hill.
- Castleman, H. and Podrazik, W. (1984) ''The TV Schedule Book: Four Decades of Network Programming from Sign-on to Sign-off''. McGraw-Hill. pg 79-82. {{ISBN. 0-07-010277-5
- Highest-rated series is based on the annual top-rated programs list compiled by [[Nielsen Media Research]] and reported in: Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (2007). ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows'' (9th ed.). New York: Ballantine. {{ISBN. 978-0-345-49773-4.
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