| Date | Event |
| January 1 |
The History Channel is launched. |
| January 2 |
The 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment continues in two major markets: as a buy-product of an affiliation deal between ABC and The E.W. Scripps Company, and a related deal between CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting, Westinghouse-owned WBZ-TV channel 4 in Boston, Massachusetts switches from NBC to CBS, while NBC aligns with former CBS affiliate WHDH. In Baltimore, CBS switched affiliations to Westinghouse-owned WJZ-TV channel 13 after 46 years as an ABC affiliate, while ABC joins Scripps-owned WMAR channel 2 and NBC reunites with WBAL-TV channel 11 after 13 years as a CBS affiliate. Later that year, Westinghouse acquires CBS, making both WBZ-TV and WJZ-TV CBS owned-and-operated stations. |
| January 5 |
All My Children celebrates 25th anniversary and broadcasts a prime-time special. |
| January 11 |
The WB Television Network launches. |
| Former SNL cast member, Ellen Cleghorne broadcast her television series, Cleghorne, on The WB (with other African American family situation comedies, The Wayans Bros. and The Parent 'Hood, the series is only broadcast for one entire season) |
| January 16 |
The United Paramount Network (UPN) launches, with a 2-hour premiere of Star Trek: Voyager. |
| The 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment continues in the Flint/Tri-Cities, Michigan market, as NBC affiliate WNEM-TV in Bay City and CBS affiliate WEYI-TV in Saginaw swap affiliations. The move is deemed necessary by CBS to restore coverage in areas underserved by its then-new affiliate WGPR in adjacent Detroit, since WNEM-TV's signal is stronger than that of WEYI-TV. |
| Hercules: The Legendary Journeys debuts starring Kevin Sorbo as "Hercules" and Michael Hurst as "Iolaus". |
| January 24 |
Live broadcasts of the O. J. Simpson trial begin; as a result, many network soap operas are partially pre-empted, more or less, for nine months. |
| January 27 |
The Golf Channel, a TV channel dedicated to the sport of golf, launches. |
| February 1 |
Classic Sports Network (now known as ESPN Classic) launches. |
| February 2 |
Seinfeld broadcasts its 100th episode. |
| February 20 |
What a Cartoon! launches on Cartoon Network as "World Premiere Toons" with the first short being "Changes", a pilot for Dexter's Laboratory. The show became a massive success and launched the careers of many individuals in animation such as Butch Hartman, Craig McCracken, and Seth MacFarlane. |
| March 6 |
On an episode of The Jenny Jones Show entitled "Same-Sex Crushes", Scott Amedure revealed a crush on his heterosexual friend Jonathan Schmitz. Schmitz killed Amedure several days after the show. |
| March 13 |
The 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment continues in Seattle-Tacoma, as Gaylord Broadcasting-owned KSTW joins CBS for the third time while former CBS affiliate KIRO-TV joins the UPN network. |
| April 12 |
Drew Barrymore appears on the Late Show with David Letterman. In honor of Letterman's birthday, guest Barrymore dances on his desk and flashes him "on-air". |
| April 18 |
Rox becomes first television series distributed via internet.[1][2][3] |
| May 12 |
As the World Turns broadcasts its milestone 10,000th episode. |
| May 24 |
ABC announces that an episode of the soap opera All My Children was deleted from broadcasting due to the then-recent Oklahoma City bombing; in the story, villainess Janet Green was supposed to explode the church in which her ex Trevor Dillon was to marry her rival Laurel Banning. |
| July 1 |
After being purchased by New World Communications from Argyle Television, three additional stations switch to Fox as part of the 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment: KDFW (channel 4) in Dallas-Ft. Worth, KTBC (channel 7) in Austin, Texas and KTVI (channel 2) in St. Louis. KDFW and KTBC both defect from CBS, while KTVI leaves ABC. Independent station KTVT (channel 11) in Dallas takes the CBS affiliation in that area through an affiliation deal between the network and Gaylord Broadcasting (owners of KTVT); in Austin, former Fox affiliate KBVO (channel 42) swaps affiliations with KTBC and changes its calls to KEYE; and in St. Louis, KDNL (channel 30) swaps its Fox affiliation with KTVI and joins ABC. Former Fox-owned station KDAF-TV (channel 33) joins The WB, taking that affiliation from KXTX-TV (channel 39) due to a temporary arrangement in which KXTX would carry WB programming, until such time Fox was cleared to move to channel 4. KXTX-TV then becomes an independent station. |
| Outdoor Life Network is launched. |
| July 24 |
WFMZ-TV initiates their very first daytime Berks Edition at 5:30 pm and the First Nighttime Newscast at 10:30 pm, covering the entire Berks County and all across the Lehigh Valley of Eastern Pennsylvania and Western New Jersey. |
| July 31 |
The Walt Disney Company announces that it will purchase ABC and ESPN; the deal is finalized during January 1996. |
| August 21 |
As a result of the 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment, longtime NBC affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay becomes the first of four "Big three" affiliates that SF Broadcasting (a joint venture of Savoy Communications and Fox Broadcasting) has purchased from Burnham Broadcasting to switch its affiliation to Fox. NBC eventually aligns with former Fox affiliate WGBA-TV. Two more NBC-affiliated stations (WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama, and KHON-TV in Honolulu), along with ABC affiliate WVUE in New Orleans switch their affiliations to Fox on January 1, 1996. NBC again swaps affiliations with the former Fox affiliates in Mobile and Honolulu (WPMI and KHNL respectively), while ABC joins WB affiliate WGNO and former Fox affiliate WNOL joins The WB. |
| August 22 |
Larry Hagman, former main actor of Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie, undergoes a liver transplant. |
| September 4 |
Xena: Warrior Princess debuts featuring Lucy Lawless as "Xena" and Renee O'Connor as "Gabrielle". |
| September 5 |
Alan Kalter becomes the second announcer of the Late Show with David Letterman replacing Bill Wendell. |
| September 8 |
The 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment continues when longtime ABC affiliate WGHP-TV (channel 8) in High Point, North Carolina is sold directly to Fox (acquired via New World Communications from Citicasters, along with WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Alabama due to ownership conflicts) and as a result, becomes a Fox-owned station. Former Fox affiliates WNRW-TV (channel 45)/WGGT-TV (channel 48, now MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYV-TV) assume the ABC affiliation, and WNRW-TV changes its callsign to WXLV-TV to reflect the new affiliation. Both stations retain a secondary UPN affiliation until WGGT-TV leaves its WXLV-TV simulcast to become a full-time UPN affiliate the next year. |
| September 9 |
Kids WB debuts, including Animaniacs which transferred over from Fox Kids. |
| September 10 |
A major compensation deal between NBC and CBS after the Westinghouse-Group W/CBS deal as a result of the 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment becomes effective: Former NBC affiliates KCNC-TV, KUTV-TV and KYW-TV become CBS-affiliated stations (and quickly after that CBS-owned stations after Westinghouse merged with CBS), while former CBS affiliates KSL-TV and WCAU become NBC affiliates (and WCAU an NBC-owned station), and CBS-owned WCIX (channel 6) and NBC-owned WTVJ (channel 4) in Miami swap channel positions, with WCIX becoming WFOR-TV as a result of the change. Two related swaps also occur in Denver, as former ABC affiliate KUSA-TV joins NBC, and former CBS affiliate KMGH-TV switches to ABC as a result of an affiliation deal between the network and McGraw-Hill, KMGH's owners. |
| The 47th Primetime Emmy Awards are aired on Fox. |
| CBS acquires ABC affiliate WPRI-TV from Narragansett Television and swaps affiliations with WLNE-TV, thus reversing a swap that took place in 1977. |
| September 11 |
UPN Kids launched on some stations, featuring two new series, Space Strikers and Teknoman. |
| Sailor Moon premieres in the United States for the first time. |
| September 17 |
Part 2 of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" serves as the season 7 premiere of The Simpsons on Fox. This was after an America's Most Wanted special, "Springfield's Most Wanted". |
| October 3 |
More than 150 million people tune in to watch the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, which ends with Simpson being found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. The verdict is met with both praise and criticism. |
| October 18 |
In the Michiana region of Indiana, Elkhart-based ABC affiliate WSJV swaps affiliations with South Bend-based Fox affiliate W58BT (which will become WBND-LP by the end of the year). The rush for W58BT to switch to ABC (at the insistence of network executives, who didn't want to wait for W58BT to sign-on a new transmitter) causes a partial transmitter failure, which is fixed within a few days.[4][5] |
| October 28 |
In Toledo, Ohio, NBC affiliate WTVG swaps affiliations with ABC affiliate WNWO and becomes an ABC owned-and-operated station. |
| November 13 |
ABC's 30-minute soap opera Loving (1983–1995) is turned into The City. |
| November 18 |
Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, and Darrell Hammond joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. |
| November 20 |
One Life to Live broadcasts its 7,000th episode and has a new opening sequence. |
| ROX and Computer Chronicles are broadcast via the Internet—these are the first Internet broadcasts in the history of television. |
| December 1 |
The 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment continues as WHBQ-TV (channel 13) in Memphis, Tennessee ends its ABC affiliation after 45 years. WHBQ-TV is acquired by Fox Television Stations from Communications Corporation of America and joins Fox, while former Fox affiliate WPTY-TV (channel 24) joins ABC. |
| December 11 |
The Today Show becomes the highest-rated morning news program (and would remain so until 2012). |
| December 29 |
CNNfn, a financial news network from CNN, launches. |
| Robert MacNeil anchors The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour for the last time. |
