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1988–89 United States network television schedule

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  • Morning: 1986–87
  • 1987–88
  • 1988–89
  • 1989–90
  • 1990–91
  • Overnight: 1986–87
  • 1987–88
  • 1988–89
  • 1989–90
  • 1990–91

The 1988–89 network television schedule for the four major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers primetime hours from September 1988 through August 1989. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1987–88 season.

PBS is not included; member stations have local flexibility over most of their schedules and broadcast times for network shows may vary.

New series are highlighted in bold.

All times are U.S. Eastern Time and Pacific Time (except for some live sports or events). Subtract one hour for Central, Mountain, Alaska and Hawaii-Aleutian times.

Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.[1]

Impact of the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike

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Main article: 1988 Writers Guild of America strike

The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike lasted between March 7 and August 7. During the strike, production on scripted television series across all of the major television networks was suspended. The writers' strike forced the networks to postpone the start of the fall 1988 schedule later than usual; rather than the traditional late-September/early-October start, new and returning series had their premieres delayed until late October and into November. In the interim, the networks had to rely on a hodgepodge of programming, including reruns, films, entertainment and news specials, program-length political advertising, and unscripted original series (e.g. CBS' High Risk); NBC and ABC also benefited from sports programming (NBC relied on the Summer Olympics in September and the World Series in October, while ABC had postseason baseball coverage and moved up the start time for the early weeks of Monday Night Football from 9 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET to replace MacGyver, which was not yet ready with new episodes at the time). Even though previous strikes of Hollywood employees occurred in 1980 and 1981, those strikes only had a minor effect on the production of television programs that aired in the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons. The 1988–89 television season was thus the first of four television seasons to have its start delayed due to issues outside of the control of the major networks; further instances occurred in the 2001–02 season (due to the networks' news coverage of the September 11 attacks), the 2020–21 season (due to the suspension of television productions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic), and the 2023–24 season (due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes).

Legend

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  •   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.
  •  highlight  Yellow highlights indicates the top-10 most watched programs of the season.
  •  highlight  Cyan highlights indicates numbers 11-20 most watched programs of the season.
  •  highlight  Magenta highlights indicates numbers 21-30 most watched programs of the season.
  •  highlight  Highlights indicates that it falls in multiple of the above categories.

Sunday

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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 Incredible Sunday Mission: Impossible The ABC Sunday Night Movie
Winter Great Circuses of the World Special programming
Spring Incredible Sunday Moonlighting
Summer Have Faith (R) The ABC Sunday Night Movie
Late summer MacGyver (R) The ABC Sunday Night Movie
CBS 60 Minutes (5/21.7) Murder, She Wrote (8/19.9) CBS Sunday Movie (27/16.1)
(Tied with Knots Landing)
Fox Fall 21 Jump Street America's Most Wanted Married... with Children It's Garry Shandling's Show The Tracey Ullman Show Duet Local programming
Summer Totally Hidden Video Married... with Children (R) It's Garry Shandling's Show The Tracey Ullman Show (R) Duet (R)
NBC The Magical World of Disney Family Ties Day by Day NBC Sunday Night Movie (22/16.3)
(Tied with The Hogan Family and The Wonder Years)

Notes:

Monday

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Network 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 Monday Night Football (15/17.5)
(Tied with ALF)
November MacGyver Monday Night Football (15/17.5)
(Tied with ALF)
Winter The ABC Monday Night Movie
Mid-winter The ABC Monday Mystery Movie* (29/15.4)
(Tied with Dallas)
CBS Fall Newhart The Cavanaughs CBS Monday Night Movie
Mid-fall Coming of Age
Winter Kate & Allie Murphy Brown Designing Women Almost Grown
Spring Live-In Heartland Newhart Kate & Allie
Summer Kate & Allie (R) Doctor Doctor
Mid-summer Kate & Allie (R) Designing Women (R) Newhart (R)
NBC Fall ALF (15/17.5)
(Tied with Monday Night Football) 		The Hogan Family (22/16.3)
(Tied with the NBC Sunday Night Movie and The Wonder Years) 		NBC Monday Night at the Movies (25/16.2)
(Tied with Amen)
Spring Nearly Departed
Mid-spring The Hogan Family (22/16.3)
(Tied with the NBC Sunday Night Movie and The Wonder Years)

(*) B.L. Stryker, Columbo, Gideon Oliver

Tuesday

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Network 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 Who's the Boss? (7/20.8) Roseanne (2/23.8) Moonlighting Thirtysomething
Winter The Wonder Years (22/16.3)
(Tied with The Hogan Family and the NBC Sunday Night Movie) 		Roseanne (2/23.8) Anything but Love (10/19.0)
Spring Have Faith
Summer Coach
CBS Fall High Risk CBS Tuesday Movie
Late fall TV 101
Winter Tour of Duty
Summer CBS Summer Playhouse
NBC Fall Matlock (13/17.7) NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies
Mid-fall In the Heat of the Night (18/17.3) Midnight Caller

Wednesday

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Network 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 Growing Pains (13/17.6)
(Tied with L.A. Law) 		Head of the Class (20/17.1) The Wonder Years (22/16.3)
(Tied with The Hogan Family and the NBC Sunday Night Movie) 		Hooperman China Beach
Spring Coach
Mid-spring The Robert Guillaume Show
Summer Hooperman
CBS Early fall Live! Dick Clark Presents The Equalizer Wiseguy
Fall The Van Dyke Show Annie McGuire
Winter TV 101
Mid-winter Hard Time on Planet Earth Jake and the Fatman
NBC Fall Unsolved Mysteries (17/17.4) Night Court (21/16.9) Baby Boom Tattingers
Mid-fall My Two Dads
Winter Nightingales
Mid-winter Quantum Leap
Summer Knight & Daye Miami Vice

Thursday

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Network 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 Special programming
Mid-fall Knightwatch Dynasty Special programming
Winter A Fine Romance HeartBeat
Spring Thursday Night Baseball
CBS Fall 48 Hours CBS Thursday Night Movie
Mid-fall Paradise Knots Landing (27/16.1)
(Tied with The CBS Sunday Movie)
Winter The Equalizer
Summer The Cavanaughs Coming of Age The Equalizer (R)
Mid-summer The Equalizer Knots Landing (R)
NBC The Cosby Show (1/25.6) A Different World (3/23.0) Cheers (4/22.3) Dear John (11/18.5) L.A. Law (13/17.6)
(Tied with Growing Pains)

Friday

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Network 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 Perfect Strangers Full House Mr. Belvedere Just the Ten of Us 20/20
Summer Full House (R) Mr. Belvedere (R) Perfect Strangers (R)
CBS Fall Beauty and the Beast Dallas (29/15.4)
(Tied with The ABC Mystery Movie) 		Falcon Crest
Summer CBS Friday Movie
NBC Fall Sonny Spoon Something Is Out There Miami Vice
Winter Father Dowling Mysteries Miami Vice Unsub
Spring The Jim Henson Hour Quantum Leap
Mid-spring Miami Vice Dream Street
Summer Highway to Heaven NBC Friday Night at the Movies

Saturday

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Network 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 Murphy's Law ABC Saturday Night Movie
Mid-fall ABC Saturday Night Movie Murphy's Law
Winter Mission: Impossible A Man Called Hawk
Spring Men
Mid-spring A Man Called Hawk ABC Saturday Night Movie
CBS Early fall First Impressions Frank's Place (R) Specials West 57th
Fall Dirty Dancing Raising Miranda Simon & Simon
Mid-fall Live! Dick Clark Presents
Winter Dolphin Cove Dirty Dancing Raising Miranda
Mid-winter The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Late winter TV 101
Spring Paradise Jesse Hawkes
Summer Tour of Duty
Fox Fall The Reporters Beyond Tomorrow Local programming
Winter COPS Beyond Tomorrow
Spring COPS The Reporters
NBC Fall 227 Amen (25/16.2)
(Tied with The NBC Monday Movie) 		The Golden Girls (6/21.4) Empty Nest (9/19.2) Hunter (19/17.2)
Spring One of the Boys
Mid-spring 227 One of the Boys
Late spring Amen (R)
Summer My Two Dads 13 East

Note: On CBS, Frank's Place consisted of reruns of the 1987-88 sitcom. On ABC, ABC Saturday Mystery Movie was supposed to air 9-11 p.m., but production delays amidst the strike force the move to Mondays.[2]

By network

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ABC

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CBS

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Fox

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NBC

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Note: The * indicates that the program was introduced in midseason.

+ These shows returned as "backup" programming in midseason.

@ Formerly known as Valerie's Family.

References

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  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ a b "Fall's first draft" (PDF). Broadcasting. May 30, 1988. p. 21. Retrieved November 12, 2023.
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