1975–76 United States network television schedule

This was the television schedule on all three United States commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 1975. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with a few exceptions, such as Monday Night Football. This was the first season since 1971 in which a four-hour Sunday night schedule was implemented. The 22-hour weekly prime-time schedule (four hours on Sunday, three hours Monday through Saturday) remains in effect to this day.

New fall series are highlighted in bold. Series ending their original runs are in italics.

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

     Yellow indicates the programs in the top 10 for the season.

     Cyan indicates the programs in the top 20 for the season.

     Magenta indicates the programs in the top 30 for the season.

PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, was in operation, but the schedule was set by each local station.

Sunday

Network		7:00 PM	7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC		The Swiss Family Robinson		The Six Million Dollar Man (9/24.3)		The ABC Sunday Night Movie (13/23.0)
CBS	Fall	Three for the Road		Cher		Kojak (20/21.8)		Bronk
	Winter	60 Minutes		The Sonny & Cher Show (23/21.2)
	Summer			Johnny Cash and Friends				Cannon
NBC		The Wonderful World of Disney		The Family Holvak		The NBC Mystery Movie: Columbo / McCloud / McMillan & Wife / McCoy

Monday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Barbary Coast		ABC NFL Monday Night Football
	Winter	On the Rocks	Local	The ABC Monday Night Movie (10/24.2)
	Spring		Good Heavens (16/22.5)	Local		Rich Man, Poor Man (2/28.0)
	Follow-up	Good Heavens (16/22.5)	Monday Night Baseball
	Summer	Viva Valdez
CBS		Rhoda (7/24.4)	Phyllis (6/24.5)	All in the Family (1/30.1)	Maude (4/25.0)	Medical Center
NBC	Fall	The Invisible Man		NBC Monday Night at the Movies
	Winter	The Rich Little Show
	Summer	The John Davidson Show

Tuesday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Happy Days (11/23.9)	Welcome Back, Kotter (18/22.1)	The Rookies		Marcus Welby, M.D.
	Winter		Laverne & Shirley (3/27.5)
CBS	Fall	Good Times (24/21.0)	Joe and Sons	Switch		Beacon Hill
	Winter		Popi	M*A*S*H (14/22.9)	One Day at a Time (12/23.1)	Switch
	Spring	The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show	Good Times (24/21.0)
	Summer	I've Got a Secret
	Follow-up	Popi
NBC		Movin' On		Police Story		Joe Forrester

Wednesday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	When Things Were Rotten	That's My Mama	Baretta (22/21.3)		Starsky and Hutch (16/22.5)
	Winter	The Bionic Woman (5/24.9)
	Spring	Wonder Woman
CBS	Fall	Tony Orlando and Dawn		Cannon		Kate McShane
	Winter	The Blue Knight
	Summer			The Jacksons	The Kelly Monteith Show
NBC	Fall	Little House on the Prairie		Doctors' Hospital		Petrocelli
	Winter			Chico and the Man	The Dumplings
	Spring			The Best of Sanford and Son	Chico and the Man	Hawk

Note: The Best of Sanford and Son consisted of reruns of Sanford and Son from earlier seasons; Sanford and Son continued to air in its normal Friday 8:00-8:30 time slot during The Best of Sanford and Son's run. Hawk consisted of reruns of the 1966 television series.

Thursday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Barney Miller	On the Rocks	The Streets of San Francisco (26/20.7)		Harry O
	Winter	Welcome Back, Kotter	Barney Miller
CBS	Fall	The Waltons (14/22.9)		CBS Thursday Night Movie
	Follow-up			Hawaii Five-O		Barnaby Jones
NBC	Fall	The Montefuscos	Fay	Ellery Queen		Medical Story
	Winter	Grady	The Cop and the Kid

Friday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Mobile One		The ABC Friday Night Movie
	Winter	Donny & Marie (26/20.7)
CBS	Fall	Big Eddie	M*A*S*H (14/22.9)	Hawaii Five-O		Barnaby Jones
	Winter	Sara		The CBS Friday Night Movies
NBC	Fall	Sanford and Son (7/24.4)	Chico and the Man (25/20.8)	The Rockford Files		Police Woman (30/20.2)
	Winter		The Practice

Saturday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC		Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell		S.W.A.T.		Matt Helm
CBS	Fall	The Jeffersons (21/21.5)	Doc	The Mary Tyler Moore Show (19/21.9)	The Bob Newhart Show (26/20.7)	The Carol Burnett Show (29/20.5)
	Summer		Ivan the Terrible
NBC		Emergency!		NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

References

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.

Additional sources

• Castleman, H. & Podrazik, W. (1982). Watching TV: Four Decades of American Television. New York: McGraw-Hill. 314 pp.
• McNeil, Alex. Total Television. Fourth edition. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-024916-8.
• Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1985). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows (3rd ed.). New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-31864-1.