1971–72 United States network television schedule

The following is the 1971–72 network television schedule for the three major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 1971 through August 1972. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1970–71 season. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football. This season would be the first time the prime time schedule would be shortened to three hours (with the exception of Sunday and Tuesday), giving the 7:30 p.m. slot back to local stations, as implemented in the Prime Time Access Rule.

New fall series are highlighted in bold.

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.

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

Sunday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC		Local	The F.B.I. (17/22.4)		The ABC Sunday Night Movie (26/20.8)
CBS	Fall	The CBS Sunday Night Movie				Cade's County		Local
	Summer					The Life of Leonardo da Vinci
NBC		The Wonderful World of Disney (19/22.0)		The Jimmy Stewart Show	Bonanza (20/21.9)		The Bold Ones: The New Doctors / The Lawyers

Note: 60 Minutes aired at 6:00-7:00 pm on CBS from January to June 1972.

Monday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Nanny and the Professor	Local	ABC NFL Monday Night Football (25/20.9)
	Winter	Monday Night Special		The ABC Monday Night Movie
CBS	Fall	Gunsmoke (4/26.0)		Here's Lucy (10/23.7) (Tied with The Mary Tyler Moore Show)	The Doris Day Show (23/21.2) (Tied with The Carol Burnett Show)	My Three Sons	Arnie
	Winter					The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (27/20.2)
	Summer					Suspense Theatre
	Follow-Up					Cade's County
NBC	Fall	Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (22/21.4)		NBC Monday Night at the Movies
	Summer	The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola (8:00) / Monday Night Baseball (8:15)

Tuesday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC		The Mod Squad (21/21.5)		ABC Movie of the Week (5/25.6)			Marcus Welby, M.D. (3/27.8)
CBS	Fall	The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour		Hawaii Five-O (12/23.6)		Cannon (28/19.8) (Tied with Room 222)		Local
	Summer	The Jerry Reed When You're Hot You're Hot Hour
	Follow-up	The John Byner Comedy Hour
NBC	Fall	Ironside (15/23.0)		Sarge		The Funny Side
	November	Sarge		The Funny Side		James Garner as Nichols
	Winter	Local
	Summer	Ponderosa		NBC Action Playhouse

Note: The NBC 1972 summer series Ponderosa consisted of reruns of Bonanza episodes from the 1967-1970 period. More recent reruns of Bonanza also aired that summer under the show's original name in its regular Sunday evening time slot. NBC Action Playhouse consisted of reruns from Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, with new introductions by Peter Marshall.

Wednesday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Bewitched	The Courtship of Eddie's Father	The Smith Family	Shirley's World	The Man and the City
	Winter	The Courtship of Eddie's Father	The ABC Comedy Hour		The Persuaders!		Local
	Spring		The Smith Family	The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
	Summer	The Super	The Corner Bar		ABC Comedy Hour Presents the Kopykats
CBS	Fall	The Carol Burnett Show (23/21.2) (Tied with The Doris Day Show)		Medical Center (13/23.5)		Mannix (7/24.8)
	Summer	The David Steinberg Show
NBC		Adam-12 (8/23.9) (Tied with Funny Face)	The NBC Mystery Movie: Columbo / McCloud / McMillan & Wife (14/23.2)			Night Gallery

Note: The ABC 1972 summer series ABC Comedy Hour Presents the Kopykats consisted of reruns of ABC Comedy Hour from earlier in the year.

Thursday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC		Alias Smith and Jones		Longstreet		Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
CBS	Fall	Bearcats!		CBS Thursday Night Movie
	Winter	Me and the Chimp	My Three Sons
	Summer	My World and Welcome to It
NBC	Fall	The Flip Wilson Show (2/28.2)		Nichols		The Dean Martin Show
	November			Ironside (15/23.0)
	Summer					Dean Martin Presents the Bobby Darin Amusement Co.

Note: My World and Welcome to It consisted of reruns of NBC's 1969-70 sitcom.

Friday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC		The Brady Bunch	The Partridge Family (16/22.6)	Room 222 (28/19.8) (Tied with Cannon)	The Odd Couple	Love, American Style
CBS	Fall	The Chicago Teddy Bears	O'Hara, U.S. Treasury		The New CBS Friday Night Movie (30/19.5)
	Winter	O'Hara, U.S. Treasury		The New CBS Friday Night Movie (30/19.5)			The Don Rickles Show
	Summer						The Governor & J.J.
NBC	Fall	The D.A.	World Premiere Movie / Chronolog* (once a month)				Local
	Winter	Sanford and Son (6/25.2)
	Summer	The Partners

* formerly First Tuesday^[2]

Saturday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Getting Together	Movie of the Weekend			The Persuaders!
	Winter	Bewitched				The Sixth Sense
	Summer					The Ken Berry "Wow" Show
CBS	Fall	All in the Family (1/34.0)	Funny Face (8/23.9) (Tied with Adam-12)	The New Dick Van Dyke Show (18/22.2)	The Mary Tyler Moore Show (10/23.7) (Tied with Here's Lucy)	Mission: Impossible
	Winter		The Mary Tyler Moore Show (10/23.7) (Tied with Here's Lucy)		Arnie
NBC	Fall	The Partners	The Good Life	NBC Saturday Night at the Movies
	Winter	Emergency!

By network

ABC

Returning Series The ABC Monday Night Movie ABC Movie of the Week ABC NFL Monday Night Football The ABC Sunday Night Movie Alias Smith and Jones Bewitched The Brady Bunch The Courtship of Eddie's Father The F.B.I. Love, American Style Marcus Welby, M.D. The Mod Squad Nanny and the Professor The Odd Couple The Partridge Family Room 222 The Smith Family

New Series The ABC Comedy Hour * The Corner Bar * Getting Together The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show * Longstreet The Man and the City The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine * Monday Night Special * Movie of the Weekend Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law The Persuaders! Shirley's World The Sixth Sense * The Super *

Not returning from 1970–71: Barefoot in the Park Dan August Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy The Immortal It Was a Very Good Year The Johnny Cash Show The Lawrence Welk Show (moved to syndication) Let's Make a Deal Matt Lincoln The Most Deadly Game The Newlywed Game (remained on its daytime lineup) The Pearl Bailey Show The Reel Game The Silent Force That Girl This Is Tom Jones The Val Doonican Show The Young Lawyers The Young Rebels

CBS

Returning Series 60 Minutes All in the Family Arnie The Carol Burnett Show CBS Thursday Night Movie The Doris Day Show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour Gunsmoke Hawaii Five-O Here's Lucy Mannix The Mary Tyler Moore Show Medical Center Mission: Impossible My Three Sons The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour Suspense Theatre

New Series Bearcats! Cade's County Cannon The Chicago Teddy Bears The David Steinberg Show * The Don Rickles Show * Funny Face * The Jerry Reed When You're Hot You're Hot Hour * The John Byner Comedy Hour * The Life of Leonardo da Vinci * Me and the Chimp * The New Dick Van Dyke Show O'Hara, U.S. Treasury

Not returning from 1970–71: Animal World The Beverly Hillbillies The CBS Newcomers Comedy Playhouse The Ed Sullivan Show Family Affair The Governor & J.J. Green Acres Headmaster Hee Haw (moved to syndication) Hogan's Heroes The Ice Palace The Interns The Jim Nabors Hour Lassie (moved to syndication) Mayberry R.F.D. The New Andy Griffith Show Storefront Lawyers The Tim Conway Comedy Hour To Rome with Love

NBC

Returning Series Adam-12 Bonanza The Bold Ones Columbo The Dean Martin Show The Flip Wilson Show Ironside McCloud Monday Night Baseball NBC Action Playhouse NBC Monday Night at the Movies The NBC Mystery Movie NBC Saturday Night at the Movies Night Gallery Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In The Wonderful World of Disney

New Series The D.A. Dean Martin Presents the Bobby Darin Amusement Co. * Emergency! * The Funny Side The Good Life The Jimmy Stewart Show McMillan & Wife Nichols The Partners Sanford and Son * Sarge

Not returning from 1970–71: The Andy Williams Show The Bill Cosby Show Bracken's World The Des O'Connor Show The Don Knotts Show Four in One From a Bird's Eye View The High Chaparral Julia Kraft Music Hall Make Your Own Kind of Music The Men from Shiloh The Name of the Game Nancy NBC Comedy Theater The Psychiatrist The Red Skelton Show San Francisco International Airport Strange Report Wild Kingdom

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

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.
2. O'Connor, John J. (November 7, 1971). "Television". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 20, 2023.

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.