1979–80 United States network television schedule

The following is the 1979–80 network television schedule for the three major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 1979 through August 1980. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1978–79 season. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.

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]

Lime indicates the number-one watched program for the season.

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.

Other Legend

Light blue indicates local programming.
Gray indicates shows repeats or 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.

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
ABC	Fall	Out of the Blue	A New Kind of Family	Mork & Mindy (27/20.2)	The Associates	The ABC Sunday Night Movie (29/20.0) (Tied with Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, Vega$ and Knots Landing)
	Mid-fall	Salvage 1		Mork & Mindy (27/20.2)	The Associates
	Winter	Galactica 1980		Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (29/20.0) (Tied with The ABC Sunday Night Movie, Vega$ and Knots Landing)
	Spring
	Summer			When the Whistle Blows (R)
CBS		60 Minutes (1/28.4)		Archie Bunker's Place* (11/22.9)	One Day at a Time (10/23.0)	Alice (4/25.3) (Tied with MASH*)	The Jeffersons (8/24.3)	Trapper John, M.D. (19/21.2)
NBC	Fall	The Wonderful World of Disney		The Big Event				Prime Time Sunday
	Winter
	Spring
	Summer			CHiPs (R)		The Big Event

(*) Served as a continuation/spin-off of All in the Family.

Monday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM
ABC	Fall	240-Robert		Monday Night Football
	Winter	Various programming		The ABC Monday Night Movie
	Mid-winter	Laverne & Shirley	Angie	Stone		Family
	Spring	That's Incredible! (3/25.8)		Family		Stone
	Summer	One in a Million (R)	Monday Night Baseball
CBS	Fall	The White Shadow		MASH* (4/25.3) (Tied with Alice)	WKRP in Cincinnati (22/20.7)	Lou Grant
	Winter	The White Shadow			House Calls (14/22.1) (Tied with Real People)
	Mid-winter	WKRP in Cincinnati (22/20.7)	The Last Resort		House Calls (14/22.1) (Tied with Real People)
	Spring		The Stockard Channing Show		Flo (7/24.4)
	Summer		Phyl & Mikhy		House Calls (14/22.1) (Tied with Real People)
NBC		Little House on the Prairie (16/21.8)		NBC Monday Night at the Movies

Tuesday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Happy Days (17/21.7)	Angie	Three's Company (2/26.3)	Taxi (13/22.4)	The Lazarus Syndrome
	Mid-fall		Angie			Hart to Hart
	Winter		One in a Million
	Mid-winter		Goodtime Girls
	Spring		Laverne & Shirley
	Summer		Laverne & Shirley
CBS	Fall	California Fever		The CBS Tuesday Night Movie
	Mid-fall	California Fever		Hawaii Five-O		Paris
	Winter	The White Shadow		Hawaii Five-O		Paris
	Mid-winter			The CBS Tuesday Night Movie
	Spring
	Summer
NBC	Fall	The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo		NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies
	Winter			NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies
	Spring			The Big Show			United States
	Summer			The Big Show			United States

Wednesday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM
ABC	Fall	Eight Is Enough (12/22.8)		Charlie's Angels (20/20.9) (Tied with Barney Miller)		Vega$ (29/20.0) (Tied with Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, The ABC Sunday Night Movie and Knots Landing)
	Winter
	Spring
	Summer	Family
	Mid-summer	Various programming				20/20
CBS	Fall	The Last Resort	Struck by Lightning	The CBS Wednesday Night Movie
	Mid-fall	The Last Resort	The Bad News Bears
	Late fall	Young Maverick
	Winter	Young Maverick
	Spring	Beyond Westworld
	Summer	Beyond Westworld
NBC	Fall	Real People (14/22.1) (Tied with House Calls)		Diff'rent Strokes (26/20.3)	Hello, Larry	The Best of Saturday Night Live (R)
	Winter					The Best of Saturday Night Live (R)
	Spring					From Here to Eternity
	Summer				The Facts of Life	Quincy, M.E. (R)

Thursday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM
ABC	Fall	Laverne & Shirley	Benson (23/20.6) (Tied with The Love Boat)	Barney Miller (20/20.9) (Tied with Charlie's Angels)	Soap (25/20.5)	20/20
	Winter	Mork & Mindy (27/20.2)			Soap (25/20.5)
	Spring				The Associates
	Mid-spring				The Ropers
	Summer		Angie		Nobody's Perfect
CBS	Fall	The Waltons		Hawaii Five-O		Barnaby Jones
	Winter	The Waltons		Barnaby Jones		Knots Landing (29/20.0) (Tied with Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, The ABC Sunday Night Movie and Vega$)
	Spring	Palmerstown, U.S.A.				The Contender
	Summer	The Waltons				The Contender
NBC	Fall	Buck Rogers in the 25th Century		Quincy, M.E.		Kate Loves a Mystery*
	Winter					Skag
	Spring					The Rockford Files (R)
	Summer			NBC Thursday Night at the Movies
	Mid-summer	*Games People Play*		NBC Thursday Night at the Movies

(*) Formerly known as Mrs. Columbo

Friday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	10:00 PM
ABC	Fall	Fantasy Island (28/20.1)		The ABC Friday Night Movie
	Winter	B.A.D. Cats
	Spring	When the Whistle Blows
	Summer	The ABC Friday Night Movie			Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (R)
	Mid-summer	Benson (R)	Goodtime Girls	The ABC Friday Night Movie
CBS		The Incredible Hulk		The Dukes of Hazzard (9/24.1)	Dallas (6/25.0)
NBC
	Fall	Shirley		The Rockford Files	Eischied
	Winter	Shirley		NBC Friday Night at the Movies
	Mid-winter	Special programming		NBC Friday Night at the Movies
	Spring	Here's Boomer	The Facts of Life	Various programming	Pink Lady
	Summer	Here's Boomer	Me and Maxx	The Rockford Files	Various programming
	Late summer	Various programming			Speak Up America

Saturday

Network		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	The Ropers	Detective School	The Love Boat (23/20.6) (Tied with Benson)		Hart to Hart
	Mid-fall		Detective School			Fantasy Island (28/20.1)
	Late fall		A New Kind of Family
	Winter	One in a Million	The Ropers
	Spring	Angie	Goodtime Girls
	Summer	Various programming				When the Whistle Blows
	Mid-summer	Various programming				Fantasy Island (28/20.1)
CBS	Fall	Working Stiffs	The Bad News Bears	Big Shamus, Little Shamus		Paris
	Follow-up	Various programming		CBS Saturday Movie
	Winter	The Chisholms		CBS Saturday Movie
	Spring	The Tim Conway Show		Hawaii Five-O		Hagen
	Mid-spring	The Tim Conway Show		CBS Saturday Movie
	Summer	The Bad News Bears	The Stockard Channing Show
	Mid-summer	One Day at a Time (R)	The Bad News Bears
	Late summer	Universe
NBC	Fall	CHiPs (18/21.5)		B. J. and the Bear		A Man Called Sloane
	Winter	CHiPs (18/21.5)		B. J. and the Bear		Prime Time Saturday
	Spring	B. J. and the Bear		Sanford	Me and Maxx
	Mid-spring	B. J. and the Bear		Sanford	Joe's World
	Summer	Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (R)		Various programming		Joe's World	Good Time Harry

Note: In November 1979, CBS took Paris off their Saturday night lineup before scheduling it in the 10:00-11:00 pm time slot on Tuesdays beginning December 4.

By network

ABC

Returning Series

New Series

Not returning from 1978–79:

CBS

Returning Series

New Series

Archie Bunker's Place
Beyond Westworld *
Big Shamus, Little Shamus
California Fever
The Contender *
Flo *
Hagen *
House Calls *
Knots Landing
The Last Resort
Palmerstown, U.S.A. *
Paris
Phyl & Mikhy *
The Stockard Channing Show *
Struck by Lightning
That's My Line *
The Tim Conway Show *
Trapper John, M.D.
Universe *
Walter Cronkite's Universe *
Working Stiffs
Young Maverick

Not returning from 1978–79:

NBC

Returning Series

New Series

Not returning from 1978–79:

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

References

^ 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.

[BM2-1] 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.

[1]

United States network television schedules
1940s	1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50
1950s	1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60
1960s	1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70
1970s	1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80
1980s	1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90
1990s	1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000
2000s	2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10
2010s	2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20
2020s	2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25 2025–26 2026–27