1957–58 United States network television schedule

1957 in American television 1958 in American television

List of American television programs currently in production

Morning: 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60

Daytime/afternoon: 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60

Prime time: 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60

Late night: 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60

Overnight: 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60

The following is the 1957–58 network television schedule for the four major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 1957 through March 1958. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1956–57 season.

As in previous seasons, both CBS and ABC continued to add Westerns to their schedule, filling prime time with as many "oaters" (as they were derisively called) as possible. In addition to several returning Westerns which the network retained on its fall 1957 schedule, ABC's new western series included Sugarfoot and Broken Arrow on Tuesday nights, Tombstone Territory on Wednesdays, Colt .45 on Fridays, and Maverick on Sundays.

ABC, third in the network Nielsen ratings, placed its new Western Maverick in a difficult time slot: Sunday night against two hit series: The Steve Allen Show on NBC, and The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. ABC aired Maverick one half-hour prior to the Allen and Sullivan programs; the strategy was designed to "hook the audience before it fell into its usual viewing habits".^[1] This risky approach proved successful, as CBS' powerhouse Sunday night lineup slipped in the ratings, with Sullivan's show barely missing the top 30 after being among the ten most-watched programs of the previous season.

NBC, late to the Western format, also began plugging Westerns into its fall schedule. New NBC Western series debuting in the 1957–58 season included Wagon Train, The Restless Gun, and The Californians (though one NBC executive insisted The Californians was not a Western but a drama set in California in the 1850s).^[1]

Another programming shift occurred at NBC: the network's flagship news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, moved to the 7:15 PM weekday timeslot, for the first time going head to head against both ABC's and CBS's news programs.^[2] The face-off between the three networks' news programs would become the standard model for U.S. broadcast television; the three networks still air their network news programs against one another.

1958 saw a number of executive changes at the networks; these presidential shifts would affect the network television schedules. Oliver Treyz became the president of ABC on February 17, Louis G. Cowan became the president of CBS on March 12, and NBC programmer Robert Kintner became the president of NBC on July 11. Dr. Allen B. DuMont resigned as chairman of the board of the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation on May 13, and the name of the company was changed to Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation. According to Castleman and Podrazik (1982) the final DuMont Network program, Monday Night Fights aired for the last time on August 4, 1958, carried on only five stations nationwide.^[1] NBC's Kraft Television Theatre, which had debuted in 1947 and was the oldest program still left on television, was cancelled in spring 1958. It was the dawn of a new era in television; producer David Susskind, who had produced KTT at the end, would call 1958 "the year of the miserable drivel".^[1]

Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.^[3]

• New series are highlighted in bold.
• Repeat airings or same-day rebroadcasts are indicated by (R).
• All times are U.S. Eastern and Pacific Time (except for some live sports or events). Subtract one hour for Central, Mountain, Alaska and Hawaii–Aleutian times.

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	You Asked For It	Maverick		Bowling Stars	Open Hearing	All-American Football Game of the Week	Scotland Yard	Local programming
	Winter	Local programming			Adventure at Scott Island[a]
	Spring							The Mike Wallace Interview
	Summer						Anyone Can Play
CBS		Lassie (22/27.8)	The Jack Benny Show (28/27.1) / Bachelor Father[b]	The Ed Sullivan Show (27/27.3)		General Electric Theatre (7/31.5)	Alfred Hitchcock Presents (12/30.3) (Tied with Cheyenne)	The $64,000 Challenge	What's My Line?
NBC	Fall	The Original Amateur Hour	Sally	The Steve Allen Show (In COLOR)		The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (In COLOR)		The Loretta Young Show (30/26.6) (Tied with Zorro and The Real McCoys)	Local Programming
	Winter	My Friend Flicka (In COLOR) (R)	No Warning!
	Summer	Various programming		The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé Show (In COLOR)		The Chevy Show (In COLOR)		Decision

Notes:

• On CBS, Air Power, narrated by Walter Cronkite, aired from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. from May 4 to October 19, 1958. It consisted entirely of reruns of the series from the 1956–1957 season.
• On NBC, the summer anthology series Decision consisted of a mix of unsold television pilots and reruns of episodes of The Ford Television Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, and Screen Directors Playhouse.

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	Local programming (7:00) / John Daly and the News (7:15)	American Bandstand	The Guy Mitchell Show	Bold Journey	The Voice of Firestone	Lawrence Welk's Top Tunes and New Talent		Local programming
	Winter		O.S.S.	Love That Jill			Anybody Can Play	This is Music
	Spring		American Odyssey	Campaign Roundup
	Summer		Cowtown Rodeo				Polka Go-Round
CBS		Local programming (7:00) / Douglas Edwards with the News (7:15)[c]	The Adventures of Robin Hood	The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show	Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts	The Danny Thomas Show (2/35.3)	December Bride (9/30.7)	Studio One in Hollywood
NBC	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / The Huntley-Brinkley Report (7:15)[c]	The Price Is Right (In COLOR)	The Restless Gun (8/31.4)	Tales of Wells Fargo (3/35.2)	Twenty-One (26/27.6)	Turn of Fate[d] / Goodyear Theatre	Suspicion
	Summer		Haggis Baggis (In COLOR)

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	Local programming (7:00) / John Daly and the News (7:15)	Cheyenne (12/30.3) (Tied with Alfred Hitchcock Presents) / Sugarfoot (23/27.7) (Tied with Wagon Train and Father Knows Best)[b]		The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (6/32.6)	Broken Arrow	Telephone Time	The West Point Story	Local programming
	Summer							Confession
CBS	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / Douglas Edwards with the News (7:15)	Name That Tune	The Phil Silvers Show	The Eve Arden Show	To Tell the Truth	The Red Skelton Show (15/28.9) (In COLOR)	The $64,000 Question (19/28.1) (Tied with This Is Your Life)	Assignment: Foreign Legion
	Winter								Local programming
	Late winter			Mr. Adams and Eve
	Summer								Bid 'N' Buy
NBC	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / The Huntley-Brinkley Report (7:15)	The Nat King Cole Show	The Eddie Fisher Show (In COLOR) / The George Gobel Show (In COLOR)[b]		Meet McGraw	The Bob Cummings Show	The Californians	Local programming
	Summer			The Investigator (In COLOR)		Dotto
	August					Colgate Theatre

Notes:

• Confession, with host Jack Wyatt, began as a local program in the Dallas, Texas, market in early 1957. It premiered as a summer replacement on ABC on June 19, 1958, in advance of the 1958–59 television season.
• Colgate Theatre consisted on unsold pilots.

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	Local programming (7:00) / John Daly and the News (7:15)	Disneyland		Tombstone Territory	The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet	The Walter Winchell File	The Wednesday Night Fights (10:00) / Famous Fights (10:45)
	Winter						Date with the Angels
	Late winter						The Betty White Show
CBS	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / Douglas Edwards with the News (7:15)	I Love Lucy (R)	The Big Record (In COLOR)		The Millionaire (17/28.5)	I've Got a Secret (5/33.4)	Armstrong Circle Theatre / The United States Steel Hour
	Spring			Leave It to Beaver	The Big Record (In COLOR)
NBC	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / The Huntley-Brinkley Report (7:15)	Wagon Train (23/27.7) (Tied with Sugarfoot and Father Knows Best)		Father Knows Best (23/27.7) (Tied with Sugarfoot and Wagon Train)	Kraft Television Theatre (In COLOR)		This Is Your Life (19/28.1) (Tied with The $64,000 Question)	Local programming
	Summer							It Could Be You

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	Local programming (7:00) / John Daly and the News (7:15)	Circus Boy	Zorro (30/26.6) (Tied with The Loretta Young Show and The Real McCoys)	The Real McCoys (30/26.6) (Tied with The Loretta Young Show and Zorro)	The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom	O.S.S.	Navy Log	Local programming
	Winter						Navy Log	Make Me Laugh
	Summer					The Andy Williams Show		Confession
CBS	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / Douglas Edwards with the News (7:15)	Sergeant Preston of the Yukon	Harbormaster	Climax! (In COLOR)		Playhouse 90
	Winter			Richard Diamond, Private Detective
NBC	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / The Huntley-Brinkley Report (7:15)	Tic-Tac-Dough (In COLOR)	You Bet Your Life (10/30.6)	Dragnet	The People’s Choice	The Ford Show (14/29.7)	The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney (In COLOR)	The Jane Wyman Show
	Summer							The Price Is Right (In COLOR)	Music Bingo

Notes:

• On CBS, Shower of Stars (In COLOR) aired on an irregular basis at 8:30 p.m.
• From January 2 to June 26, 1958, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, starring David Janssen, aired for a second season on the CBS Thursday schedule at 8 p.m. Eastern. It returned to the air for a third season from February to September 1959.

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	Local programming (7:00) / John Daly and the News (7:15)	The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin	The Adventures of Jim Bowie	The Patrice Munsel Show	The Frank Sinatra Show	Date with the Angels	Colt .45	Local programming
	Winter						The Walter Winchell File
CBS	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / Douglas Edwards with the News (7:15)	Leave It to Beaver	Trackdown	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre (21/27.9)	Mr. Adams and Eve	Schlitz Playhouse[e]	The Lineup (18/28.4)	Person to Person
	Late winter					The Phil Silvers Show
	Mid-spring		Dick and the Duchess
	Summer		The Boing Boing Show (R)
NBC	Fall	Local programming (7:00) / The Huntley-Brinkley Report (7:15)	Saber of London[f]	The Court of Last Resort	The Life of Riley	M Squad	The Thin Man	Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (10:00) / Red Barber's Corner (10:45)
	Spring			Jefferson Drum
	Summer		The Big Game

Network		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	Keep It in the Family	Country Music Jubilee		Lawrence Welk's Dodge Dancing Party		The Mike Wallace Interview	Local programming
	Late winter	The Dick Clark Show					Midwestern Hayride
	Spring	The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show
	Summer						The Billy Graham Crusade
CBS	Fall	Perry Mason		Dick and the Duchess	The Gale Storm Show (16/28.8)	Have Gun – Will Travel (4/33.7)	Gunsmoke (1/43.1)	Local programming
	Mid-spring			Top Dollar
NBC	Fall	People Are Funny (29/27.0)	The Perry Como Show (11/30.5) (In COLOR)		The Polly Bergen Show / Club Oasis [b]	The Gisele MacKenzie Show	What's It For?	Your Hit Parade (In COLOR)
	Winter					Turning Point	The Original Amateur Hour
	Summer		The Bob Crosby Show (In COLOR)		Opening Night (R) / Club Oasis with Spike Jones [b][g]			The Joseph Cotten Show (R)

Notes:

• Opening Night consisted of reruns of episodes of the ABC series Ford Theatre from the 1956–1957 season.
• Turning Point was a dramatic anthology series consisting of two unsold pilots and reruns of episodes from other anthology series.
• The Joseph Cotten Show consisted of reruns of the 1956–1957 series On Trial.

Not returning from 1956–57:

• Ethel Barrymore Theatre

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

• 1957–58 United States network television schedule (daytime)
• 1957–58 United States network television schedule (late night)

• McNeil, Alex. Total Television. Fourth edition. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-024916-8.
• Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1964). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows (3rd ed.). New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-31864-1.