EE Timeline...

1996 September 28: The first episode of Early Edition ("The Pilot") airs on CBS. It aired Saturday nights at 8pm Central, between "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and "Walker, Texas Ranger."

1998 April 4: Early Edition has its first "crossover" episode when the hospital scenes of Episode 38 ("Mum's the Word") take place on with the doctors of "Chicago Hope."

1998 May 16: CBS celebrates 50 years by inserting various classic characters into their current shows. Early Edition's 44th episode ("Hot Time in the Old Town") enjoys a visit from Rod Serling of "The Twilight Zone." (The Rod Serling ending only appeared on the original CBS airing. An alternate ending was created for the syndicated version of the episode.)

1998 September 26: After the cancellation of "Dr. Quinn," Early Edition moves up an hour on the schedule to 7pm Central. It is followed by "Martial Law" and "Walker, Texas Ranger."

1999 May 8: Early Edition has its second "crossover" episode when the "Martial Law" character of Sammo Hung Kam-Bo visits Chicago in the 67th episode, "Play It Again, Sammo."

1999 December 18: Episode 78 ("Run, Gary, Run") airs as normal, and then Early Edition goes on hiatus while CBS airs Christmas specials.

2000 May 17: CBS announces their new fall schedule and, after four seasons, Early Edition's cancellation is a sure thing.

2000 May 27: The final and 90th episode of Early Edition ("Luck of the Irish") airs on CBS.

2000 May 28: Cable channel Fox Family, who picked up the off-network syndication rights for an impressive $500,000 an episode, began airing syndicated episodes of early edition with a week-long "marathon" of four episodes a night, then down to two episodes a weeknight, at 6pm and 9pm Central, and once on Saturdays.

2000 September: The weekend syndication deal kicked in, with hundreds of network affiliates across the United States airing Early Edition at various hours of the day or night during the weekends. Fox Family drops their weekend airing of Early Edition at this time.

2000 November - November 2001: Fox Family drastically cut down on the number of EE airings, to air holiday-themed programming instead. With the new year, came a new schedule, and EE began airing 4 episodes a week at first, then was cut down to 2 episodes a week. By November 2001, Fox Family had been sold to ABC Family, and EE was removed from their schedule completely.

2001: Episodes continue to air on network affiliates as part of the weekend syndication package.

2001 October 26-27: Fans gather in Chicago for the first "Early Edition Convention" (or "EELFest")

2002 August 24: Fans gather in Chicago for the second EELFest.

2002 September: The weekend syndication package expires, and Early Edition is no longer to be found on US television.

2003 September: PAX TV acquires the rights to Early Edition and begins airing it four times a night.

2004 September 18: Fans gather in Chicago for the third EELFest.

2005 March: PAX TV stops airing Early Edition.

2005 July 4: PAX TV changes name to i and begins airing Early Edition again.