All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.
Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.
Also not included is Pax TV (now Ion), a venture of Paxson Communications (now Ion Media) that debuted on August 31, 1998; although Pax carried a limited schedule of first-run programs in its early years, its schedule otherwise was composed mainly of syndicated reruns.
On August 16, 1999, ABC aired the series episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire at 8:30pm EDT.
Note: On Fox, Hollyweird was supposed to premiere 9:00-10:00 but it was canceled due to a conflict with Shaun Cassidy.