See also: 1952 in television, other events of 1953, 1954 in television and the list of 'years in television'.

Events

• January 19 - 68% of all US television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
• February 18 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue the I Love Lucy television series through 1955.
• February 26 - Fulton Sheen, on his program Life Is Worth Living , reads Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, with the names of high-ranking Soviet officials replacing the key characters. At the end of the reading, Sheen intoned that "Stalin must one day meet his judgment". In a highly-publicized incident, Stalin died one week later.
• March 25 - CBS concedes victory to RCA in the war over color television standards.
• April 3 - TV Guide is published for the first time, with 10 editions and a circulation of 1,562,000.
• May 25 - KUHT in Houston becomes the first non-commercial educational TV station.
• June 2 - The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II is televised in the UK. Sales of TV sets rise sharply in the weeks leading up to the event. It is also one of the earliest broadcasts to be deliberately recorded for posterity and still exists in its entirety today.
• July 18 - The Quatermass Experiment, first of the famous Quatermass science-fiction serials by Nigel Kneale, begins its run on the BBC.
• The Tonight Show begins as a local New York variety show.
• August 30 - NBC's Kukla, Fran, and Ollie is the first publicly announced experimental broadcast of a program in RCA compatible color.
• October 19 - Arthur Godfrey fires Julius La Rosa on the air.
• November 22 - RCA airs (with special permission from the FCC) the first commercial color program in compatible color, the Colgate Comedy Hour with Donald O'Connor.
• December 24 - NBC's Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program.
• December 17 – The FCC reverses its 1951 decision and approves the RCA/NTSC color system.
• Japanese television goes on the air for the first time.

Debuts

• July 20 - The Good Old Days begins on BBC Television (1953-1983).
• November - The current affairs series Panorama launches on BBC Television. It is now the longest-running program on British television.
• Flash Gordon, (1953-1954), starring Steve Holland .

Television shows

• Tom and Jerry (1940-1958, 1965-1972, 1975-1977, 1980-1982)
• Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (1946-1960)
• Howdy Doody (1947-1960)
• Kraft Television Theater (1947-1958)
• Meet the Press (1947-present)
• Candid Camera (1948-present)
• The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971)
• The Texaco Star Theater (1948-1953); the show was renamed Buick-Berle Show this year (1953-1954)
• Martin Kane, Private Eye (1949-1954)
• The Goldbergs (1949-1955)
• The Voice of Firestone (1949-1963)
• Cisco Kid (1950-1956)
• The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950-1958)
• The Jack Benny Show (1950-1965)
• Truth or Consequences (1950-1988)
• What's My Line (1950-1967)
• Your Hit Parade (1950-1959)
• Your Show of Shows (1950-1954)
• Dragnet (1951-1959)
• I Love Lucy (1951-1957)
• Love of Life (1951-1980)
• Search for Tomorrow (1951-1986)
• The Roy Rogers Show (1951-1957)
• American Bandstand (1952-1989)
• My Little Margie (1952-1955)
• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966)
• The Guiding Light (1952-present)
• The Honeymooners (1952-1970)
• The Today Show (1952-present)
• This Is Your Life (US) (1952-1961)

Ending this year

• Amos & Andy (1951-1953).
• The Ernie Kovacs Show (1952-1953).

Births

• June 13 - Tim Allen, actor
• October 9 - Tony Shalhoub, actor
• October 22 - Jeff Goldblum, actor
• October 31 - Michael J. Anderson, actor