• January 14 – Today is first aired on NBC in the United States with Dave Garroway as host.
• January 16 – Sooty, Harry Corbett's little yellow glove puppet teddy bear, first appears on the BBC Television Service's Talent Night in the United Kingdom.^[1]
• February 1 – The first TV detector van is commissioned in the U.K. as the beginning of a clampdown on the estimated 150,000 British households that watch television illegally without a licence.^[2]
• March 14 – The BBC Television Service in Scotland is launched.
• May 22 – The first televised atomic bomb detonation, billed as "Operation Tumbler–Snapper", is broadcast on KTLA in Los Angeles, and fed to the three major U.S. networks via a 140 miles (230 km) microwave link.
• July 7 – Turkey's first television station, ITU TV, is opened.
• July 20 – Arrow to the Heart, the first collaboration between director Rudolph Cartier and scriptwriter Nigel Kneale, is broadcast by BBC Television in the United Kingdom.
• August 1 – First television broadcast in the Dominican Republic by La Voz Dominicana, a station based on the radio station of the same name.
• September 6 – Television debuts in Canada with the initiation of CBFT in Montreal, Quebec.
• September 8 – CBLT in Toronto, Ontario begins broadcasting as Canada's second television station.
• September 20 – The first commercial Ultra High Frequency (UHF) television station in the world, KPTV (later a Fox company affiliate), begins broadcasting in Portland, Oregon on channel 27.
• October 7 – WFIL-TV Philadelphia's afternoon series Bandstand, which will become American Bandstand, changes emphasis to teens dancing to popular records
• November 4 – 1952 United States presidential election: The first political advertisements have appeared on U.S. television. Democrats bought a 30-minute time segment for their candidate, Adlai Stevenson but he has received unfavorable mail for interfering with a broadcast of I Love Lucy. Dwight Eisenhower bought 20 second commercial segments and wins the election.
• November 16 – CBS Television City in Hollywood, California opens, the network's first studio on the U.S. west coast.
• The U.S. Federal Communications Commission reserves channels for non-commercial public broadcasting.
• There are approximately 146,000 television sets in Canada and most antennas are pointed towards WBEN-TV (later WIVB) in Buffalo, New York.

• Amos & Andy (1951–1953)
• Author Meets the Critics (1947–1954)
• Bozo the Clown (1948–present)
• Café Continental (UK) (1947–1953)
• Candid Camera (1948–present)
• Cisco Kid (1950–1956)
• The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950-1955)
• Come Dancing (UK) (1949–1995)
• Dragnet (1951–1959)
• Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (1946–1960)
• Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951–present)
• Hawkins Falls (1950, 1951–1955)
• Howdy Doody (1947–1960)
• I Love Lucy (1951–1960)
• Juvenile Jury (1947–1954)
• Kaleidoscope (UK) (1946–1953)
• Kraft Television Theater (1947–1958)
• Kukla, Fran and Ollie (1947–1957)
• Life with Elizabeth (1952–1955)
• Love of Life (1951–1980)
• Martin Kane, Private Eye (1949–1954)
• Meet the Press (1947–present)
• Muffin the Mule (UK) (1946–1955)
• Search for Tomorrow (1951–1986)
• Television Newsreel (UK) (1948–1954)
• The Ed Sullivan Show (1948–1971)
• The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950–1958)
• The Goldbergs (1949–1955)
• The Jack Benny Show (1950–1965)
• The Roy Rogers Show (1951–1957)
• The Texaco Star Theater (1948–1953)
• The Voice of Firestone (1949–1963)
• Truth or Consequences (1950–1988)
• What's My Line (1950–1967)
• Your Hit Parade (1950–1959)
• Your Show of Shows (1950–1954)

Debuts edit

• January 6 - Claudia on NBC (moved to CBS on March 31, 1952)^[3]: 167
• January 14 – The Today Show on NBC (1952–present)^[3]
• March 1 – Death Valley Days in syndication (1952–1975)
• June 19 – I've Got a Secret on CBS (1952–1967)
• June 30 – the soap opera The Guiding Light (1952–2009) on CBS, which began on radio in 1937, becoming the longest-running regularly scheduled drama in television history
• July 10 - The prime time version of A Date with Judy debuts on ABC.
• September – the religious drama This Is the Life on DuMont, and ran until the late 1980s
• September 19 – Adventures of Superman in syndication (1952–1958)
• October 26 – Victory at Sea (1952–1953) on NBC, one of the first historic documentary series
• October 3 – Our Miss Brooks (1952-1956) on CBS
• November 1 – Hockey Night in Canada on CBC (1952–present)
• November 6 – Biff Baker, U.S.A. on CBS (1952–1953)
• November 8 – My Hero on NBC (1952–1953)
• December 1 – The Abbott and Costello Show in syndication (1952–1954)
• December 15 – Flower Pot Men on BBC Television (1952)
• American Bandstand, originally called Bandstand, as a local program in Philadelphia (1952–1989)
• Life Is Worth Living with Bishop Fulton J. Sheen on DuMont (1952–1955), then on ABC (1955–1957)
• My Little Margie (1952–1955), starring Gale Storm
• See It Now, hosted by Edward R. Murrow
• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet on ABC (1952–1966)
• The Ernie Kovacs Show, where Kovacs explores the boundaries of television technology with his use of special effects (1952–1953)
• Meet the Masters, a program about classical music, on NBC and WGN-TV
• This Is Your Life in the U.S. (1952–1961)
• Life with Elizabeth, a sitcom featuring Betty White (1952–1955)

Ending during 1952 edit

• Mabel Albertson – Chevron Theatre
• Margaret Bert – Fireside Theatre
• Claire Bloom – Sunday Night Theatre
• Joe E. Brown – The Buick Circus Hour
• G. Pat Collins – Mr. and Mrs. North
• Buster Crabbe – The Philco Television Playhouse
• Richard Crenna – I Love Lucy
• Irene Dunne – Schlitz Playhouse
• William Hickey – The Philco Television Playhouse
• Allen Jenkins – Racket Squad
• Carolyn Jones – Chevron Theatre
• Peter Lorre – Lux Video Theatre
• Steve McQueen – Family Affair
• Sal Mineo – Hallmark Hall of Fame
• Marilyn Monroe – The Jack Benny Program
• Rita Moreno – Fireside Theatre
• Audie Murphy – Lux Video Theatre
• Pat O'Brien – Betty Crocker Star Matinee
• Maureen O'Sullivan – Hollywood Opening Night
• Geraldine Page – Lux Video Theatre
• Donald Pleasence – Sunday Night Theatre
• Sidney Poitier – CBS Television Workshop
• Bert Remsen – Suspense
• Mickey Rooney – Celanese Theatre
• Chris Sarandon – Guiding Light
• Peter Sellers – Don't Spare the Horses
• Sylvia Sidney – Cameo Theatre
• Ann Sothern – Schlitz Playhouse
• Joe Turkel – Boston Blackie
• Lee Van Cleef – Sky King
• Dennis Weaver – Dragnet
• Billie Whitelaw – The Secret Garden
• Stuart Whitman – The Roy Rogers Show
• Joanne Woodward – Tales of Tomorrow