Sunrise Semester was an American television series which aired on CBS from 1957 through 1982. It was produced in conjunction with New York University (NYU). During the months of June, July and August, the program was known as Summer Semester.
Sunrise Semester was one of the first examples of distance learning or telecourses. Lecturers would present actual NYU credit courses in studio on a wide range of academic subjects, and the broadcast courses were actually offered for credit to anyone who paid the course fees. The program was so named because it was broadcast at 6–AM Eastern time.
The show was a staple of the CBS schedule for almost 17 years, but by the early 1980s, declining ratings, the rise of public television in the US (which evolved from the educational broadcasting movement of the 1950s that Sunrise Semester was a part of), and CBS' desire to schedule more news-oriented programming in the morning hours, all led to the program's cancellation.