Entertainment events in the 2000s

Music

2000 – Metallica sues Napster for copyright infringement; Releases of NSYNC's No Strings Attached, Britney Spears' Oops... I Did It Again!, Kylie Minogue's Light Years, Spice Girls' Forever, U2's All That You Can Leave Behind, Madonna's Music, Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, The Smashing Pumpkins' Machina/The Machines of God, Backstreet Boys' Black and Blue, Westlife's Coast to Coast and Jay-Z's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia

2001 – Releases of Jennifer Lopez' J.Lo, Michael Jackson's Invincible, Janet Jackson's All for You, Utada Hikaru's Distance, Ayumi Hamasaki's A Best, Mariah Carey's Glitter, NSYNC's Celebrity, Aaliyah's self titled third album, Nickelback's Silver Side Up and Britney Spears' Britney; Deaths of Aaliyah and George Harrison

2002 – Releases of Celine Dion's A New Day Has Come, Eminem's The Eminem Show, Red Hot Chili Peppers' By the Way and Christina Aguilera's Stripped; Kelly Clarkson wins American Idol

2003 – Michael Jackson is accused of child molestation; Deaths of Barry White and Maurice Gibb

2004 – Sony Music and BMG merge to become Sony BMG; Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake make headline news after a wardrobe malfunction exposed Jackson's right breast at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show

2005 – Michael Jackson is found not guilty of child molestation; Mariah Carey makes a successful comeback with "We Belong Together"

2006 – Leona Lewis wins The X Factor; Death of James Brown

2007 – X Japan reunite after a ten-year break; Elton John celebrates his 60th birthday with his 60th performance at the Madison Square Garden

2008 – Britney Spears makes a successful comeback with "Womanizer"; Releases of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy, Britney Spears' Circus, Metallica's Death Magnetic, AC/DC's Black Ice, Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce and Adele's 19

2009 – Death of Michael Jackson; The Black Eyed Peas reinvent their image from an alternative hip hop/pop group to a EDM/pop rap group with the release of The END

Film

2000 – Releases of X-Men, Dinosaur, Gladiator, Mission: Impossible 2, Cast Away, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, What Lies Beneath, Unbreakable and Meet the Parents; The Matrix beats Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace at the Oscars in three of the four awards they won

2001 – Releases of Shrek, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Spirited Away, Monster's Inc, Ocean's Eleven, Hannibal, The Fast and the Furious and Atlantis: The Lost Empire; Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman divorce

2002 – Releases of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Spider-Man, Lilo & Stitch, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Treasure Planet, Road to Perdition, Die Another Day, Minority Report, 8 Mile, Ice Age and Chicago; Halle Berry becomes the first black actress to win the Best Actress Oscar

2003 – Releases of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, X2, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Bruce Almighty, Brother Bear, The Last Samurai, Cold Mountain, Open Range and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines; Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as the Governor of California

2004 – Releases of Spider-Man 2, Shrek 2, The Incredibles, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ocean's Twelve, Troy, Shark Tale, Meet the Fockers, The Punisher and The Passion of the Christ; Death of Marlon Brando

2005 – Releases of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, War of the Worlds, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Madgascar, Batman Begins and Brokeback Mountain; Tom Cruise makes headline news after a funny moment at The Oprah Winfrey Show in which he is seen jumping on the couch and confirms his engagement to Katie Holmes

2006 – Releases of X-Men: The Last Stand, Superman Returns, Happy Feet, Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible III, Casino Royale, Night at the Museum, Dreamgirls and Little Miss Sunshine; Pixar becomes a Disney subsidiary

2007 – Releases of Spider-Man 3, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, The Simpsons Movie, Enchanted, I Am Legend, Transformers, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, 300 and Hot Fuzz; Hollywood is affected by a WGA strike that lasts for 100 days

2008 – Releases of The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Kung Fu Panda, Hancock, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Quantum of Solace, WALL-E, Mamma Mia! and Slumdog Millionaire; The 2008 Golden Globe Awards is held as a press conference due to the WGA strike at the time

2009 – Releases of James Cameron's Avatar, The Princess and the Frog, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Up, Sherlock Holmes, Watchmen, The Hangover, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and The Hurt Locker; Disney acquires Marvel Comics

TV

2000 – Debuts of Survivor, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Big Brother UK, Big Brother USA, Dora the Explorer, Jackie Chan Adventures, Jackass, Gilmore Girls, X-Men: Evolution and MTV Cribs; Launches of Boomerang US and UK

2001 – Several broadcasters worldwide interrupt their regular programming to cover the 9/11 attacks; Debuts of Samurai Jack, Pop Idol and Popstars UK

2002 – Fox Kids US folds as a result of Disney acquiring Saban Entertainment, leading Power Rangers to move to ABC Kids and ABC Family; Debut of Kim Possible

2003 – Death of Fred Rogers; SMTV concludes its run on ITV1

2004 – Friends and Frasier conclude their runs, ending the golden age of NBC sitcoms; Debuts of The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing

2005 – Craig Ferguson begins his tenure as the host of The Late Late Show on CBS; Doctor Who returns on BBC One, nine years after the airing of the TV film

2006 – The WB and UPN merge to become The CW; Launches of MyNetworkTV, CITV, Five US and Five Life

2007 – Bob Barker ends his 35-year tenure as host of The Price is Right; Chris Benoit is found dead along with his wife and their son, as it would be revealed later to be a double murder-suicide

2008 – The History Channel is shortened as History; Fox ends their 18-year Saturday morning slot related to children's programming

2009 – The Simpsons celebrates its 20th anniversary; Toon Disney and Jetix merge to become Disney XD

Video games

2000 – Launch of PlayStation 2; Release of The Sims

2001 – Launch of Xbox, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo Gamecube; Releases of Animal Crossing, Halo: Combat Evolved, Burnout, Devil May Cry, Max Payne and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

2002 – Sega shifts their focus from making video game consoles to making video games for other consoles, thus rendering Dreamcast as their last console; Releases of Kingdom Hearts, Metroid Prime and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

2003 – Launches of Nokia N-Gage and Game Boy Advance SP; Releases of Call of Duty and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

2004 – Launches of Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable; Releases of Far Cry, Killzone, Fable, Ninja Gaiden and World of Warcraft

2005 – Launches of Xbox 360 and Gizmondo; Releases of Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Mario Kart DS

2006 – Launches of Wii and PlayStation 3; Releases of Gears of War, Saints Row, Prey and Bully

2007 – Releases of BioShock, The Simpsons Game, Rock Band, Crysis, Assassin's Creed, Portal, Uncharted, Skate and Mass Effect; Bungie splits from parent company Microsoft

2008 – Launch of Zeebo; Joseph and Melissa Batten are found dead in a murder-suicide

2009 – Launch of PlayStation 3 Slim; Releases of Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bayonetta, Just Dance, Infamous and Borderlands