I'd go a year earlier to '95. That was the year you had those three and a very small handful of other shows.
I've always considered '96 to be a bit of a comeback year, with several cable shows premiering (Debt, Family Channel's afternoon block that included The New Shop Til You Drop and Shopping Spree among others), and a few more in syndication. Granted, while the syndicated stuff was mostly relationship games, it also included revivals of Dating and Newlywed. From that point on, you had more new shows premiering each year, but still nothing significant until '99.
Then again, those aforementioned shows mostly entered in the second half of the year (I think Debt debuted in June), so yeah '96 was kinda rough too. A lot of daytime talk shows in 1995-96...ugh.