182-604: Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from the Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Film (which merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to form 20th Century Fox in 1935), named after founder William Fox . The Fox Sports name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by
364-475: A blind trust and then sold directly to Fox due to conflicts with FCC ownership rules ], and one NBC affiliate ) that it had either already owned outright or was in the process of acquiring from Citicasters and Argyle Communications at the time to Fox starting in September 1994 and continuing as existing affiliation contracts with their existing major network partners expired. That summer, SF Broadcasting ,
546-445: A "soft" news daily strip, with a number of imitations following (among which have included such entertainment news shows as TMZ on TV , Extra and ET ' s own spin-off The Insider ); and "tabloid" television, in the wake of ABC 's 20/20 and, more immediately, 20th Television 's A Current Affair , would become a syndication staple with such series as Hard Copy and Real TV . Another area where network dominance
728-548: A 20% stake in New World Communications , a television and film production company controlled by investor Ronald Perelman that had just recently entered into broadcasting through its 1993 purchase of seven stations owned by SCI Television . As a result of Fox acquiring a 20% minority interest in the company, New World signed an agreement to switch the affiliations of twelve stations (eight CBS affiliates, three ABC affiliates [ two of which were subsequently placed in
910-1108: A 50% interest in TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox film studio. In May 1985, News Corporation, a media company owned by Australian publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch that had mainly served as a newspaper publisher at the time of the TCF Holdings deal, agreed to pay $ 2.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. cities from the John Kluge -run broadcasting company Metromedia : WNEW-TV in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D.C., KTTV in Los Angeles, KRIV-TV in Houston, WFLD -TV in Chicago, and KRLD-TV in Dallas. A seventh station, ABC affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston,
1092-435: A Gun (1957–1959), and This is Alice (1958). The venture lasted five years and closed down in 1961. By the late 1960s, a de facto two-tiered system had developed in the United States, with the major network affiliates (usually on longer-range VHF stations) consistently drawing more viewers than their UHF, independent counterparts; syndicators thus hoped to get their programs onto the major network stations, where spots in
1274-522: A Multi-Millionaire? , Temptation Island , Married by America , and Joe Millionaire (which became the first Fox program to crack the Nielsen Top 10), as well as video clip shows such as World's Wildest Police Videos and When Animals Attack! . After shedding most of these programs, Fox gradually filled its lineup with acclaimed dramas such as 24 , The O.C. , House , and Bones , and comedies such as The Bernie Mac Show , Malcolm in
1456-416: A collapse in viewership during the 2012–13 season ; American Idol and Glee suffered steep ratings declines, while the network as a whole fell to third place (suffering an overall decrease by 22%) in total viewership and to second place in the 18–49 demographic (where it remained as of 2014 ) by the end of the season. The decline in ratings continued into the 2013–14 season , with Fox placing fourth among
1638-471: A continuing life as syndicated programming tailor-made for the early fringe. In 1971, the U.S. FCC passed the Prime Time Access Rule and Financial Interest and Syndication Rules , which prevented networks from programming one particular hour of prime time programming on its television stations each night and required the networks to spin off their syndication arms as independent companies. Although
1820-895: A contract with the NFL to televise games from the National Football Conference (NFC)—which had been airing its games on CBS since 1956 —starting with the 1994 season . The initial four-year contract, which Fox bid $ 1.58 billion to obtain—while CBS offered $ 295 million per year to retain the rights —also included the exclusive U.S. television rights to Super Bowl XXXI in 1997 . The network also lured Pat Summerall , John Madden , Dick Stockton , Matt Millen , James Brown , Terry Bradshaw , and behind-the-scenes production personnel, from CBS Sports to staff its NFL coverage. Shortly afterward, News Corporation began striking affiliation deals with, and later purchasing, more television station groups. On May 23, 1994, Fox agreed to purchase
2002-552: A default Fox affiliate at the time; it would manage to reach a total of 1.3 million subscribers by 1992. As Fox gradually headed towards carrying a full week's worth of programming in prime time through the addition of programming on Thursday and Friday nights at the start of the 1990–91 season , the network's added offerings included the scheduling of The Simpsons opposite veteran NBC sitcom The Cosby Show as part of Fox's initial Thursday night lineup that fall (along with future hit Beverly Hills, 90210 , which would become
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#17328377136632184-404: A disadvantage in that their costs can be higher than some other formats due to the high volume of episodes needed. In many markets, a stripped show will be seen twice daily, usually with different episodes (one being a more recent episode and the other being an episode from a previous season). Sometimes, station groups with more than one station in a market, or a " duopoly ", will run one episode of
2366-529: A few successful shows like the science fiction drama The X-Files , Fox still lacked credibility among viewers. Even those working in television thought of the network as "the one that has that cartoon show" ( The Simpsons ). More than 85% of affiliates in 1993 were UHF stations. Fox became a viable competitor to the older networks when it won broadcast television rights to the National Football League (NFL) away from CBS . In December 1993, Fox signed
2548-454: A few weeks, however, and the network was unable to reach a deal with Hall to return as host when it hurriedly revived The Late Show in early 1988. The Late Show went back to featuring guest hosts, eventually selecting Ross Shafer as its permanent host, only for it to be canceled for good by October 1988, while Hall signed a deal with Paramount Television to develop his own syndicated late night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show . Fox aired
2730-442: A first-run series on Comedy Central , where it ran from 2010 to 2013. Less successful efforts included The Critic , starring Saturday Night Live alumnus Jon Lovitz (which Fox picked up in 1994 after it was cancelled by ABC, only for the series to be cancelled again after its second season), and The PJs (which moved to The WB in 2000, after Fox cancelled that series after its second season). Other notable shows that debuted in
2912-519: A five-year contract valued at $ 205 million per-year. The network also began to increase its non-scripted output, announcing the new celebrity music competition series The Masked Singer (based on the South Korean format King of Mask Singer ), and the new game shows Mental Samurai and Spin the Wheel for the 2018–19 season. In August 2018, Fox Television Group CEO Dana Walden stated that
3094-505: A fourth network had failed because it programmed just under the number of hours defined by the FCC to legally be considered a network. This allowed Fox to make revenue in ways forbidden to the established networks (for instance, it did not have to adhere to the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules that were in effect at the time), since during its first years it was considered to be merely
3276-591: A greater artistic freedom, and looser standards (not mandated by a network). The older Bugs Bunny and Popeye cartoons made way for first-run syndicated cartoons such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe , Inspector Gadget , Heathcliff , ThunderCats , My Little Pony , The Transformers , G.I. Joe , Voltron , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , and reruns of Scooby-Doo , Garfield and Friends , and The Pink Panther , among many others. Syndication
3458-472: A half-hour series as part of the network's mainly comedy-based Sunday lineup for its first season, before expanding to an hour and moving to Fridays for the 1990–91 season). These two series, which would become staples on the network for just over two decades, would eventually be paired to form the nucleus of Fox's Saturday night schedule beginning in the 1994–95 season . Meanwhile, Married... with Children , which differentiated itself from other family sitcoms of
3640-401: A home, for two seasons, on NBC, as SCTV Network 90 (and on premium cable channel Cinemax by 1983). The Universal / Paramount -produced package of original programming, Operation Prime Time , began appearing on ad hoc quasi-networks of (almost by necessity) non-network stations in the U.S. in 1978, with a mini-series adaptation of John Jakes ' The Bastard . From the later 1960s into
3822-551: A joint venture between Fox and Savoy Pictures that was founded in March 1994, purchased four stations from Burnham Broadcasting ( three NBC affiliates and one ABC affiliate ); through a separate agreement, those stations would also switch to Fox between September 1995 and January 1996 as existing affiliation agreements lapsed. These two deals were not the first instances in which a longtime "Big Three" station affiliated with Fox: in Miami,
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#17328377136634004-503: A large group of stations. By comparison, DuMont had been saddled by numerous regulatory barriers that hampered its potential to grow, most notably a ban on acquiring additional stations, during an era when the FCC had much tighter ownership limits for television stations (limiting broadcasters to a maximum of five stations nationwide) than it did when Fox launched. In addition, Murdoch was more than willing to open his wallet to get and keep programming and talent. DuMont, in contrast, operated on
4186-409: A large loyal fanbase that turned the show into a cult favorite. In 2009, Glee premiered to average ratings when its pilot aired as a lead-out program of the eighth-season finale of American Idol , but earned positive reviews from critics. The cast of the series has been acknowledged by Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey , who have each asked the cast to perform live for various national events. At
4368-500: A large, loyal international fanbase. At the same time, Fox's live telecast of the Super Bowl XLV helped the network emerge as the first U.S. television network to earn an average single-night prime time audience of at least 100 million viewers. American Idol lost its first place standing among all network prime time programs during the 2011–12 finale (falling to second that season behind NBC Sunday Night Football ), ending
4550-456: A loss, at least at first, hoping that the series will succeed and that eventual off-network syndication will turn a profit for the show. A syndicated program is licensed to stations for "cash" (the stations purchase the rights to local insertion some or all of the advertisements at their level); given to stations for access to airtime (wherein the syndicators get the advertising revenue); or the combination of both. The trade of program for airtime
4732-469: A mediocre ratings performance, before viewership rose significantly midway through its first season following Heather Locklear 's addition to the cast), its own short lived spin-off Models Inc. , and family drama Party of Five . The early and mid-1990s also saw the network launch several series aimed at a black audience, which, in addition to Martin , included the sitcom Living Single and police procedural New York Undercover . Despite having
4914-484: A national roll-out is feasible based on the ratings accrued in the selected markets where the program is being aired. While market penetration can vary widely and revenues can be unreliable, the producers often enjoy more content freedom in the absence of network's standards and practices departments; frequently, some innovative ideas are explored by first-run syndicated programming which the networks are leery of giving airtime to. Meanwhile, top-rated syndicated shows in
5096-489: A new but short-lived sitcom ( Love and Marriage ) to the night at the beginning of the 1996–97 season backfired with the public, as it resulted in a brief cancellation of America's Most Wanted that was criticized by law enforcement and public officials, and was roundly rejected by viewers, which brought swift cancellation to the newer series. Married... quickly returned to Sundays (before moving again to Mondays two months later); both it and Martin would end their runs at
5278-525: A non-Big Three network on primetime). By 2016, Empire and The X-Files ranked in the Nielsen Top 10 for the season, the first season with 2 Fox programs entering the top rankings since the American Idol - House tandem of the 2007–2008 season (and the first ever season that Fox achieved such rankings without American Idol or any other reality television show from Fox in the Top 10). The same year also marked
5460-428: A popular new stripped series hosted by Winfrey-associate Dr. Phil McGraw, in primetime, with impressive ratings results. With a general decline in first-run production in the 2020s, syndicators and stations have turned to reruns of stripped talk shows to fill time slots, with observers noting that conflict-driven tabloid shows tend to draw higher ratings in reruns than non-tabloid shows. First-run syndicated shows in
5642-455: A profitable run in reruns. Other sitcoms, such as Small Wonder , Out of This World , The Munsters Today , and Harry and the Hendersons (as well as more action-adventure oriented series like Superboy and My Secret Identity ) enjoyed success in syndication throughout their entire run. The broadcast networks aired many action-adventure programs from the 1950s to the 1980s. By
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5824-561: A program is broadcast for the first time as a syndicated show. Often these programs are made specifically to sell directly into syndication and not made for any particular network. In off-network syndication, a program whose first airing was on network television (or, in some cases, first-run syndication) is licensed for local broadcast on individual stations. Reruns are usually found on stations affiliated with smaller networks like The CW or MyNetworkTV, especially since these networks broadcast one less hour of prime time network programming than
6006-443: A second-tier independent station in markets where a more established independent declined the affiliation (such as Denver , Phoenix and St. Louis ). Largely because of both these factors, Fox in a situation very similar to what DuMont had experienced four decades before had little choice but to affiliate with UHF stations in all except a few (mainly larger) markets where the network gained clearance. Then-Fox Inc. head Barry Diller
6188-597: A series of affiliation realignments between all four U.S. television networks involving individual stations and various broadcasting groups such as those between CBS and Group W (whose corporate parent later bought the network in August 1995), and ABC and the E. W. Scripps Company (which owned three Fox affiliates that switched to either ABC or NBC as a result of the New World deal) affecting 30 television markets between September 1994 and September 1996. The two deals also had
6370-414: A shoestring budget and was unable to keep the programs and stars it had. Most of the other startup networks that launched in later years (such as UPN and The WB ) followed Fox's model as well. Furthermore, DuMont operated during a time when the FCC did not require television manufacturers to include UHF capability. To see DuMont's UHF stations, most people had to buy an expensive converter . Even then,
6552-485: A simulcast of programming from its sister network Headline News (now HLN ) to broadcast stations later, as did its rival All News Channel , although both were used mainly to fill overnight time periods and were effectively discontinued in syndication when All News Channel folded in 2002 and HLN launched a "Headline Prime" talk show block in 2006. In 2019, NewsNet began offering a similar service to its affiliates. Entertainment Tonight began its long and continuing run as
6734-417: A strip on one of their stations in the morning, and the other available episode on another of their stations that night. Meanwhile, the popularity of some of the audience-participation talk shows continues to encourage new participants, some of whom, such as Morton Downey Jr. and Rosie O'Donnell , have brief periods of impressive ratings and influence; others, such as Oprah Winfrey and Maury Povich , have
6916-578: A sustained run. A notable scheduling decision was made by KRON-TV in San Francisco: a 2000 dispute with NBC led to that station's disaffiliation from that network after 52 years, and since all the other larger networks were already represented in San Francisco, KRON decided to become one of the largest commercial independent stations by market size on the VHF band in the U.S., and soon tried running Dr. Phil ,
7098-539: A three-way tie for 29th place in the Nielsen ratings, it became a breakout hit and was the first Fox series to break the Top 30. The Simpsons , at 35 years as of 2024, is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. In 1989, Fox also first introduced the documentary series Cops and crime-focused magazine program America's Most Wanted (the latter of which debuted as
7280-484: A time, made Fox Television Stations the largest owner of television stations in the U.S. (a title that has since been assumed by the Sinclair Broadcast Group , one of the network's largest affiliate groups). Fox completed its prime time expansion to all seven nights on January 19, 1993 , with the launch of two additional nights of programming on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (The method of gradually adding nights to
7462-520: A total run of 20 seasons dating back to the show's premiere in August 1999). Because game shows are very inexpensive to produce, with many episodes completed each day of production, successful ones are very profitable; for example, in 1988 Jeopardy! cost an estimated $ 5 million to produce but earned almost $ 50 million in revenue. New game show concepts (that is, not based on an existing or pre-existing format) are rarely tried and usually unsuccessful in syndication; somewhat of an exception to this
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7644-414: A weekly basis and are usually aired on weekends only. Big discussion occurred in the 1990s and 2000s about whether previously aired episodes of a show could become syndicated while new episodes of it continued to air on its original network. There had been much opposition to this idea and it was generally viewed to lead to the death of the show. However, licensing a program for syndication actually resulted in
7826-822: Is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by the Fox Entertainment division of Fox Corporation , headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan . Fox hosts additional offices at the Fox Network Center in Los Angeles and at the Fox Media Center in Tempe, Arizona . Launched as a competitor to the Big Three television networks ( ABC , CBS , and NBC ) in 1986, Fox went on to become
8008-825: Is called " barter ." In the United States (as a result of continued relaxation of station ownership regulations since the 1970s), syndicated programs are usually licensed to stations on a group level, with multiple stations owned and/or operated by the same broadcasting group carrying the program in different markets (except in areas where another station holds the market rights to the program) – making it increasingly more efficient for syndicators to gain widespread national clearances for their programs. Many syndicated programs are traditionally sold first to one of six "key" station groups ( ABC Owned Television Stations , NBC Owned Television Stations , CBS Television Stations , Fox Television Stations , Telemundo Station Group , and Televisa Univision ), allowing their programs to gain clearances in
8190-426: Is common in the United States where broadcast programming is scheduled by television networks with local independent affiliates . Syndication is less widespread in the rest of the world, as most countries have centralized networks or television stations without local affiliates. Shows can be syndicated internationally, although this is less common. Three common types of syndication are: first-run syndication, which
8372-488: Is named after the film studio that was originally called 20th Century Fox (the network's corporate sibling prior to that studio's acquisition by The Walt Disney Company ) and after the producer William Fox , who had founded one of the film studio's predecessors, Fox Film , before it was merged with 20th Century Pictures in 1935. Fox is a member of the North American Broadcasters Association and
8554-473: Is programming that is broadcast for the first time as a syndicated show and is made specifically for the purpose of selling it into syndication; Off-network syndication (colloquially called a " rerun "), which is the licensing of a program whose first airing was on stations inside the television network that produced it, or in some cases a program that was first-run syndicated, to other stations; and public broadcasting syndication. In first-run syndication,
8736-440: Is the most-watched program on U.S. television by seasonal average viewership in the 2000s decade, as well as the most recent program scheduled to have successfully established a graveyard slot on U.S. television since the end of NBC's Friends in 2004 and the subsequent decline of NBC's previously dominant " Must See TV " Thursday timeblock. By 2005, reality television succeeded sitcoms as the most popular form of entertainment in
8918-583: The "stripping" (or "strip") talk show, such as Donahue , Oprah , The Tyra Banks Show , and Jerry Springer . Strip programming is a technique used for scheduling television and radio programming to ensure consistency and coherency. Strip programming is used to deliver consistent content to targeted audiences. Broadcasters know or predict the times at which certain demographics will be listening to or watching their programs and play them at that time. As with game shows, talk shows are inexpensive to produce and very profitable if successful. They have
9100-456: The 1997–98 season , Fox had three shows in the Nielsen Top 20 (in terms of total viewers); The X-Files (which ranked 11th), King of the Hill (which ranked 15th) and The Simpsons (which ranked 18th), all of which aired on Sunday nights. Building around its flagship animated comedy The Simpsons , Fox would experience relative success with animated sitcoms in prime time, beginning with the debut of
9282-705: The 39th Primetime Emmy Awards and would air the next five editions. Although the network had modest successes in Married... with Children and The Tracy Ullman Show , several affiliates were disappointed with Fox's largely underperforming programming lineup during the network's first three years, KMSP-TV in Minneapolis and KPTV in Portland, Oregon , both owned at the time by Chris-Craft Television , disaffiliated from Fox in 1988 (with KITN (now WFTC ) and KPDX respectively replacing those stations as Fox affiliates), citing that
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#17328377136639464-457: The Big Four television networks and far less network-provided daytime television (none at all for these networks). A show usually enters off-network syndication when it has built up about four seasons' worth or between 80 and 100 episodes , though for some genres the number could be as low as 65. Successful shows in syndication can cover production costs and make a profit, even if the first run of
9646-881: The Fox Corporation , with the exceptions of the operations in Australia (which are part of Foxtel , majority-owned by Fox Corp. sister company News Corp Australia ), Mexico (owned by Grupo Multimedia Lauman), Argentina (owned by Mediapro but branding and contents are licensed to Fox Corporation ), and the rest of the Fox Sports International that were sold to The Walt Disney Company in Latin America, except Mexico and Argentina. [REDACTED] Media related to Fox Sports at Wikimedia Commons Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps )
9828-709: The Fox Television Stations group. With the sole exception of KDAF (which was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting in 1995, at which time it became an affiliate of The WB ), all of the original owned-and-operated stations ("O&Os") are still part of the Fox network today. Like the core O&O group, Fox's affiliate body initially consisted of independent stations (a few of which had maintained affiliations with ABC, NBC, CBS, or DuMont earlier in their existences). The local charter affiliate was, in most cases, that market's top-rated independent; however, Fox opted to affiliate with
10010-447: The GSN dating game show Baggage first aired in syndication as a test run in early 2011 on stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group , which preceded its full launch into other markets in fall 2012; although it was removed from syndication after one season. The 2014–15 season saw the introduction of Celebrity Name Game , hosted by former The Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson ;
10192-646: The Mike Judge -produced King of the Hill in 1997. Family Guy (the first of three adult-oriented animated series from Seth MacFarlane to air on the network) and Futurama (from Simpsons creator Matt Groening ) would make their debuts in 1999; however, they were canceled in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Due to strong DVD sales and highly rated cable reruns on Cartoon Network 's Adult Swim , Fox later decided to order new episodes of Family Guy , which began airing in 2005. Futurama would be revived with four direct-to-DVD films between 2007 and 2009 and would return as
10374-631: The National Association of Broadcasters . 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios ) had been involved in television production as early as the 1950s, producing several syndicated programs . Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network in August 1956, after it became mired in severe financial problems, the NTA Film Network was launched as a new "fourth network". 20th Century Fox would also produce original content for
10556-559: The Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN), moved into syndicated distribution when its network was displaced by WB/UPN-affiliated stations, and eventually ended its final season on TNT (1998). In 1997 Earth: Final Conflict , based on ideas from Gene Roddenberry , premiered in syndication. Three years later, a second Gene Roddenberry series, Andromeda also premiered in syndication. As emerging networks WB and UPN signed contracts with formerly-independent stations, and
10738-467: The Public Radio Exchange 's This American Life , which may contain stories produced by NPR journalists. When syndicating a show, the production company , or a distribution company called a syndicator, attempts to license the show to one station in each media market or area, or to a commonly owned station group, within the country and internationally. If successful, this can be lucrative, but
10920-437: The finale of American Idol in its original run on Fox after airing for fifteen seasons, ending an era of one of the most successful shows in U.S. television history. In February 2017, Fox broadcast Super Bowl LI , which attracted an average 111.3 million viewers—ranking among the top five most-watched Super Bowl games, and the second-highest audience in network history behind Super Bowl XLVIII. In March 2017, Rob Wade
11102-496: The longest streak at#1 for a prime time broadcast network series in U.S. television history, through its eight-year ratings domination in both the Adults 18–49 demographic and total viewership. Idol also remained in the Nielsen Top 10 for eleven years from 2003 to 2013 , and became the highest-rated non- sports prime time television program as well as the highest-rated reality series in the U.S. from 2003 to 2012. these records marked
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#173283771366311284-522: The second most-watched television broadcast (by average) in U.S. history, and the lead-out programs that followed this event – New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine . Later, in May 2014, Kevin Reilly announced that he would resign as chairman of Fox Entertainment. On July 15, 2014, then-corporate parent 21st Century Fox announced that it would merge the operations of the network and 20th Century Fox Television into
11466-483: The 1950s were MCA 's The Abbott and Costello Show (vaudeville-style comedy) and Guild Films ' Liberace (musical variety) and Life With Elizabeth , a domestic situation comedy that introduced Betty White to a national audience. In addition to the Adventures of Superman , many other series were based on comic strips and aimed at the juvenile audience, including Flash Gordon , Dick Tracy , Sheena, Queen of
11648-452: The 1950s, however, much of the theatrical product available consisted of low-budget secondary features (mainly Westerns) with relatively few notable stars. One syndication company, National Telefilm Associates , attempted to create a " NTA Film Network " of stations showing its lineup of first-run series, which included syndicated programs such as Police Call (1955), How to Marry a Millionaire (1957–1959), The Passerby , Man Without
11830-731: The 1980s caused the number of independent stations to grow from fewer than 100 in 1980 to 328 as of 1986 , as they did not need cash for programming. With the loosening of FCC regulations and the creation of new additional broadcast networks (such as The CW and MyNetworkTV ), most of these independents have joined one or another of these or smaller (religious or low-budget) networks. In other cases, like those of KCAL-TV in Los Angeles, KMCI-TV in Lawrence - Kansas City and WMLW-TV in Racine - Milwaukee , those independent stations are used to complement their network-affiliated sister station (respectively in
12012-401: The 2000s onward, reality competition shows in one form or another, such as Star Search and American Gladiators , enjoyed popularity in syndication as early as the mid-1980s. Since the now-defunct networks UPN and The WB began offering their affiliates additional nights of prime time programming in the late 1990s, there have been fewer first-run scripted series in syndication, at least, in
12194-453: The 2008–09 season before those reruns moved exclusively to cable. More new shows were added for the 2008–09 fall season, including a daytime run of Deal or No Deal (which featured certain elements that differed from the show's franchised format, most notably with prospective players instead of models holding briefcases that held the monetary amounts) and an adaptation of the popular board game Trivial Pursuit . While Deal caught on and
12376-687: The Clock and To Tell the Truth premiered in the late 1960s and found loyal audiences for many years. Several daytime network games began producing once-a-week nighttime versions for broadcast in the early evening hours, usually with bigger prizes and often featuring different hosts (emcees were limited to appearing on one network and one syndicated game simultaneously) and modified titles ( Match Game PM , The $ 100,000 Name That Tune or The $ 25,000 Pyramid , for example). A few independent game shows, such as Sports Challenge and Celebrity Bowling , also entered
12558-557: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s rules prohibiting a merger between any of the four major broadcast networks. As a result of the Disney/Fox deal, and with the merger of CBS and Viacom on December 4, 2019, Fox has become the only major U.S. broadcast network without attachment to any film studio . It was acknowledged that Fox had placed a larger emphasis on its sports programming in its first upfronts since
12740-540: The Fox network is a revival or at least a linear descendant of DuMont, since Metromedia was founded when DuMont spun off its two remaining owned-and-operated stations, WNEW-TV (then known as WABD) and WTTG, as DuMont Broadcasting (it later changed its name to Metropolitan Broadcasting before becoming Metromedia). Additionally, the former base of DuMont's operations, the DuMont Tele-Centre in Manhattan , eventually became
12922-598: The Jungle , and Joe Palooka . Original juvenile adventure series included Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion , Cowboy G-Men , and Ramar of the Jungle . Series based on literary properties included Sherlock Holmes , Long John Silver (based on Treasure Island ), and The Three Musketeers . Several of these were co-productions between U.S. and European (usually British) companies. Crusader Rabbit pioneered in
13104-473: The Middle , and Arrested Development . As the decade wore on, Fox began surpassing ABC and NBC in the ratings, first in age demographics, then in overall viewership, and placed second behind a resurgent CBS in total viewership, beginning in 2002 . Fox hit a major milestone in 2005 when it emerged as the most-watched U.S. broadcast network in the lucrative 18–49 demographic for the first time, largely boosted by
13286-485: The NTA network. The film network effort would fail after a few years, but 20th Century Fox continued to dabble in television through its production arm, TCF Television Productions, producing series (such as Perry Mason , Batman and M*A*S*H ) for the three major broadcast television networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS). The Fox network's foundations were laid in March 1985 through News Corporation 's $ 255 million purchase of
13468-520: The Nielsen-monitored audience. Forever Knight drew devoted "cult" audiences (3% rating). Psi Factor and Poltergeist: The Legacy attempted to draw on the audience for the Fox series The X-Files (as did the short-lived spinoff Baywatch Nights ). Among the other series were Relic Hunter , V.I.P. , High Tide , She Spies and Once a Thief . Babylon 5 began life in 1993 on
13650-541: The Night , Lauren Hutton 's innovatively shot Lauren Hutton and... , and talk shows hosted by Dennis Miller , Whoopi Goldberg , David Brenner and Keenen Ivory Wayans ; Magic Johnson 's The Magic Hour was seen as a massive flop, similar to Thicke of the Night . The popularity of syndicated talk shows fell dramatically in the mid-1990s as network and cable offerings expanded in the wake of Johnny Carson 's retirement. Long before their popularity on network television from
13832-470: The Seeker was canceled in 2009, until Trifecta Entertainment & Media (a company that mainly distributes programs for off-network syndication) began producing SAF3 (pronounced "safe") in 2013. During the late 1970s and 1980s, independent stations signed on in mid-sized and many small markets. The market for made-for-television cartoons grew as a result to include a branch for such stations. It usually had
14014-403: The U.S. as a result of Fox's rise with American Idol and NBC's network declines. House , which aired as American Idol ' s lead-out program on Tuesday nights, earned international prominence in the 21st century and became Fox's first prime time drama series (and the network's third program overall) to reach the Nielsen Top 10 beginning 2006 . Beginning 2004 , CBS and Fox, which ranked as
14196-406: The U.S.; much as with the closing of windows that provided opportunity for Ziv in the 1950s and various producers in the early 1970s. The more expensive dramatic projects are less attractive to syndicators (particularly when they might be sold, with somewhat less risk, to cable channels); "reality" series such as Cheaters and Maximum Exposure and several dating series began to be more common in
14378-602: The United States " (E/I) rule imposed in the late 1990s as part of an amendment to the Children's Television Act of 1990 that requires stations to air three hours of educational children's programs every week, regardless of the station's format. Syndication is generally a less expensive option for a local station than to attempt to produce its own locally originated E/I programming; not all networks provide their own E/I programs, so stations that are affiliated with networks that do not carry children's program blocks acquire E/I programs off
14560-563: The United States in the 1970s was probably The Muppet Show , also from Lew Grade's company. Animated series from the 1980s Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds and Around the World with Willy Fog came from Spanish animation production company BRB Internacional and their Japanese co-producers Nippon Animation . Game shows thrived in syndication during the decade. Nightly versions of What's My Line? , Truth or Consequences , Beat
14742-679: The United States include talk shows (e.g., The Dr. Oz Show , Dr. Phil , The Real , The Doctors , The Ellen DeGeneres Show & The Kelly Clarkson Show ); tabloid/newsmagazine shows (e.g., TMZ Live ); crime/law enforcement shows (e.g., Crime Watch Daily ); game shows (e.g., Hollywood Squares , Funny You Should Ask , Family Feud , Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune ); court shows (e.g., Judge Judy , Judge Mathis , Judge Jerry , Judge Faith , Protection Court , Hot Bench , America's Court with Judge Ross , and The People's Court ); and sitcoms (e.g., The First Family ). The emergence of barter syndication in
14924-527: The United States usually have a domestic market reach as high as 98%. Very often, series that are aired in syndication have reduced running times. For example, a standard American sitcom runs 22 minutes, but in syndication it may be reduced to 20 minutes to make room for more commercials. Syndication can take the form of either weekly or daily syndication. Game shows, some "tabloid" and entertainment news shows, and talk shows are broadcast daily on weekdays, while most other first-run syndicated shows are broadcast on
15106-601: The United States. Family Feud , created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman , ended its first syndication run in 1985. Three years later, a revival of the program featuring Ray Combs as host became a moderate hit and continued for seven seasons, its last year featuring the return of original host Richard Dawson in a failed attempt to save the series. A third revival hit the airwaves in 1999 and has gone through four hosts. The first three hosts ( Louie Anderson , Richard Karn and John O'Hurley ) struggled in their respective runs and only lasted three to four years. The current run of
15288-613: The advantage of offering programs intended to appeal toward a younger demographic – adults between 18 and 34 years of age – and that were edgier in content, whereas some programs that were carried by the "Big Three" networks attracted an older-skewing audience. Until the early 1990s, when Fox expanded its programming to additional nights and outside prime time, most Fox stations were still essentially formatted as independent stations – filling their schedules with mainly first-run and acquired programming, and, during prime time, running either syndicated programs or, more commonly, movies on nights when
15470-598: The affiliation moved from WCIX (channel 6) to NBC affiliate WSVN in January 1989 as the result of a complicated six-station affiliation swap in two South Florida markets spurred by NBC's purchase of CBS affiliate WTVJ (channel 4) and CBS's purchase of WCIX. WSVN immediately attracted industry notice for featuring a news-intensive tabloid format uncharacteristic of any Fox affiliate or independent station heretofore, with then-Fox network president Lucie Salhany calling WSVN "the future of television" in May 1994. WSVN remains
15652-540: The area of first-run animated series; followed by Bucky and Pepito , Colonel Bleep , Spunky and Tadpole , Q. T. Hush , and others. (All of these were five-minute shorts designed to be placed within locally hosted kiddie shows.) Syndicated sports programming included Championship Bowling and All-Star Golf , both produced by Chicago-based Walter Schwimmer Inc. In addition to regular series, syndicators also offered packages of feature films, cartoons, and short subjects originally made for movie theaters. Until late in
15834-534: The beginning of the 2010s, new comedies Raising Hope and New Girl gave Fox its first live-action comedy successes in years. The second season of Glee delivered that series' highest ratings during the 2010–11 season, with viewership peaking during its Super Bowl lead-out episode in February 2011 (marking the most expensive post-Super Bowl episode ever produced on U.S. television). The said show has continuously attracted worldwide media attention that it formed
16016-532: The brief commercial-television run of William F. Buckley Jr. 's interview/debate series Firing Line . The more obvious result was an increase in Canadian-produced syndicated dramatic series, such as Dusty's Trail and the Colgate -sponsored Dr. Simon Locke . Game shows, often evening editions of network afternoon series, flourished, and a few odd items such as Wild Kingdom , canceled by NBC in 1971, had
16198-445: The broadcast networks. In the 1980s, national broadcast networks only aired cartoons on Saturday mornings , not competing with the weekday and Sunday syndication blocks aired by local independent stations; however, by the 1990s, Fox and then The WB launched their own weekday afternoon children's program blocks. By the end of the 1990s, both syndication distributors and broadcast networks ended up losing most of their children's market to
16380-435: The careers of future movie stars Jim Carrey , Jamie Foxx , Damon Wayans , Marlon Wayans , Keenen Ivory Wayans , guest stars Chris Rock and Tim Meadows , and both members of the show's dance troupe, the "Fly Girls", Rosie Perez and Jennifer Lopez . The series also gained international prominence after Fox aired a special live episode in January 1992 as an alternative to the halftime show during Super Bowl XXVI , which
16562-450: The course of a single season, as well as Fox's fourth program overall (and the first since the 2013 finale of American Idol ) to enter the Nielsen Top 10 by the end of the 2014–15 season. The 2015–16 season marked a notable turnaround for Fox, as it jumped ahead of ABC to third place in nationwide ratings (both in overall viewership and in the 18–49 demo) and posted several firsts for the network and on U.S. television. Its improvement
16744-586: The dance-music show Soul Train , and 20th Century Fox 's That's Hollywood , a television variation on the popular That's Entertainment! theatrically released collections of film clips from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library. There were also many imported programs distributed this way. These include the documentary series Wild, Wild World of Animals (repackaged by Time Life with narration by William Conrad ) and Thames Television 's sober and necessarily grim The World at War . The Starlost (1973)
16926-569: The daytime and nighttime shows had diverged noticeably). The nighttime version of Family Feud (1977) quickly jumped from once-weekly to twice, and finally to five-day-a-week airings, and its massive popularity, along with that of new five-day-a-week entries like Jack Barry's The Joker's Wild (1977) and Tic-Tac-Dough (1978), the move of Match Game ' s daily run from CBS to syndication (1979), and Chuck Barris 's increasingly raunchy remakes of his 1960s hits The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game , brought an end (with rare exceptions) to
17108-538: The deal was announced, including the acquisitions of the NFL's Thursday Night Football package and rights to the FIFA World Cup . It was also noted that Fox had been increasingly pivoting towards programs that could generate large audiences, as opposed to ones that become successful primarily through critical acclaim. On June 27, 2018, WWE announced that SmackDown would move to Fox on Friday nights beginning October 4, 2019, following its run on USA Network , under
17290-439: The debut of MADtv on October 14, 1995; the sketch comedy series became a solid competitor to NBC's Saturday Night Live for over a decade and was the network's most successful late night program as well as one of its most successful Saturday night shows, running for 14 seasons until 2009. An attempt to make a larger effort to program Saturday nights by moving Married... with Children from its longtime Sunday slot and adding
17472-641: The debut of Fox News Channel in August 1996. Its sports operations expanded with the acquisition of controlling interests in several regional sports networks (including the Prime Network and SportsChannel ) between 1996 and 2000 to form Fox Sports Net (which launched in November 1996), its 2000 purchase of Speedvision (later Speed Channel, which was replaced in the United States by Fox Sports 1 in August 2013; however, it continues to exist in other North American and Caribbean countries as Fox Sports Racing ), and
17654-520: The debut of a revival of You Bet Your Life that reunited host Jay Leno and sidekick Kevin Eubanks from their time on The Tonight Show ; it ran two seasons, before Leno left during the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes . 2023 saw the debut of two new games, Person, Place or Thing and Who the Bleep Is That . The dominant form of first-run syndication in the U.S. for the last three decades has been
17836-458: The early 2000s. Some of the more low-key programs in this category were designed to appeal to children, such as Beakman's World , Disney's Sing Me A Story with Belle , Animal Rescue and Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures . They were able to get significant clearance because of stricter Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enforcement of rules on children's television programming. Several game shows are currently syndicated; historically,
18018-487: The end of that season. The Saturday schedule was revised in November 1996, to feature one new and one encore episode of Cops , and the revived America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back . Cops and AMW remained the anchors of Fox's Saturday lineup, making it the most stable night in American broadcast television for over 14 years; both shows eventually were among the few first-run programs remaining on Saturday evenings across
18200-589: The episodes) distributed to PBS stations by the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority . Also in 1971, CBS dropped Lassie and Hee Haw , the latter show's run ending as part of the network's cancellation of all of its rural-oriented shows (known then as " rural purge ", which also resulted in the cancellations of The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres ). Lassie entered first-run syndication for two years, while Hee Haw continued to produce new episodes until 1992. Throughout
18382-540: The era of once-a-week games. Also popular in first-run syndication and daytime was The Gong Show , hosted by Barris throughout most of its run ( Gary Owens hosted the first syndicated season). A number of half-hour musical-variety shows were also offered in the early 1970s, generally built around personable middle-of-the-road singers like Bobby Vinton , Bobby Goldsboro , Dolly Parton , and Andy Williams , or groups like Sha Na Na , The Johnny Mann Singers , and The Golddiggers . Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972)
18564-795: The failure of the DuMont Television Network —could serve. Some stations were not affiliated with any network, operating as independent stations . Both groups sought to supplement their locally produced programming with content that could be flexibly scheduled. The development of videotape and, much later, enhanced satellite down link access furthered these options. While most past first-run syndicated shows were shown only in syndication, some canceled network shows continued to be produced for first-run syndication or were revived for syndication several years after their original cancellation. Until about 1980, most syndicated series were distributed to stations either on 16mm film prints (off-network reruns, feature films, and cartoons) or videotape (topical series such as
18746-462: The final episodes airing in late May of that same year; it would later be revived by CNBC in 2018. 5th Grader and Don't Forget the Lyrics! were canceled the following year for the same reason (although 5th Grader would later be revived by Fox and Nickelodeon on two different occasions). Reruns of the popular Discovery Channel show Cash Cab began airing in syndication in January 2011. Reruns of
18928-509: The foresight to film The Cisco Kid in color, even though color TV was still in its infancy and most stations did not yet support the technology. Among the most widely seen Ziv offerings were Sea Hunt , I Led Three Lives , Highway Patrol and Ripcord . Some first-run syndicated series were picked up by networks in the 1950s and early 1960s, such as the Adventures of Superman and Mr. Ed . The networks began syndicating their reruns in
19110-519: The four major networks after decreasing prime time viewership – as more people opted to engage in leisure activities away from home rather than watch television on that night of the week led ABC, NBC and CBS to largely abandon first-run series on Saturdays (outside newsmagazines , sports and burned off prime time shows that failed on other nights) in favor of reruns and movies by the mid-2000s. America's Most Wanted ended its 22-year run on Fox in June 2011, and
19292-637: The game during the 1980s, several station groups like Media Central and Pappas Telecasting had avoided Fox when the network launched, but joined the network later on. The network had its " grand opening " when it expanded its programming into prime time on April 5, 1987, inaugurating its Sunday night lineup with the premieres of the sitcom Married... with Children and the sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show . The premieres of both series were rebroadcast twice following their initial airings (at 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 pm. Eastern/Pacific, respectively) that night, which Jamie Kellner , who served as
19474-411: The highest-rated U.S. television program overall starting with the 2003–04 season , becoming the first reality singing competition series in the country to reach first place in the seasonal ratings. American Idol remains the most recent U.S. television program to date to lead the national prime time ratings and attract at least 30 million viewers for multiple and consecutive television seasons. It
19656-439: The increased popularity for shows that remained in production. A prime example is Law & Order . As with radio in the U.S., television networks, particularly in their early years, did not offer a full day's worth of programming for their affiliates, even in the evening or "prime time" hours. In the early days of television, this was less of an issue, as there were in most markets fewer TV stations than there were networks (at
19838-416: The independent stations due to breaking news or sports commitments without the traditional inconvenience of a late night or weekend airing of the pre-empted show. A duopoly of a network-affiliated and independent station also allows a network station to move a low-rated syndicated program to their sister independent station to stem revenue losses. Off-network syndication occurs when a network television series
20020-489: The intent of the rule was to encourage local stations to produce their own programs for this time slot, budgetary limits instead prompted stations to buy syndicated programs to fill the slot. This, coupled with an increase in UHF independent stations , caused a boom in the syndication market. In the 1970s, first-run syndication continued to be an odd mix: cheaply produced, but not always poor quality, "filler" programming. These included
20202-526: The largest Fox affiliate in terms of market size to have entirely eschewed any prominent on-air branding with the network name. The NFC contract, in fact, was the impetus for the affiliation deal with New World and SF Broadcasting's purchase of the Burnham stations, as Fox sought to improve local coverage of its new NFL package by aligning the network with stations that had more established histories and advertiser value than its charter affiliates. The deals spurred
20384-454: The largest U.S. TV markets (such as New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia , where all six aforementioned groups each own stations), before striking deals with other major and smaller station owners. Shows airing in first-run syndication that are carried primarily by an owned-and-operated station of a network may sometimes be incorrectly referenced as a network program, especially if said network's syndication wing distributes
20566-446: The late 1950s, and first-run syndication shrank sharply for a decade. Some stalwart series continued, including Death Valley Days ; other ambitious projects were also to flourish, however briefly, such as The Play of the Week (1959–1961), produced by David Susskind (of the syndicated talk show Open End and also producer of such network fare as NYPD ). Among other syndicated series of
20748-451: The late 1970s, Westinghouse also found considerable success with The Mike Douglas Show , a variety/talk show hosted by a singer with an easygoing interview style, which aired in the afternoons in most markets; similar programs soon followed featuring Merv Griffin , who had been the host of CBS ' most sustained late-night answer to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson previously, and another network veteran, Dinah Shore . Also notable
20930-507: The late 1980s, however, increasing production costs made them less attractive to the networks. Studios found that reruns of one-hour dramas did not sell as well as sitcoms, so they were unable to fully recoup the shows' costs using the traditional deficit financing model. When NBC canceled the television series adaptation of Fame after only two seasons, the producers made special arrangements with LBS Communications , which resulted in MGM reviving
21112-515: The late 1990s included the quirky David E. Kelley -produced live-action dramedy Ally McBeal , the short-lived game show Greed , and the period comedy That '70s Show , the latter of which became Fox's second-longest-running live-action sitcom, airing for eight seasons. Throughout the 1990s and into the next decade, Fox launched a slate of cable channels beginning with the 1994 debuts of general entertainment network FX and movie channel FXM: Movies from Fox (now FX Movie Channel ), followed by
21294-466: The launches of Fox Sports World (later Fox Soccer , which was replaced by FXX in September 2013) and Fox Sports en Español (now Fox Deportes ) in the early 2000s. By 2000, many staple Fox shows of the 1990s had ended their runs. During the late 1990s and carrying over into the early 2000s, Fox put much of its efforts into producing reality shows many of which were considered to be sensationalistic and controversial in nature – such as Who Wants to Marry
21476-652: The lineup were far more scarce. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rulings in 1971 curtailed the U.S. networks' ability to schedule programming in what has become known as the " fringe time ", notably the 7–8 p.m. ( Eastern and Pacific Time ) hour of "prime time", with the stated hope that this might encourage more local programming of social and cultural relevance to communities (off-network syndicated repeats were also banned); some projects of this sort came to fruition, though these were usually relatively commercial and slick efforts such as Group W 's Evening/PM Magazine franchise, and such pre-existing national projects as
21658-402: The longest Nielsen ratings streaks of any Fox program in these categories. The 2012 season finale of American Idol marked the end of the season-long 25th anniversary of the establishment of Fox network, helping it win in the 18–49 demographic for the eighth consecutive season, the longest such streak according to Nielsen measurement records (and still standing as of 2024). However, Fox suffered
21840-482: The major networks in total viewership for the first time since 2001 . Subsequently, on January 13, 2014, Fox announced that it would abandon its use of the standard concept of greenlighting shows through the initial order of pilot episodes during the designated "pilot season" (running from January through April), instead opting to pick up shows directly to series. Fox scored renewed ratings successes with its February 2014 live telecast of Super Bowl XLVIII , which became
22022-454: The mentioned cases, KCBS-TV , KSHB-TV and WDJT-TV ) by allowing a duopoly control of more syndicated programming than would be possible on one station (and to spread it throughout the schedule of the two stations, often several times a day), or to air news programming in times unavailable on the larger network station, along with fulfilling network and syndicated programming commitments, which allows popular or network programming to be moved to
22204-662: The mid-to-late 1980s into the early 1990s, sitcoms continued to enter first-run syndication after being canceled by the networks, the most successful of which were Mama's Family and Charles in Charge . Other sitcoms during this time to enter first-run syndication after network cancellation included Silver Spoons , Punky Brewster , Webster , It's a Living , Too Close for Comfort , 9 to 5 , What's Happening!! , and WKRP in Cincinnati . Many of these sitcoms produced new shows in syndication mainly to have enough episodes for
22386-509: The most popular have been Wheel of Fortune and the current version of Jeopardy! , both created by television personality Merv Griffin , respectively premiering in 1983 and 1984. The shows have been No. 1 and No. 2 or No. 1 to No. 3 in the syndication ratings consistently since at least the late 1980s. In fact, according to the Guinness Book of World Records , Wheel is the most popular syndicated television program both within and outside
22568-409: The most successful attempt at a fourth television network . It was also the highest- rated free-to-air network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2012 and 2020 to 2021, and was the most-watched American television network in total viewership during the 2007–08 season . Fox and its affiliated companies operate many entertainment channels in international markets, but these do not necessarily air
22750-420: The most-watched television network overall in the United States, attributed to the strengths of Super Bowl XLII and its NFL game coverages, Idol and House during that season. To date, Fox is the only non-Big Three network to top the overall Nielsen ratings since its inception in the 1950–51 season . In the late 2000s, Fox launched a few series that proved to be powerful hits in different respects. In 2007,
22932-628: The nation's fourth major network. Fox Television Stations would acquire New World outright on July 17, 1996, in a $ 2.48 billion stock purchase, making the latter's twelve Fox affiliates owned-and-operated stations of the network; the deal was completed on January 22, 1997. Later, in August 2000, Fox bought several stations owned by Chris-Craft Industries and its subsidiaries BHC Communications and United Television for $ 5.5 billion (most of these stations were UPN affiliates, although its Minneapolis station KMSP-TV would rejoin Fox in September 2002 as an owned-and-operated station). These purchases, for
23114-416: The network began production on the game shows Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? and Don't Forget the Lyrics! ; both shows ran for a total of three seasons each, making them the longest-running game shows in Fox's history. In 2008, the supernatural mystery series Fringe debuted to moderate ratings but earned critical acclaim during its first season on Tuesdays. Throughout its run, the series developed
23296-423: The network did not provide programming. Few Fox stations carried local newscasts during the network's early years, unlike the owned-and-operated stations and affiliates of its established rivals. Those that did were mostly based in larger markets (including some of the network's O&Os) and retained newscasts that had aired for decades. Even then, these news operations were limited to one newscast per day, following
23478-689: The network planned to commission and acquire more series from "independent" studios not co-owned with the Big Three networks, explaining that the vertical integration of the major broadcast networks (including Fox itself) with associated studios had limited opportunities for outside studios, and cited several top programs that were distributed by third-parties, such as The Big Bang Theory and This Is Us (produced by Warner Bros. Television and 20th Television for CBS and NBC respectively). There were also plans for Fox to acquire new pitches directly from their writers, and offer them to outside producers. As part of
23660-592: The network rolled out its Saturday night schedule with the premiere of the supernatural drama series Werewolf , which began with a two-hour pilot movie event. Three other series were added to the Saturday lineup over the next three weeks: comedies The New Adventures of Beans Baxter , Karen's Song , and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (the latter being an adaptation of the film of the same name). Both Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills were canceled by
23842-399: The network's first successful American Idol lead-out since House , as well as the first American television program to consistently increase its episode-to-episode viewership during its first five weeks since the 1992 feat set by ABC's Roseanne . Empire ended its inaugural season as the first U.S. television show ever to increase its episodic viewership on a consistent basis throughout
24024-565: The network's longest-running drama, airing for ten seasons) after only a half-season of success on Sunday nights. The show performed well in its new Thursday slot, spending four seasons there and helping to launch Martin , another Fox comedy that became a hit when it debuted in August 1992. The Simpsons returned to Sunday nights in the fall of 1994, and has remained there ever since. The sketch comedy series In Living Color , which debuted in April 1990, created many memorable characters and launched
24206-418: The network's president and chief operating officer until his resignation in January 1993, stated would allow viewers to "sample FBC programming without missing 60 Minutes , Murder, She Wrote , or the 8 o'clock movies". Fox added one new show per week over the next several weeks, with the drama 21 Jump Street and comedies Mr. President and Duet completing its Sunday schedule. On July 11, 1987,
24388-449: The network's prime time lineup. On September 6, 1990, Fox reached an agreement with TCI (the nation's largest cable company at the time) in which TCI systems in markets that were not served by an over-the-air Fox affiliate at the time would become charter affiliates of a cable-only national feed of the network known as Foxnet . The cable-only network launched on June 6, 1991, bringing Fox programming to smaller markets that did not carry
24570-428: The network's weaker program offerings were hampering viewership of their stronger syndicated slate. At the start of the 1989–90 television season , Fox added a third night of programming, on Mondays. The season heralded the start of a turnaround for Fox. It saw the debut of a midseason replacement series, The Simpsons , an animated series that originated as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show . Ranked at
24752-531: The newly created Fox Television Group, with 20th Century Fox Television co-chairpersons Dana Walden and Gary Newman appointed to head the division. The 2014–15 season saw the series finale of Glee and debut of hits in the freshmen dramas Gotham (based on the Batman mythos) and the Lee Daniels -produced Empire . Ratings for Empire , in particular, increased week-to-week throughout its first season, becoming
24934-489: The official launch of FBC on April 5, 1987, under original Fox Entertainment President Garth Ancier, the network underwent a re-branding to the much shorter "Fox". According to an interview Ancier gave at that time, it was ad man Jay Chiat who suggested to network executives that, rather than create a brand from scratch, the network ought to use the "Fox" heritage of the previous 80 years and the "searchlight" iconography to link Fox Broadcasting to 20th Century Fox. Until late in
25116-502: The period as it centered on a dysfunctional lower-middle-class family, saw viewer interest substantially increase beginning in its third season after Michigan homemaker Terry Rakolta began a boycott to force Fox to cancel the series after objecting to risqué humor and sexual content featured in a 1989 episode . Married... ' s newfound success led it to become the network's longest-running live-action sitcom, airing for 11 seasons. Fox survived where DuMont and other attempts to start
25298-613: The present-day Fox Television Center. In October 1985, 20th Century Fox announced its intentions to form a fourth television network that would compete with ABC, CBS, and NBC. The plans were to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia stations to both produce and distribute programming. Organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. Then, in December 1985, Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay $ 325 million to acquire
25480-525: The program then began to be hosted by a succession of guest hosts. After that point, some stations that affiliated with FBC in the weeks before the April 1987 launch of its prime time lineup (such as WCGV-TV in Milwaukee and WDRB -TV in Louisville ) signed affiliation agreements with the network on the condition that they would not have to carry The Late Show due to the program's weak ratings. Shortly before
25662-601: The program, hosted by Steve Harvey , has been a major ratings success; on the week of June 12, 2015, for the first time ever, Family Feud was the highest-rated syndicated program in terms of average household ratings. While the current version of The Price Is Right (another Goodson-Todman game show) has enjoyed tremendous success on the CBS daytime schedule since its inception in 1972 under hosts Bob Barker and Drew Carey , it has also produced three spinoffs, two of which failed after one season. The most successful syndicated edition
25844-418: The program, regardless to its distribution to stations of varying network affiliations and despite the fact it is not part of an individual network's base schedule. Since the early 2000s, some programs being proposed for national distribution in first-run syndication have been test marketed on a selected number of or all stations owned by certain major station group, allowing the distributor to determine whether
26026-496: The programming schedule that began with the network's April 1987 prime time launch was replicated by The WB and UPN when those networks debuted in January 1995), making it the fifth broadcast network (behind the Dumont network) to air programming on a nightly basis. September 1993 saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived western series that incorporated science-fiction elements, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. However, it
26208-553: The remaining equity in TCF Holdings from his original partner, Marvin Davis . The purchase of the Metromedia stations was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March 1986; the call letters of the New York City and Dallas outlets were subsequently changed respectively to WNYW and KDAF . These first six stations, then broadcasting to a combined reach of 22% of the nation's households, became known as
26390-427: The rise of cable television channels aimed at that audience such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network , which provided appealing children's entertainment throughout the week at nearly all hours. Syndication remains a method of choice for distributing children's programming, although this has gradually shifted to only produce programs to satisfy the federally mandated " regulations on children's television programming in
26572-615: The same programming as the U.S. network. Most viewers in Canada have access to at least one U.S.-based Fox affiliate, either over the air or through a pay television provider, although Fox's National Football League broadcasts and most of its prime time programming are subject to simultaneous substitution regulations for pay television providers imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to protect rights held by domestically based networks. Fox
26754-420: The series for first-run syndication in the fall of 1983, where it continued for four more seasons, with the last first-run episode airing in the U.S. on May 18, 1987. Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in 1987, and became the most-watched syndicated show throughout its seven-year run. Its great success caused many others to debut. Friday the 13th: The Series (a horror series which shared its title with
26936-426: The series was renewed for a second season in January 2015, while Ferguson would also win a Daytime Emmy Award for Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for his work on the program. In January 2016, Fox owned-and-operated stations began a test run of South of Wilshire —a game show produced by TMZ. The 2017 summer season includes the game show iWitness created by TV judge Judith Sheindlin. 2021 saw
27118-525: The show was not profitable. This type of syndication has arisen in the U.S. as a parallel service to member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS ) and the handful of independent public broadcasting stations. This form of syndication more closely resembles the news agency model, where nominally competing networks share resources and rebroadcast each other's programs. For example, National Public Radio ( NPR ) stations commonly air
27300-438: The side benefit of increasing local news programming on the new Fox affiliates, mirroring the programming format adopted by WSVN upon that station's switch to the network (as well as expanding the number of news-producing stations in Fox's portfolio beyond mainly charter stations in certain large and mid-sized markets). With significant market share for the first time ever and the rights to the NFL, Fox firmly established itself as
27482-488: The signal quality was marginal at best compared to the signals of VHF stations (see also: UHF television broadcasting § UHF vs VHF ) . By the time Fox launched, cable allowed UHF stations to generally be on an equal footing with VHF stations. Although Fox was growing rapidly as a network and had established itself as a presence, it was still not considered a major competitor to the established "Big Three" broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. From its launch, Fox had
27664-597: The spin-off of certain businesses. The sale did not include the Fox Broadcasting Company and television stations or the Fox Sports, Fox News, and Fox Business cable channels, which were to be maintained under a company tentatively referred to as " New Fox ". Because Disney already owns the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the acquisition of the Fox network by Disney would have been illegal under
27846-496: The start of the 1987–88 television season , the network's first fall launch, and were replaced by the sitcoms Second Chance and Women in Prison . In regard to its late night lineup, Fox had already decided to cancel The Late Show , and had a replacement series in development, The Wilton North Report , when the former series began a ratings resurgence under its final guest host, comedian Arsenio Hall . Wilton North lasted just
28028-483: The strength of the reality singing competition series American Idol . Regarded as the single most dominant program on 21st-century U.S. television, as well as the first Fox show to lead the Nielsen seasonal ratings, American Idol had peak audiences of up to 38 million viewers during the 2003 season finale and double-season average audiences of around 31 million viewers in 2006 and 2007 . Subsequently, it leapfrogged over Fox's Big Three competition to become
28210-476: The strengths of American Idol , 24 , House , and The O.C . In September 2006, as a result of the increasing number of over-the-air Fox affiliates and the increased availability of digital subchannels carrying Fox in certain markets, Foxnet was discontinued. Then, a sweeping milestone came by the conclusion of the 2007–08 season on May 21, 2008, shortly after the widely acclaimed seventh-season finale of American Idol , when Fox outranked longtime leader CBS as
28392-685: The successful movie franchise) also debuted in 1987. The next syndicated shows that debuted in 1988 were War of the Worlds and Freddy's Nightmares . Baywatch , which debuted in 1989 on NBC and was canceled after one season also became one of the most watched syndicated shows throughout its ten-year-run, garnering a worldwide audience. By 1994, there were more than 20 one-hour syndicated shows. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Renegade were also syndicated. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spin-off series Xena: Warrior Princess were also popular, often tying Deep Space Nine at 5% to 6% of
28574-422: The syndicated versions of Price were 30 minutes long. A Hollywood Squares revival also thrived beginning in 1998 under host Tom Bergeron , running six seasons until its 2004 cancellation. By far the most successful entry into the market in the 2000s has been the daily version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire , which premiered in September 2002 and was canceled in May 2019 after 17 seasons in syndication (and
28756-543: The syndication market around this time. Of these shows, Let's Make a Deal and Hollywood Squares were the first to jump to twice-a-week syndicated versions, in about 1973. Another popular daytime show to have a weekly syndicated version was The Price Is Right , which began concurrently in weekly syndication and on CBS ; the syndicated "nighttime" version was hosted by Dennis James for its first five years, after which daytime host Bob Barker took over for another three years of weekly episodes (even though, by this point,
28938-562: The syndication market shrunk, Andromeda season 5 moved to the Syfy Channel (2004). There was not another first-run syndicated drama (or a first-run scripted series in syndication) until 2008, when Disney-ABC Domestic Television and ABC Studios teamed up with Sam Raimi to launch a new first-run syndicated series, Legend of the Seeker , based on Terry Goodkind 's Sword of Truth novel series. Another gap in first-run scripted series in syndication followed for four years after Legend of
29120-406: The syndication market to fulfill the requirements. Also in the 1980s, news programming of various sorts began to be offered widely to stations. Independent Network News , which was produced by WPIX in New York City, was a half-hour nightly program that ran from 1980 to 1990 on independent stations (in some markets, INN was paired with a locally produced primetime newscast); CNN would offer
29302-450: The syndicator may only be able to license the show in a small percentage of the markets. Syndication differs from licensing the show to a television network. Once a network picks up a show, it is usually guaranteed to run on most or all the network's affiliates on the same day of the week and at the same time (in a given time zone, in countries where this is a concern). Some production companies create their shows and license them to networks at
29484-414: The talk shows of Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin , and variety and quiz shows). Ziv Television Programs, after establishing itself as a major radio syndicator, was the first major first-run television syndicator, creating several long-lived series in the 1950s and selling them directly to regional sponsors, who in turn sold the shows to local stations. Ziv's first major TV hit was The Cisco Kid . Ziv had
29666-485: The time four), which meant that the stations that did exist affiliated with multiple networks and, when not airing network or local programs, typically sign-on and sign-off . The loosening of licensing restrictions, and the subsequent passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act , meant that by the early 1960s, the situation had reversed. There were now more stations than the networks—now down to three in number after
29848-444: The transition, Fox aimed to gradually reduce the amount of scripted programming development coming from 20th Television, although stalwarts such as The Simpsons would remain with the network. Broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It
30030-562: The two most-watched broadcast networks in the U.S. during the 2000s, have tended to equal one another in demographic ratings among general viewership, with both networks winning certain demographics by narrow margins; however, while Fox has the youngest-skewing viewer base, CBS is consistently regarded to have the oldest audience demographics among the major broadcast networks. Fox hit a milestone in February 2005 by scoring its first sweeps victory in total viewership and demographic ratings, boosted largely by its broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIX and
30212-429: The way for a second series two years later, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers . The following year, the two shows aired together under the umbrella block The Disney Afternoon . In the fall of 1990, Disney added another hour to The Disney Afternoon ; the block continued in syndication, running additional first-run animated series until 1999. These cartoons initially competed with the ones that were nationally televised on
30394-520: Was Street Smarts , which lasted from 2001 to 2006 (despite the series airing in late night slots in many markets). Between 2003 and 2007, no new game shows debuted in syndication, marking four consecutive seasons where no new shows with that genre debuted, a syndication first. That streak ended with the fall 2007 debuts of Temptation and Merv Griffin's Crosswords , bringing the daytime tally to six game shows; both ended production after one year, though Crosswords aired in reruns in some cities during
30576-603: Was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series attempting to ape the All in the Family -style sitcoms; Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (1969), an Australian children's series, or Gentle Ben (a decade later, the decidedly not-for-children Australian Prisoner: Cell Block H would have a brief U.S. syndicated run); and a Canadian sketch-comedy series began appearing on U.S. television stations in 1977— Second City Television , which would eventually find
30758-425: Was a late-night talk show , The Late Show , which was hosted by comedian Joan Rivers . After a strong start, The Late Show quickly eroded in the ratings; it was never able to overtake NBC stalwart The Tonight Show . By early 1987, Rivers (and her then-husband Edgar Rosenberg , the show's original executive producer) quit The Late Show after disagreements with the network over the show's creative direction,
30940-451: Was a Canadian series, apparently modified from the vision of science fiction writers Harlan Ellison and Ben Bova . Britain's ITC Entertainment , headed by Lew Grade , made UFO (1970) and Space: 1999 (1975). These two series were created by Gerry Anderson (and his associates), previously best known for Supermarionation (a combination of puppetry and animation) series such as Thunderbirds . The most successful syndicated show in
31122-541: Was acknowledged to have been the one who created the network, with the New York Times noting in October 1986 that Diller's "current obsession is creating a television network to compete each evening with NBC, CBS and ABC." The Fox Broadcasting Company, or "FBC" as it was known back then, officially debuted with a soft launch at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on Thursday, October 9, 1986. Its inaugural program
31304-626: Was also important for the nascent anime community in the United States, with imports like Speed Racer and Star Blazers (a localized edit of Space Battleship Yamato ) helping to grow interest in Japanese animation. This led to the establishment of companies dedicated to importing and translating anime such as Streamline Pictures and Viz Media towards the end of the 1980s. In 1987, The Walt Disney Company tried its luck at syndication; DuckTales premiered that September and would eventually last for 100 episodes. The success of DuckTales paved
31486-471: Was boosted by the transfer of the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants from NBC, as well as shows such as Grease: Live , Empire and the return of The X-Files after its most recent season ending in 2002. Grease: Live became the first live American television musical special of the 21st century to be broadcast in front of a live studio audience (as well as the first ever live musical special aired by
31668-485: Was broadcast on CBS, marking the start of Fox's rivalry with the "Big Three" networks while popularizing the counterprogramming strategy against the Super Bowl telecast. The early and mid-1990s saw the debuts of several soap opera-style prime time dramas aimed at younger audiences that became quick hits, which, in addition to Beverly Hills, 90210 , included its adult-focused spin-off Melrose Place (which initially had
31850-521: Was challenged by syndicated programming in the 1980s was with late-night talk shows ; The Arsenio Hall Show was the only very successful one (it would be canceled after five years in 1994 due to ratings declines spurred by many CBS affiliates pushing the show to later timeslots following the debut of the Late Show with David Letterman , and was later revived in 2013), but similar programs were attempted such as Alan Thicke 's earlier short-lived Thicke of
32032-629: Was named Fox's new president of alternative entertainment and specials Rob Wade; he had previously worked as a showrunner for Dancing with the Stars , as head of entertainment for BBC Worldwide , and as executive producer of America's Got Talent and The X Factor . On July 27, 2018, in a deal first announced December 2017, and completed March 20, 2019, 21st Century Fox shareholders agreed to sell most of its key assets (including 20th Century Fox , 20th Century Fox Television , and FX Networks ) to The Walt Disney Company for $ 71.3 billion, following
32214-644: Was part of the original transaction but was spun off to the Hearst Broadcasting subsidiary of the Hearst Communications in a separate, concurrent deal as part of a right of first refusal related to that station's 1982 sale to Metromedia. (Two years later, News Corporation acquired WXNE-TV in that market from the Christian Broadcasting Network and changed its call letters to WFXT .) Radio personality Clarke Ingram suggested that
32396-411: Was renewed for the 2009–2010 season, Trivial Pursuit: America Plays suffered low ratings throughout its run and was canceled. For the 2009–2010 season, the Fox game show Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? moved to syndication with a new, less expensive format. Don't Forget the Lyrics! followed for the 2010–2011 season. Deal , suffering from falling ratings, was canceled in February 2010, with
32578-410: Was subsequently picked up by Lifetime (before being cancelled for good in 2013); Cops , in turn, would move its first-run episodes to Spike in 2013 after 23 seasons (ending its original run on Fox as the network's longest-running prime time program) and had been cancelled in 2020, leaving sports and repeats of reality and drama series as the only programs airing on Fox on Saturday evenings. During
32760-438: Was the 1972–80 weekly version that was initially hosted by Dennis James , but in 1977, daytime host Bob Barker also hosted the nighttime version for the final three seasons. For the 1985–86 season, Tom Kennedy hosted a daily syndicated version, and in 1994–95, Doug Davidson emceed his own daily syndicated version, titled The New Price Is Right . Unlike the daytime series, which expanded to its current one-hour length in 1975,
32942-521: Was the growing success of audience-participation talk shows, particularly that of the innovator of the format, Phil Donahue . First-run syndication in the 1970s also made it possible for some shows that were no longer wanted by television networks to remain on the air. In 1971, ABC canceled The Lawrence Welk Show , which went on to produce new episodes in syndication for another 11 years, and currently continues to much success in weekend reruns (with new segments featuring Welk cast members inserted within
33124-483: Was the supernatural investigative drama that debuted immediately following it on Friday nights, The X-Files , that would find long-lasting success, and would become Fox's first series to crack Nielsen's year-end Top 20 most-watched network programs. After several other failed attempts at late night programming following the cancellation of The Late Show (most notably, the quick failure of The Chevy Chase Show in 1993), Fox finally found success in that time period with
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