Fox (television)

The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations and additional offices at the Fox Network Center in Los Angeles and the Fox Media Center in Tempe. Launched as a competitor to the Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) on October 9, 1986, Fox went on to become the most successful attempt at a fourth television network. It was the highest- rated free-to-air network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2012 and again in 2020, 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 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 is named after the film studio that was originally called 20th Century Fox, and (indirectly) after the producer William Fox, who had founded one of the film studio's predecessors, Fox Film, before it was merged with another company in 1935. After it was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's Australian conglomerate News Corporation, the hyphen between "Century" and "Fox" was removed. (In 2013, its corporate sibling was split off as a stand-alone entertainment conglomerate, known as 21st Century Fox, which was acquired in 2019 by The Walt Disney Company.) Fox is a member of the North American Broadcasters Association and the National Association of Broadcasters.

History

Origins

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 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).

1980s: Establishment of the network

Foundations

The Fox network's foundations were laid in March 1985 through News Corporation's $255 million purchase of 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, was part of the original transaction but was spun off to the Hearst Broadcasting subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation 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 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 the present-day Fox Television Center.

Beginning of the network

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 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 the Fox Television Stations group. With the sole exception of KDAF (which was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting in 1995, at which time it became a charter 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 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.

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 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, 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 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 legendary 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.

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 p.m. Eastern/Pacific, respectively) that night, which Jamie Kellner, who served as 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, 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 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 regards 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 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 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 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 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 30 years as of 2018, 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 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 broke ground from other family sitcoms of the period as it centered on a dysfunctional lower-middle-class family, whose patriarch often openly loathed his failures and being saddled with a wife and two children saw viewer interest substantially increase beginning in its third season after, in an ironic twist, Michigan homemaker Terry Rakolta lodged a boycott to force Fox to cancel the series after objecting to risque 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.

1990s: Rise into mainstream success and beginnings of rivalry with the Big Three

Fox survived where DuMont and other attempts to start 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 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 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 The WB, UPN and The CW) followed Fox's model as well. Furthermore, DuMont operated during a time when the FCC did not require television manufacturers to include UHF capability.McDowell, W
Remembering the DuMont Network: A Case Study Approach
College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, Southern Illinois University. Retrieved on December 28, 2006. In order to see DuMont's UHF stations, most people had to buy an expensive converter. Even then, the signal quality was marginal at best compared to the signals of VHF stations . 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 a mediocre ratings performance, before viewership rose significantly midway through its first season following Heather Locklear's addition to the cast) 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''.

Luring the NFL and affiliation switches

Despite having 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 away from CBS. In December 1993, Fox signed a contract with the NFL to televise games from the National Football Conference—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 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_

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