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The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American
broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by
Chris-Craft Industries Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly held American corporation that was traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. In 1962, the company adopted the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris ...
'
United Television BHC Communications, Inc. was the holding company for the broadcast property of Chris-Craft Industries. BHC stands for "broadcasting holding company". History The firm was originally incorporated in 1977 as BHC, Incorporated by Chris-Craft I ...
.
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
(through its
Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...
unit, which produced most of the network's series) turned it into a joint venture in 1996 after acquiring a 50% stake in the network, and subsequently purchased Chris-Craft's remaining stake in 2000. On December 31, 2005, UPN was spun off to CBS Corporation when Viacom split into two separate companies. CBS Corporation and Time Warner jointly announced on January 24, 2006, that the companies would shut down UPN and competitor The WB to launch a new joint venture network later that year. UPN ceased broadcasting on September 15, 2006, with The WB following two days later. Select programs from both networks moved to the new network, The CW (now parts of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global) when it launched on September 18, 2006.


History


1948–1993: Origins of the network

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
had played a pivotal role in the development of network television. It was a partner in the
DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
, and the Paramount Theaters chain, which was spun off from the corporate/studio parent, merged with
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
in a deal that helped cement that network's status as a major network. The Paramount Television Network was launched in 1948, but dissolved in the 1950s. In the wake of the successful Universal Studios '' ad hoc'' syndication package '' Operation Prime Time'', which first featured a
miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
adaptation of John Jakes' novel '' The Bastard'' and went on to air several more productions, Paramount had earlier contemplated its own television network with the
Paramount Television Service The Paramount Television Service (or PTVS for short and also known as Paramount Programming Service) was the name of a proposed but ultimately unrealized "fourth television network" from the U.S. film studio Paramount Pictures (then a unit of ...
. Set to launch in early 1978, it would have run its programming for only one night a week. Thirty "Movies of the Week" would have followed '' Star Trek: Phase II'' on Saturday nights. Plans for the new network were scrapped when sufficient advertising slots could not be sold, though Paramount would contribute some programs to ''Operation Prime Time'', such as the mini-series '' A Woman Called Golda'', and the weekly pop music program, '' Solid Gold''. ''Star Trek: Phase II'' was reworked as the theatrical film, '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', absorbing the costs already incurred from the aborted television series. Paramount, and its eventual parent
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
(which bought the studio's then-parent, Paramount Communications, in 1994), continued to consider launching their own television network.
Independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
s, even more than network affiliates, were feeling the growing pressure of audience erosion to cable television in the 1980s and 1990s; there were unaffiliated commercial television stations in most of the major television markets, even after the foundation of
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
in 1986. Meanwhile,
Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
, which had long been successful in syndication with repeats of ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'', launched several first-run syndicated series by the 1990s, including ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...
'', '' The Arsenio Hall Show'', '' Friday the 13th: The Series'', '' War of the Worlds'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', and ''
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (abbreviated as ''DS9'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller. The fourth series in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise, it originally aired in syndication from ...
''. In 1993, Time Warner and
Chris-Craft Industries Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly held American corporation that was traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. In 1962, the company adopted the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris ...
entered into a joint venture to distribute programs via a
prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
programming service, the Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). Chris-Craft later became a partner in UPN, and Time Warner launched The WB in a joint venture with the Tribune Company at roughly the same time.


1994–1999: Launch and early years

Paramount formed the Paramount Stations Group in 1991 when it purchased the assets of the TVX Broadcast Group, which owned several independent stations in major markets. This was not unlike the purchase of the Metromedia stations by News Corporation five years earlier, which were used as the nuclei for Fox. In another parallel,
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
(the News Corporation subsidiary behind the Fox network, which was spun off with the company's other entertainment assets to
21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...
in July 2013 before Disney acquired them in 2019), like Paramount, had long been a powerhouse in television syndication. All indicators suggested that Paramount was about to launch a network of its own. On October 27, 1993, Paramount and Chris-Craft announced the formation of a new television network, later to be named the United Paramount Network, with initial plans to run two hours of programming in prime time for two nights per week. The new network would be owned by
Chris-Craft Industries Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly held American corporation that was traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. In 1962, the company adopted the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris ...
, while most of its shows were to be produced by
Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...
. Initially, the network was to simply be called "U", but the "U Network" trademark was held by the now-defunct
National Association of College Broadcasters The National Association of College Broadcasters (NACB), was founded in 1988 by four undergraduate students at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Jumpstarted by a $300,000 grant from the now-defunct CBS Foundation, thanks to connections ...
(NACB), which had been operating a satellite television programming network featuring largely college student-produced programs since 1991. The founder and first head of UPN,
Lucie Salhany Lucille "Lucie" Salhany ( ar, لوسي صالحاني; born May 25, 1946) is an American media executive of Jordanian and Lebanese Heritage. Salhany was the first woman to head a broadcast television network in 1993 in the position as Chairwoman ...
, approached NACB with an offer of US$50,000 to transfer the name. Due to the costs related to rebranding the student network, and under the advice of its then-volunteer legal counsel, Cary Tepper, the non-profit association countered with a request of $100,000, which Salhany refused. At one point, the network was set to be titled the U/P Network before its current name was decided. Ultimately, the "U" in UPN stood for Chris-Craft subsidiary
United Television BHC Communications, Inc. was the holding company for the broadcast property of Chris-Craft Industries. BHC stands for "broadcasting holding company". History The firm was originally incorporated in 1977 as BHC, Incorporated by Chris-Craft I ...
, which owned the network's two largest stations, WWOR-TV in New York City and KCOP-TV in Los Angeles; the "P" represented Paramount Television, the studio that formed a programming partnership with Chris-Craft to create the network. Chris-Craft and Paramount/Viacom each owned independent stations in several large and mid-sized U.S. cities, and these stations formed the nuclei of the new network. Warner Bros. announced plans to launch a similar network, which would become known as The WB, in close proximity to UPN. The belief that a new broadcast network could grow to be competitive was predicated on the idea that the network in question would not have a fledgling rival to contend with. With the change in landscape, the joint understanding of assured defeat prompted executives from
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
(UPN's parent company) and Time Warner (now WarnerMedia, a subsidiary of AT&T) to discuss the prospect of merging the networks together. Both sides reached an agreement on the division of affiliates, but Chris-Craft expressed extreme skepticism and declined to proceed with the merger. A merger would ultimately come in 2006 with the creation of The CW. UPN launched on January 16, 1995, initially carrying programming only on Monday and Tuesday nights from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. The first telecast, the two-hour pilot episode of '' Star Trek: Voyager'', was an auspicious start, with 21.3 million viewers; however, ''Voyager'' would neither achieve such viewership levels again, nor would any of the series premiering on UPN's second night of broadcasting survive the season. In contrast, The WB debuted one week earlier, on January 11, with four series – only one of which, ''
Muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...
'', would not survive its first season. The first comedy series to premiere on UPN were '' Platypus Man'', starring Richard Jeni, and '' Pig Sty'', with both shows airing Monday nights in the 9:00 p.m. hour; both received mixed reviews, and neither lasted long. Other early UPN programs included the action series '' Nowhere Man'', starring Bruce Greenwood and ''
Marker The term Marker may refer to: Common uses * Marker (linguistics), a morpheme that indicates some grammatical function * Marker (telecommunications), a special-purpose computer * Boundary marker, an object that identifies a land boundary * Marke ...
'', starring Richard Grieco; the comic western '' Legend'' starring Richard Dean Anderson; the sci-fi themed action series, '' The Sentinel''; and ''
Moesha ''Moesha'' () is an American television sitcom that aired on UPN from January 23, 1996, to May 14, 2001. The series stars R&B singer Brandy Norwood as Moesha Denise Mitchell, an African-American teenager living with her upper middle class famil ...
'', a sitcom starring R&B musician
Brandy Norwood Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), better known by her mononym Brandy, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and model. She is known for her distinctive sound, characterized by her peculiar timbre, voice-layer ...
. Of the network's early offerings, only ''Star Trek: Voyager'', ''Moesha'' and ''The Sentinel'' would last longer than one season. As a result of the lack of viewership, UPN operated on a loss and had lost $800 million by 2000. Within nearly two years of the network's launch, on December 8, 1996, Paramount/Viacom purchased a 50% stake in UPN from Chris-Craft for approximately $160 million. Like Fox had done nine years earlier, UPN started with a few nights of programming each week, with additional nights of primetime shows gradually being added over the course of several seasons. Because of this, UPN's affiliates were basically independent stations for all intents and purposes during the network's early years, with these stations airing either syndicated programs or movies during primetime on nights when the network did not provide programming. The first expansion of its primetime lineup came with the addition of programming on Wednesday nights on March 6, 1996 (during the second half of the 1995–96 season); that expansion also saw UPN assume the broadcast rights to the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, which aired its inaugural broadcast on CBS the year before. UPN ordered 36 sci-fi films to air as part of its weekly movie presentations beginning in 1998; the films were supplied by four production companies, with most of the titles coming from Paramount. Some titles would be shown on
Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
first, which allowed the premium cable channel to cooperate in advertising the movies. UPN completed its prime time expansion in the 1998–99 season, with Thursdays and Fridays as the last nights of programming to be added to the network's evening slate. That season saw the debut of ''
The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer ''The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer'' ( ) is an American sitcom that aired on UPN from October 5 to October 26, 1998. Before it was even debuted, the series set off a storm of controversy because of a perceived light-hearted take on the issue ...
'', a sitcom set during the Civil War that centered on a black English nobleman who becomes the valet to Abraham Lincoln; even before its premiere, the series was riddled by controversy and protests from several African American activist groups (including the Los Angeles chapter of the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
, who picketed outside Paramount Studios one week before the originally scheduled
pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...
) and some advertisers for its perceived lighthearted take on American slavery in the 19th century, protested against the premise of the series. Despite what publicity ''Desmond'' received from its controversial topicality, the series suffered from low ratings (with the first episode on October 5, 1998, placing 116th out of 125 programs aired that week on network television) and was canceled after four episodes.


1999–2004: Viacom era and decline

Six months after the company announced its $36 billion merger with (the original) CBS Corporation, in March 1999, Viacom applied a contractual clause that would – within a 45-day grace period – force Chris-Craft to either buy Viacom out of UPN, or have the former sell its ownership stake in the network to Viacom. Three days later on February 8, Chris-Craft subsequently filed a lawsuit against Viacom in the
New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
to block the latter's merger with CBS, claiming that a pact signed between the two partners in 1997 had prevented either from owning "any interest, financial or otherwise" in "any competing network," including CBS, for a four-year period through January 2001. On March 17, New York Supreme Court judge Herman Cahn ruled against Chris-Craft's move for a permanent
injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
to curtail the Viacom-CBS merger and the enforcement of Viacom's ultimatum. Unable to find a suitable partner, on March 20, Chris-Craft allowed Viacom to buy out its 50% stake for $5 million, giving Viacom full control of the network. This gave UPN the rare distinction of being one of the only broadcast networks to not have had
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
s (O&O) in the three largest media markets, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago (with The WB – the only network that never have had an O&O – being the only other, as minority owner Tribune Broadcasting owned most of its charter affiliates including those in
all All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All al ...
three
markets Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: * Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand * Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, a ...
, while majority owner Time Warner only owned
WTBS-TV WPCH-TV (channel 17), branded on-air as Peachtree TV, is an independent television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is owned by locally based Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate and company flagship WANF (channel 46), and ...
, an independent station that originated then-
superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a terrestrial television, br ...
TBS). With Viacom taking full ownership control of UPN, KCOP-TV and WWOR-TV lost their statuses as O&Os and automatically became affiliates of the network, with the network's '' de facto'' owned-and-operated flagship stations becoming Philadelphia outlet WPSG (now the ''de facto'' East Coast flagship station of The CW) and San Francisco outlet KBHK (now KBCW-TV, the ''de facto'' West Coast flagship station of The CW). In addition, neither Chris-Craft or Viacom had ever held ownership of Chicago affiliate WPWR-TV, which had been the largest UPN station that was not owned-and-operated by the network before the Viacom buyout. Shortly afterward, Viacom shortened the network's official name from the "United Paramount Network" to the three-letter initialism, "UPN". Viacom also proposed a rebranding of UPN into the "Paramount Network", using a prototype logo based on Paramount's mountain logo, which served as the basis for the "P" triangle in the network's original logo that was used until September 2002. This idea was abandoned after many affiliates protested, citing that the rebranding might confuse viewers and result in ratings declines, alongside the costs of rebranding their stations with a new image and new network (and possible call sign changes). Several years later, cable television network Spike (part of Viacom) re-branded as Paramount Network. Viacom's purchase of CBS a few months before (which resulted in the merger of that network's owned-and-operated stations into Viacom's Paramount Stations Group unit), created duopolies between CBS and UPN stations in Philadelphia (
KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel 57 ...
and WPSG), Boston ( WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV), Miami (
WFOR-TV WFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WBFS-TV (channel 3 ...
and
WBFS-TV WBFS-TV (channel 33) is an independent television station in Miami, Florida, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WFOR-TV (channel 4). Both stations share studios on Northwest 18t ...
), Dallas–Fort Worth ( KTVT and
KTXA KTXA (channel 21) is an independent television station in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside Fort Worth–based CBS station KTVT (channel 11). Bo ...
), Detroit ( WWJ-TV and WKBD-TV), and Pittsburgh ( KDKA-TV and WNPA). Viacom's purchase of CBS was said to be the "death knell" for the Federal Communications Commission's longtime ban on television station duopolies. Further transactions added San Francisco (
KPIX-TV KPIX-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW ...
and KBHK, the latter of which was traded to Viacom/CBS by Fox Television Stations) and Sacramento ( KOVR and KMAX-TV, the former of which was sold to Viacom/CBS by the Sinclair Broadcast Group) to the mix. At the time of UPN's launch, the network's '' de jure''
flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalt ...
s were Chris-Craft-owned WWOR-TV in
Secaucus, New Jersey Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,Los Angeles (which serves the Los Angeles market). Even after Chris-Craft sold its share in the network to Viacom, WWOR and KCOP were still commonly regarded as the ''de jure'' flagship stations of the network since it had long been common practice for this status to be associated with a network's station in the East Coast and West Coast. For this reason, some doubt was cast on UPN's future after Fox Television Stations bought most of Chris-Craft's television stations for $5.5 billion on August 12, 2000, which included several UPN affiliates (including WWOR and KCOP). Fox later bought the third-largest UPN affiliate, Chicago's WPWR-TV, through a separate deal with Newsweb Corporation for $450 million in June 2002. Despite the uncertainty of the network's future following the Fox purchases, UPN reached four-year affiliation agreements with Fox Television Stations' nine UPN affiliates on September 24, 2003. In 2001, UPN entered into a public bidding war to acquire two series from The WB – ''
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...
'' and '' Roswell'' – from producing studio
20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...
. UPN eventually outbid The WB for the shows and aired them together on Tuesday nights until ''Roswell'' ended its run in 2002; ''Buffy'' ended its run the following year. In January 2002, Viacom President and COO, Mel Karmazin restructured the network, resulting in UPN being taken out of the ownership of
Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...
, and being placed under the oversight of CBS Television, with CBS President Leslie Moonves being given responsibility for the network. Under CBS, new shows began to breathe life into the network starting in Fall 2003 with '' America's Next Top Model'' and sitcom '' All of Us'' (which was produced by
Will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...
and Jada Pinkett Smith), followed up by the Fall 2004 premiere of the mystery series '' Veronica Mars'' and the Fall 2005 premiere of the
Chris Rock Christopher Julius Rock (born February 7, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and filmmaker. Known for his work in comic film, television and stage, he has received multiple accolades, including three Grammy Awards for best come ...
-produced and narrated sitcom '' Everybody Hates Chris''.


2005–2006: CBS era and network closure

On June 14, 2005, Viacom announced that it would be split into two companies due to declining performance of the company's stock; both the original Viacom – which was renamed CBS Corporation – and a new company that took the
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
name would be controlled by the original Viacom's parent
National Amusements National Amusements, Inc. is an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts. It is the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global. History The ...
(controlled by Sumner Redstone), which also controlled the new CBS Corporation. UPN became part of CBS Corporation, while the new Viacom kept Paramount Pictures among other holdings each company acquired in the deal. The split took effect on December 31, 2005. On January 24, 2006, UPN parent CBS Corporation and Time Warner, the majority owner of The WB, announced that they would shut down the two respective networks and launch a new broadcast network that would be operated as a joint venture between both companies, The CW, which incorporated UPN and The WB's higher-rated programs with newer series produced exclusively for The CW. The new network immediately signed 10-year affiliation agreements with 16 stations affiliated with The WB (out of 19 stations that were affiliated with the network) that were owned by that network's part-owner, the Tribune Company – including stations in the coveted markets of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago – and 11 UPN stations that were owned by CBS Corporation. Fox Television Stations' nine UPN affiliates were passed over for affiliations as a result, and two days later, those stations removed all UPN branding from those stations and ceased promotion of the network's programs. One month later on February 22, Fox announced the formation of MyNetworkTV, a new network that would also launch in September 2006 that would use the company's soon-to-be former UPN affiliates as the nuclei. Over the next eight months, determinations were made as to which shows from the two networks would cross over to The CW, as well as which of UPN and The WB's affiliate stations would be selected to become affiliates of the new network. Programming-wise, six UPN shows – ''America's Next Top Model'' (which was the last surviving series from UPN that remained on The CW's schedule until it moved to
VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...
in 2016), ''Veronica Mars'', ''Everybody Hates Chris'', '' Girlfriends'', ''All of Us'', and ''
WWE SmackDown! ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes simulc ...
'' – were chosen to move to The CW for its inaugural 2006–07 fall schedule. With the exception of ''WWE SmackDown!'', all of the programs that aired during the network's final three months were reruns. Unlike The WB, which closed its operations two days later with ''
The Night of Favorites and Farewells The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...
'' (a special night of programming paying tribute to the network's most popular series), UPN closed with little to no fanfare on September 15, 2006, fading to black after that night's ''WWE SmackDown!.'' The Fox-owned UPN stations had disaffiliated from the network on August 31; as a result, UPN's last two weeks of programming did not air in 10 markets where Fox owned a UPN affiliate that was set to become an owned-and-operated station of MyNetworkTV, when that network launched on September 5, alongside other markets where the local UPN station affiliated with MyNetworkTV or terminated their UPN affiliation during the summer. Shortly after the network's closure, UPN's website was redirected to The CW's website, and then to CBS's website.


Programming

At the time of its shutdown, UPN ran only two hours of primetime network programming on Monday through Fridays from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET (compared to the three primetime hours on Monday through Saturdays and four hours on Sundays offered by the Big Three networks, ABC, NBC and CBS). UPN never carried any weekend primetime programming throughout the network's run (though it did offer children's programming on weekend mornings until 2003, and a movie package to its affiliates on weekend afternoons until 2000, when the latter was replaced with a two-hour repeat block of UPN programs); as a result, affiliates held the responsibility of programming their Saturday and Sunday evening schedules with syndicated programs, sports, movies or network programs that were preempted from earlier in the week due to special programming, in the 8:00–10:00 p.m. ( Eastern and Pacific Time) time period. This primetime scheduling allowed for many of the network's affiliates to air local newscasts during the 10:00–11:00 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific Time) time period. Most of UPN's programming through the years was produced by
Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...
or a Viacom-owned sister company ( Viacom Productions,
Big Ticket Television Big Ticket Television, Inc. (also known as Big Ticket Entertainment and Big Ticket Pictures) is an Emmy Award-winning American production company. Big Ticket is a subsidiary of CBS Studios (formerly CBS Paramount Television and CBS Television Stu ...
, Spelling Television or
CBS Productions CBS Productions, Inc. was a production arm of the CBS television network (an initialism of Columbia Broadcasting System, along with its parent company CBS Television Studios, Inc.; the radio network was founded in 1927), now a part of Paramount Gl ...
). UPN's first official program was '' Star Trek: Voyager'', with the first comedy shows to debut being two short-lived series: the Richard Jeni starring vehicle ''Platypus Man'' and ''Pig Sty''. Other notable UPN programs during the network's existence included '' The Sentinel'', ''
Moesha ''Moesha'' () is an American television sitcom that aired on UPN from January 23, 1996, to May 14, 2001. The series stars R&B singer Brandy Norwood as Moesha Denise Mitchell, an African-American teenager living with her upper middle class famil ...
'', '' Star Trek: Enterprise'', '' WWE SmackDown'', '' America's Next Top Model'', '' Girlfriends'', the ''Moesha'' spin-off '' The Parkers'', '' Veronica Mars'', '' Everybody Hates Chris'', and the animated adaptation of '' Dilbert''. In Summer 2005, UPN aired ''
R U the Girl ''R U the Girl'' (also known as ''R U the Girl with T-Boz and Chilli'') is an American reality television music competition series that aired on UPN in 2005. The series featured Tionne Watkins, Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda Thomas, Rozonda "Ch ...
'', in which R&B group
TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an As ...
(not with Left Eye) searched for a woman to join them on a new song. The network also produced some special programs, including 2001's ''
Iron Chef USA is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, was a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle bui ...
''. Much of UPN's comedy programming between 1996 and 2006 (particularly those that aired as part of the network's Monday evening lineup) was largely aimed at African American audiences, with minor exceptions in shows such as '' Clueless'', ''Realitycheck'' and '' Head Over Heels''. UPN occasionally acquired series canceled by the other broadcast networks, including former WB series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ''Roswell'' (both of which moved to UPN in 2001, ''Buffy'' was picked up after The WB chose not to renew it due to issues with license fees while ''Roswell'' joined UPN after that same network also canceled the series), and former ABC series '' Clueless'' and '' The Hughleys''. The first program that UPN acquired from another network was '' In the House'', which moved to the network from NBC (which canceled the
LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, along ...
sitcom after its second season) in 1996. In its later years, as part of the network's desire to maintain its own identity with its own unique shows, UPN instituted a policy of "not picking up other networks' scraps", which was a strong argument when fan pressure was generated in 2004 for them to pick up '' Angel'', the
spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...
of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' which had been dropped from The WB. UPN aired only one regular sports event program: the much-hyped
XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...
in 2001, airing Sunday evening games as part of a package from co-creator and WWE founder Vince McMahon, which also included what was then ''
WWF SmackDown! ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET on Fox Br ...
'', and the only time the network carried programming officially outside of weeknights. UPN had planned to air a second season of the XFL in 2002, but it also demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be reduced by 30 minutes; McMahon did not agree to the change and the football league folded not long afterward.


News programming

Like Fox and The WB, UPN never aired national morning or evening newscasts; however, several of its affiliates and owned-and-operated stations did produce their own local news programs. Several UPN affiliates ran a local newscast in the 10:00–11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific (9:00–10:00 p.m. Central and Mountain Time) timeslot at some point during or throughout their affiliations with the network; there were also a few stations that produced a weekday morning newscast, although early evening newscasts were largely absent on most of these stations. The UPN affiliate body had fewer news-producing stations in comparison to stations aligned with the Big Three television networks (NBC, ABC and CBS) and considerably fewer than Fox and especially The WB. In several markets, the local UPN affiliate either outsourced news programming to an NBC, ABC or CBS station in the market (either due to insufficient funds or studio space for production of their own newscasts, or in later years after the FCC permitted duopolies in markets with at least eight unique station owners in 2000, the station being operated through a legal duopoly or management agreement with a major network affiliate); other affiliates opted to carry syndicated programming in the hour following UPN's primetime programming lineup. For example, one of the largest O&O UPN affiliates in the country, WPWR-TV, never aired news programming in its 11-year run. This is mainly due to Viacom and Chris Craft's non-affiliation with the Chicago station. When the network launched in January 1995, UPN automatically added six affiliates with functioning news departments through Chris-Craft/United Television and Viacom's respective affiliation deals with the network, all of those stations started their news operations as either independent stations or during prior affiliations with other networks: WWOR-TV/Secaucus, New Jersey (New York City), KCOP-TV/Los Angeles, WKBD-TV/ Detroit, KPTV/ Portland, Oregon, KMSP-TV/ Minneapolis and WTOG/ Tampa, Florida. Two more stations would join them later on: KSTW/ Seattle, also owned by Viacom at the time, after it affiliated with UPN in 1997 through the reversal of a 1995 affiliation switch with CBS affiliate
KIRO-TV KIRO-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with CBS and Telemundo. Owned by Cox Media Group, the station maintains studios on Third Avenue in the Belltown section of Downtown Seattle, and its ...
(which also kept its news department as a UPN affiliate), and KMAX-TV/Sacramento, which joined UPN after being acquired by Viacom in 1998 and began producing newscasts shortly after its 1995 affiliation with The WB. KSTW and WTOG's news departments were shut down in 1998 due to cost-cutting measures mandated by Viacom; newscasts would briefly return to KSTW via a news sharing agreement with KIRO-TV between 2003 and 2005. Not all of UPN's news-producing stations were owned by the two companies that formed the nuclei of the network's affiliate group; WUAB/ Cleveland, which started its news department in 1988, also continued its 10:00 p.m. newscast as a UPN affiliate (it would begin producing newscasts for sister station WOIO-TV in February 1995, after that station became a CBS affiliate; though WOIO eventually took over production of the newscast by 2002). Harrisburg affiliate WLYH-TV briefly continued its newscasts after switching to UPN from CBS in 1995, until WHP-TV began operating the station under a
local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
that fall. WFTC/Minneapolis continued to produce a late evening newscast after Fox Television Stations (which acquired KMSP-TV through the Chris-Craft purchase, and converted it into a Fox O&O) acquired the station from
Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
and switched the station to UPN – it was moved to 10:00 p.m. to avoid competing with KMSP's 9:00 p.m. newscast until the WFTC newscast was canceled in June 2006. With the exception of KPTV and KMSP, both of which are now Fox stations, none of the former UPN affiliates that produced newscasts during their affiliation with the network continue to maintain an independent news department – despite license requirements imposed by the station's 1983 transfer of its license to Secaucus, New Jersey from New York City to cover New Jersey issues, WWOR-TV, which continued to produce news programming after coming under common ownership with Fox O&O WNYW, shut down its news department in July 2013 and replaced its lone 10:00 p.m. newscast with an outside produced program called ''Chasing New Jersey'', a move that resulted in calls by state politicians for the FCC to revoke Fox's license to operate the station. KTTV took over production of sister station KCOP's newscasts in 2007, before discontinuing news programming on that station in 2013. KMAX's news department has since been merged with that of KOVR although it still produces a morning newscast separate from that station. WKBD shut down its news department (which was later shared with WWJ-TV) in December 2002, with its 10:00 p.m. newscast continuing to be produced by ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV until its eventual cancellation in 2005.


Children's programming

When the network launched in January 1995, UPN introduced a weekend morning cartoon block called ''
UPN Kids ''UPN Kids'' was an American children's programming block that aired on UPN from September 10, 1995 to September 5, 1999. Airing on Sunday mornings, the block aired for one hour (10:00 to 11:00am), then two hours the following year (9:00 to 11: ...
'' (later called "The UPN Kids Action Zone" during the 1998–99 season). In 1997, UPN added two teen-oriented series to the lineup with reruns of the syndicated '' Sweet Valley High'' (based on the young adult book series by Francine Pascal) and a new series, '' Breaker High'' (which co-starred a then-unknown
Ryan Gosling Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. Prominent in independent film, he has also worked in blockbuster films of varying genres, and has accrued a worldwide box office gross of over 1.9 billion USD. He has received ...
); both shows filled the weekday morning block for the 1997–98 season, while they were also included alongside the animated series on Sunday mornings. Unlike other networks, UPN gave its affiliates the option of running its weekend children's program block on either Saturdays or Sundays. In January 1998, the network entered into a deal with Saban Entertainment to program the Sunday morning block (with shows such as '' The Incredible Hulk'', '' X-Men'' and ''
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
'' joining the lineup). There were rumors that UPN then entered into discussions with then-corporate sister Nickelodeon (both networks were owned by
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
) to produce a new block. In 1999, UPN contracted the rights to the network's children's programming lineup to The Walt Disney Company; as a result, the teen-oriented and animated series were replaced with a new block called ''
Disney's One Too Disney's One Too (later known as Disney's Animation Weekdays) was an American two-hour Sunday-to-Friday children's programming block that aired on UPN (and sometimes in syndication) from September 6, 1999 to August 31, 2003. A spin-off of the ''Di ...
'', which debuted on September 6, 1999, and featured select programs seen on ABC's '' Disney's One Saturday Morning'' lineup (such as '' Recess'' and '' Sabrina: The Animated Series''). Many UPN affiliates at the network's launch were already airing The Disney Afternoon, a block supplied by Disney-owned syndication distributor Buena Vista Television; however, that block would be discontinued in August 1997. The addition of ''Disney's One Too'' expanded UPN's children's program block back to two hours, running on Sunday mornings and weekday afternoons. In September 2002, '' Digimon: Digital Monsters'' moved to UPN from
Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's block programming, programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channel ...
, due to Disney's acquisition of Fox's children's program inventory as well as the Fox Family Channel, which was renamed
ABC Family The American cable television, cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and s ...
(now Freeform) the past year. At the same time, the "One Too" branding was dropped from on-air usage due to the rebranding of ABC's Saturday morning lineup from ''One Saturday Morning'' to ''ABC Kids'' (although the block was unofficially referred to as ''Disney's Animation Weekdays'' outside the network). UPN subsequently chose not to renew its contract with Disney, with the network dropping all children's programming after August 31, 2003. This left UPN as one of only two major broadcast networks that did not air a children's programming block, the other being Pax TV, which discontinued its ''Pax Kids'' lineup in 2000, before returning children's programming as Ion Television through the 2006 launch of Qubo (as a 24/7 network, it was pulled off the air in 2021). Incidentally, UPN's successor The CW carried over the Kids' WB Saturday morning lineup from fellow predecessor The WB, resulting in UPN affiliates that joined The CW in September 2006 carrying network-supplied children's programming for the first time since the ''One Too'' block ended. Some Fox stations that declined to carry
4Kids TV 4Kids TV (often stylized as 4K!DSTV and formerly known as FoxBox from September 14, 2002 to January 15, 2005) was an American block programming, television programming block and Internet-based video on demand children's network operated by 4Kid ...
passed on that block to an affiliate of UPN or The WB, or an
independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
, in order for the Fox affiliate to air general entertainment programming or local newscasts on Saturday mornings (for example, WFLD in Chicago moved the 4Kids TV schedule to co-owned then-UPN affiliate WPWR-TV, while WFLD aired infomercials).


Television films

During the late 1990s, UPN produced a number of television films under the umbrella brand ''Blockbuster Shockwave Cinema'', in conjunction with sponsor (and then-sister company)
Blockbuster Video Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to: * Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived. Corporations * Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain ** Blo ...
, almost all of which were
sci-fi film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...
s. From UPN's inception until 2000, the network also offered a hosted movie series called the ''UPN Movie Trailer'' to its stations. The weekend block featured mostly older theatrically released action and comedy films, often those from the
Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
film library. The ''Movie Trailer'' block was discontinued in 2000 to give stations that opted for them room for a two-hour block of select UPN series that aired in primetime during the past week. There were also three Paramount-branded blocks that aired on Viacom's UPN owned-and-operated stations between 1995 and 2000: the ''Paramount Teleplex'' as the main brand for movies at any given timeslot, the ''Paramount Prime Movie'' for primetime features, and the ''Paramount Late Movie'' for films airing in late night timeslots. From 2002 to 2006, UPN offred a movie block (airing on Saturdays or Sundays depending on the affiliates) called ''Hot Weekend Movie'', which carried movies (theatrical, made-for-TV and direct-to-video) from the
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
library.


Affiliates

UPN had approximately 143 full-power owned-and-operated or primary affiliate stations in the United States, and another 65 stations aired some UPN programming as secondary affiliates. Although it was considered a major network by Nielsen for ratings purposes, UPN was not available in every American
television market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
. In some areas, UPN programming was shown off-pattern by affiliates of other networks (airing immediately after programming from their primary network on some Fox and WB stations, or during overnight timeslots on major network affiliates) or by otherwise independent stations, such as in the case of
KIKU-TV KIKU (channel 20) is a multicultural independent television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands. It is owned by Allen Media Group alongside ABC affiliate KITV (channel 4). The two stations share studios on S ...
in Honolulu, Hawaii. Some affiliates were also known to extensively preempt network programming in order to broadcast local sporting events. By 2003, UPN had an estimated audience reach of 85.98% of all U.S. households (equivalent to 91,689,290 households with at least one television set). In contrast, The WB was viewable in 91.66% of all U.S. television homes. This is mainly because UPN did not have wide distribution in areas ranked below the top 100 Nielsen-designated media markets, whereas The WB operated
The WB 100+ Station Group The WB 100+ Station Group (originally called The WeB from its developmental stages until March 1999) was a national programming service of The WB—owned by the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, the Tribune Company, and group fo ...
– a cable-only station group that was launched by the network in September 1998 – to provide broad coverage to those markets (from January 1995 to October 1999, The WB's programming was carried over the superstation feed of the network's Chicago affiliate
WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...
through a programming agreement with its owner Tribune Broadcasting). Despite the fact that UPN would not be able to have extensive small-market coverage at launch due to a lack of commercial television stations in those areas, Paramount Television denied
Advance Entertainment Corporation Advance Publications, Inc., doing business as Advance, is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse Jr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including Condé Nast, an ...
permission from distributing the network's programming over the
WWOR EMI Service WWOR EMI Service was a New York City-based American cable television channel that operated as a superstation feed of Secaucus, New Jersey-licensed WWOR-TV (channel 9). The service was uplinked to satellite from Syracuse, New York by Eastern Micr ...
, the
superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a terrestrial television, br ...
feed of New York City affiliate WWOR-TV, preventing the network from reaching markets without an exclusive or secondary UPN affiliate. The network proposed launching a cable-originated service to increase its distribution to markets without an over-the-air affiliate in July 1998; however, the service, which was to have been named UPN Plus, ultimately never launched. UPN did have one cable-only affiliate in its station form,
WNFM-TV "WNFM" was a MyNetworkTV-network affiliate, affiliated cable television, cable channel serving Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Naples, Florida, United States. The call signs in North America, call sign is fictional as the channel was not bro ...
in Fort Myers, Florida, which joined the network in 1998. In markets where Viacom had a CBS/UPN
duopoly A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...
after its 2000 merger with CBS, the UPN station was used to air CBS network programs if local sporting events or extended breaking news coverage would air on the CBS station, sometimes resulting in UPN programs being pre-empted outright, as the CBS-owned outlets were usually the senior partner in the duopolies (an exception being Detroit, where WKBD-TV is considered the senior partner to WWJ-TV due to WKBD being longer-established). One such event occurred on September 26, 2004, when Hurricane Jeanne forced a scheduled
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
game between the
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
and Miami Dolphins in Miami to be postponed from its scheduled start time of 1:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET; the game aired locally on KDKA-TV and
WFOR-TV WFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WBFS-TV (channel 3 ...
while their respective UPN sister stations, WNPA-TV and
WBFS-TV WBFS-TV (channel 33) is an independent television station in Miami, Florida, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WFOR-TV (channel 4). Both stations share studios on Northwest 18t ...
, aired CBS's regular Sunday night programming instead. These factors led to the network struggling in the ratings over much of UPN's existence, with its later ''Star Trek'' franchise, '' Star Trek: Enterprise'', perhaps suffering the most and ultimately being canceled by the network in a controversial decision in February 2005. The most consistent ratings performer for the network was '' WWE SmackDown''. During the 2004–2005 season, the network was getting consistently better ratings than The WB, much of this thanks to its carriage of the WWE.


Station standardization

When the network launched, UPN began having most of its stations branded using a combination of "UPN" or "Paramount" (the latter having been used only by the network's Viacom-owned stations, some of whom adopted the "Paramount" branding prior to UPN's launch), and the affiliated station's channel number. By the late 1990s, affiliates were simply branded under the "UPN (channel number or city)" scheme (for example, Chicago affiliate WPWR-TV called itself "UPN Chicago" and New York City O&O-turned-affiliate WWOR-TV was referred to as "UPN 9", until The CW's launch was announced in January 2006). However, most of the UPN owned-and-operated stations under Viacom/CBS Corporation branded themselves by the network/city conventions (for example, KBHK/ San Francisco was branded as "UPN Bay Area,"
WKBD WKBD-TV (channel 50) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WWJ-TV (channel 62). Both stations share studios on ...
/ Detroit was branded as "UPN Detroit" and
WUPL WUPL (channel 54) is a television station licensed to Slidell, Louisiana, United States, serving the New Orleans area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside CBS affiliate WWL-TV (channel 4). Both stations share stu ...
/ New Orleans was branded as "UPN New Orleans"). That type of branding did not always apply though, as for example, WSBK-TV/ Boston was branded "UPN 38" and KMAX-TV/ Sacramento was branded "UPN 31". WNPA/ Pittsburgh originally branded itself as "UPN 19", but rebranded itself as "UPN Pittsburgh" soon after the network introduced its second and final logo in September 2002, making it one of the few that had carried both standardization styles. Many UPN-affiliated stations followed the same branding scheme (for example, KFVE/ Honolulu used the brand "UPN Hawaii"). This would be a continuation of the trend of networks using such naming schemes, which originated at Fox (and even earlier by the Canadian CBC), and was also predominately used at CBS (which has most of its owned-and-operated stations, with a few exceptions, brand using a combination of the network's name and over-the-air channel number) and The WB (with the exception of its Tribune Broadcasting-owned affiliates in Los Angeles and Chicago, and certain other stations); NBC and ABC also use similar branding schemes, but not to the same broad level outside their O&Os. While the "Big Three" networks do not require their affiliates to have such naming schemes (though some affiliates choose to adopt it anyway) and only on the network's O&Os is the style required, UPN mandated it on all stations – though in one case, Milwaukee affiliate WCGV branded as "Channel 24" from 1998 to 2001, excluding UPN imagery from its station branding (WCGV, which previously branded as "UPN 24", had disaffiliated from the network for eight months in 1998 due to a compensation dispute; it received a rare waiver from the network to air a marathon of the last half of season four of ''Star Trek: Voyager'' which it had not aired in August 1998, before the fifth season's premiere in September.). One Chris-Craft/United Television-owned station, KMSP-TV in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, only branded as "UPN 9" for its entertainment and network programming. Due to the station's circumstances of holding full cable carriage across the state of Minnesota and into The Dakotas as a
superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a terrestrial television, br ...
, local management preferred to retain their pre-UPN "Minnesota 9" branding in some manner, as most of the UPN schedule was of low appeal to the station's rural viewers, and it was building a successful and competitive news department that did not depend on the success or failure of UPN. KMSP's news division success despite UPN affiliation was one of the pushes for Fox Television Stations to acquire United Television overall, then convert KMSP-TV to a Fox owned-and-operated station in Fall 2002. The UPN affiliation thus moved to new sister station WFTC, which followed all UPN branding guidelines until Fox pulled their support for the network in January 2006.


See also

* List of United States over-the-air television networks *
2006 United States broadcast TV realignment In January 2006, America's two "second-tier" television networks, UPN and The WB, announced they would both cease operations on September 15 and 17, and their operations would be transferred to a new joint-venture "fifth" network, The CW. Meanwh ...


Notes


External links


An ad promoting UPN on RetroJunk.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Upn The CW Paramount Global subsidiaries Television channels and stations established in 1995 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2006 Defunct television networks in the United States Joint ventures Paramount Pictures African-American television 1995 establishments in the United States 2006 disestablishments in the United States African-American television networks