In Canada , a television system is a group of television stations which share common ownership , branding and programming, but which for some reason does not satisfy the criteria necessary for it to be classified as a television network under Canadian law. As the term "television system" has no legal definition, and as most audiences and broadcasters usually refer to groups of stations with common branding and programming as "networks" regardless of their structure, the distinction between the two entities is often not entirely clear; indeed, the term is rarely discussed outside the Canadian broadcasting enthusiast community. In the latter regard, however, a group of Canadian stations is currently considered a "network" if it satisfies at least one of the following requirements:
138-1393: A-Channel (proposed as The Alberta Channel ) was a Canadian television system initially owned by Craig Media from September 1997 to 2004, then by CHUM Limited from 2004 to 2005 through A-Channel, Inc. It consisted of Craig's television stations in Winnipeg , Calgary and Edmonton and was the company's unsuccessful attempt to build a national network. A-Channel launched on September 18, 1997, in Edmonton ( CKEM-TV ) and September 20 in Calgary ( CKAL-TV ); Craig's Winnipeg-market station, MTN in Portage la Prairie , rebranded as A-Channel in 1999. The stations were similar in style to Citytv , with an aggressive, urban, street-level, and younger approach to local news and entertainment, including long morning shows and—in Edmonton—midweek telecasts of Edmonton Oilers hockey. In addition, CHUM Limited, owner of Citytv, provided A-Channel with most of its non-local entertainment programming. A-Channel slowly built an audience in its first several years of operation, settling into third place in prime time news ratings and audience. Craig attempted to expand beyond, particularly to
276-630: A C$ 14 million investment in independent television production in Alberta. The newscasts would have a style similar to Citytv in Toronto; U.S. entertainment programming would come from previously untapped sources, such as Fox and UPN . Both bids drew concern from rural broadcasters, such as RDTV in Red Deer. Edmonton's CITV protested the CanWest bid, believing it would cause "an unbalancing of
414-697: A CBC Television affiliate in Brandon , and the Manitoba Television Network (MTN) in Portage la Prairie and serving Winnipeg . Craig's application competed with AltaWest Television, a subsidiary of the CanWest Global System . The Alberta Channel promised stations in Calgary and Edmonton as well as repeaters to serve Drumheller , Lethbridge , and Red Deer . The Calgary and Edmonton stations would each offer 20 hours
552-480: 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 ,
690-490: A "network" is an operation whereby the programming of a station is controlled by a different company. As both CTV and Global now own stations serving virtually every Canadian market, a national network licence would be redundant. Nevertheless, such "station groups" are now regulated in much the same way networks were regulated in the past. Based on their national reach and the very limited differences in programming between stations, CTV and Global are both considered "networks" by
828-558: 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
966-1157: 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,
1104-528: 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
1242-584: A call for assistance by using the Hummer to deliver Meals on Wheels to stranded Calgarians, even ferrying a snowed-in doctor to work. The Oilers departed A-Channel Edmonton after the 2000–2001 season and consolidated their television games with Sportsnet West , adding 28 games to the latter's existing 20-game inventory. The team was believed to see increased revenue opportunity with a regional telecast. In 2001, A-Channel also moved its late news in Alberta from 10 to 11 p.m., putting it in head-to-head competition with
1380-416: 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
1518-910: 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
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#17327725960761656-616: A deal to purchase Craig Media for $ 265 million. The move came more than a month after the CRTC denied CHUM's applications for new Calgary and Edmonton stations because the market did not have sufficient advertising revenue to support a new entrant. The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on November 19, 2004. CHUM had to sell off Toronto 1 because it already owned stations in Toronto ( CITY ) and nearby Barrie ( CKVR ); Toronto 1
1794-552: 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
1932-539: 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
2070-454: 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
2208-442: 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
2346-529: 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
2484-516: 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
2622-478: A full network service without any of the additional regulatory responsibilities, such as enhanced Canadian content requirements, that are associated with a CRTC-issued network licence. Much like today's systems, however, both CGS and BBS operated in relatively few markets compared to full "networks" such as CBC or CTV. CGS was subsequently rebranded as the Global Television Network (adopting
2760-472: 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
2898-559: 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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#17327725960763036-503: 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
3174-409: 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
3312-507: 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
3450-403: A local edition of The Big Breakfast helmed by Jon Ljungberg and Jay Onrait . In addition, each station produced local evening newscasts. A-Channel also produced Wired , an entertainment magazine, in Calgary and Edmonton. The A-Channel stations contributed to The Sharing Circle , a program on First Nations communities which was produced from Manitoba. This program later became independent of
3588-469: 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
3726-514: A national newscast, which are typically provided by a network. Finally, with regards to "primary" systems, the amount of common programming on participating stations may be variable. While CTV Two (and previously City, the Baton Broadcast System (BBS) and Global) generally maintains programming and scheduling practices similar to networks (with variations required for specific stations licensed under educational or ethnic formats),
3864-489: 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
4002-535: 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
4140-465: A rebroadcaster following the next year. Both stations made respectable debuts after quickly putting their issues behind them. BBM figures for spring 1998 showed A-Channel Calgary in third place in prime time, though its dinner-hour news lagged the CBC. Likewise, A-Channel surpassed the CBC in prime time in Edmonton, but its local programs—outside of hockey—attracted few viewers. BBM found that Live @ Five ,
4278-465: A sale now or "slowly squeeze" Craig in the long term. In 2002, Craig was successful at the CRTC and won the license for Toronto 1 , a new local station in the capital city. This new service, however, did not follow the programming concept of the A-Channel stations. Compounded with the launch of MTV and MTV2 Canada , this led to strong overlap between Craig and CHUM and intensified the rivalry between
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4416-443: 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
4554-606: 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
4692-414: 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,
4830-515: A single originating station serving multiple markets within the same province or region is neither a network nor a system; it is merely a station (although it might still be described as a system by its owner, as was the case with Toronto multicultural station CFMT-TV during the 1990s, prior to the formation of Omni Television). For example, independent station CHCH-DT in Hamilton has rebroadcasters in various parts of Ontario but broadcasts
4968-458: A technical standpoint. The Calgary station launched four minutes late due to inaccurate clocks; the first 6 p.m. newscast on Monday, dubbed by station staff as "Black Monday", was riddled with errors, leaving anchorman Glen Carter on screen when news footage did not play out. In Edmonton, Jennifer Lyall, the co-host for the local Wired entertainment magazine, quit after just one day on air after not being given time to rehearse. News footage showed on
5106-544: 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
5244-494: 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
5382-645: A week of local news plus the same amount of non-news local programming. The AltaWest bid, part of network parent CanWest 's bid to turn Global into a third national network, envisioned a main station in Calgary. In the end, the CRTC opted not to award either group a licence, saying that neither proposal "would have added sufficient diversity" to Alberta television and would have harmed the province's existing television broadcasters. In 1996, CanWest and Craig tried again with plans for new television service in Alberta. The A-Channel stations in Calgary and Edmonton would be autonomous, each employing 139 people; Craig also promised
5520-868: 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
5658-503: 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
A-Channel - Misplaced Pages Continue
5796-440: 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
5934-460: 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
6072-721: 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
6210-543: The CTV 2 banner. The three original Craig Media A-Channel (now Citytv) stations are now owned by Rogers Sports & Media . In 1993, The Alberta Channel Inc., a majority-owned company of Craig Broadcast Systems, applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a television service in the province of Alberta, to be known as The Alberta Channel (or A-Channel, for short). Craig owned two stations in its home province of Manitoba , namely CKX-TV ,
6348-722: 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
6486-652: 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
6624-659: 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
6762-549: The Vancouver market, but lost out on multiple occasions to other applicants. In 2002, it successfully obtained a licence for a new Toronto station, Toronto 1 . However, Craig lost money in startup costs for the new service; at the same time, it grappled with a five-month-long strike at the Edmonton A-Channel station that saw their local news ratings drop by more than half. In January 2004, Craig Media put itself on
6900-437: 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
7038-500: 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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#17327725960767176-529: 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
7314-524: The A-Channel stations, though it endorsed inquiries into a third national TV network, a minor win for the company. With the CanWest bid denied, Craig began constructing the A-Channel stations. In Edmonton, A-Channel set up in the heritage-listed Hudson's Bay building on Jasper Avenue , where it added large windows to its streetside studio; historic preservation conditions complicated work, with new tiles having to be ordered from Quebec. It obtained rights to midweek telecasts of Edmonton Oilers hockey. Most of
7452-665: The Alberta licences in 1996, stating that it was behind schedule on its production spending and producing less local programming per week than it had promised. Industry officials also sought that further investment in the Production Fund become a condition of licence. In July 2002, a majority of A-Channel Edmonton employees signed union cards and organized under the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada , which represented employees at Edmonton's other TV stations. Contract negotiations were unsuccessful, with
7590-458: The Calgary control room was rewired to bypass it in favor of older, but more reliable, video tape equipment. As part of building A-Channel, Craig agreed to provide some protection to rural broadcasters by delaying the launch of rebroadcasters for one year, and in 1998, the Lethbridge transmitter (rebroadcasting Calgary) opened. The Edmonton station debuted on cable in Red Deer that year, with
7728-643: The Canadian broadcasting system". CITV subleased the Edmonton-market rights to many popular U.S. shows from CanWest and stood to lose much of its highest-rated programming were they to establish a Global station there. After a hearing in July, the CRTC issued a ruling in favor of A-Channel and against CanWest in November 1996. Unlike two years prior, it found the Alberta television market to be "stronger than
7866-621: The Craig chain when company patriarch Stu Craig sold the rights to host to Lisa Meeches. A-Channel generally sourced its American entertainment programming from smaller outlets, including The WB and UPN , which were not widely available on their own in Canada. With the notable exception of the 2002–03 television season, Craig's program acquisition strategy was generally frugal. Canadian series it aired included CityLine , To Serve and Protect , and 1-800-Missing . Television system If
8004-576: 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
8142-553: 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
8280-477: 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
8418-488: 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
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#17327725960768556-403: 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
8694-613: 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
8832-603: 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
8970-539: 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
9108-470: The brand that had been used by CIII in Paris since it launched in 1974, and maintaining a largely uniform programming schedule outside of news programming and certain substitutions for acquired programming), but never applied for a network licence from the CRTC. BBS's operations were eventually folded into CTV, which surrendered its own network licence in 2001. Indeed, as defined in Canada's Broadcasting Act ,
9246-435: 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
9384-407: The companies. Shortly after, CHUM filed for stations in Edmonton and Calgary. Craig Broadcast Systems asked the CRTC to bring the licence terms of its Alberta and Manitoba stations in line to expire at the same time, leading to A-Channel facing its first licence hearings two years early. CanWest, in a letter, accused Craig of not following through on all of its spending commitments on which it had won
9522-450: 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
9660-485: The deal prevent Craig from moving into the lucrative market, but it also put CHUM firmly above Craig as a media company. Further, CHUM was Craig's primary supplier of programs, at one point accounting for 90 percent of the non-local programming in A-Channel's stations. Matthew Fraser , writing in the National Post , observed that Craig's reliance on CHUM for programs allowed the latter company to either pressure for
9798-545: 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
9936-439: 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
10074-660: 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
10212-475: The early 1990s when CanWest Global Communications , then a fledgling owner of independent stations that aired common programming, began using "CanWest Global System" (CGS) as a secondary brand for its various stations. Soon after, the Baton Broadcast System launched as a secondary "affiliation" linking another station group. In that sense, the term "system" was intended to give the impression of
10350-492: 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
10488-478: The first in their respective markets since Edmonton's CITV (1974) and Calgary's CBRT (1975). Both stations relied on prime-time movies, a formula Craig had used with some success at MTN in Manitoba. For local programming, they offered a two-hour morning newscast, The Big Breakfast ; 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts; and the local programs Live @ Five and Wired , among others. The new stations had very rough debuts from
10626-523: 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
10764-637: 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
10902-461: The group of stations does not match at least one of these criteria, it would then be classified as a "system". In current practice, a television system may be either: Systems are differentiated from networks primarily by their less extensive service area – while a network will serve most Canadian broadcast markets in some form, a system will typically serve only a few markets. As well, a system may or may not offer some classes of programming, such as
11040-411: 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
11178-531: 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
11316-561: The late 1990s and early 2000s. At the same time as its successful A-Channel application, it filed to build a channel titled Very Independent Television in Vancouver and Victoria . That bid failed, and Baton Broadcasting won the channel. In 1999, Craig tried again for a station in Victoria, losing out to the bid's only competitor, CHUM Limited . Craig lost yet again to CHUM when it attempted to acquire CKVU-TV in Vancouver; not only did
11454-515: 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
11592-466: 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
11730-797: The licence, Craig established the A-Channel Drama Fund (later the A-Channel Production Fund), which provided financing for made-in-Alberta television movies for air by A-Channel and other outlets. Among these was Ebenezer , a 1998 adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Jack Palance . The concept of funding independent producers and then obtaining rights to their films was inspired by the UK's Channel 4 . A-Channel launched in Edmonton on CKEM-TV (channel 51, cable 7) on September 18, 1997, and in Calgary on CKAL-TV (channel 5, cable 8) on September 20. The new stations were
11868-402: 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
12006-482: 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
12144-538: The market. CHUM Limited, which had been highly desirous of an entry into the Alberta market for some time, acquired the three A-Channel stations. On August 2, 2005, CHUM folded the stations into the Citytv network. On the same date, the A-Channel name was transferred to the stations collectively referred to as NewNet in Southern Ontario and on Vancouver Island , which are currently operated by Bell Media under
12282-727: The media and by the general public, notwithstanding the legal definition. For a time, in the few markets where CTV does not own its own stations, programming was provided through a network licence that applied only to the applicable markets. Global, meanwhile, simply sublicenses its broadcast rights to local stations (as such, stations pay for programming , as opposed to the once-traditional North American model of networks paying stations). The term can also be retroactively applied to American stations owned by groups that produced programming and had shared branding or appearances but were not networks, including Group W (which produced many programs at their stations, and often pre-empted programming from
12420-409: 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
12558-420: 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,
12696-628: 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
12834-481: The national average". Craig won out because of its promises to air more local programming and schedule more Canadian production in prime time. CanWest appealed to the federal cabinet, having suffered a blow to its ambitions of constructing a third national network. It believed that the smaller Craig, which it called "boutique", was less preferable than a third national choice for Canadians. The cabinet rejected CanWest's appeal in January 1997 and permitted Craig to construct
12972-469: 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
13110-423: 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
13248-694: 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
13386-604: 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
13524-399: 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
13662-569: 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
13800-418: 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,
13938-449: 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
14076-428: 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
14214-543: The networks their stations were affiliated with) and Metromedia (whose stations were mostly independent, and attempted a fourth network called "MetroNet" in the 1970s which never came to fruition); the former group became part of CBS in 1995, while the latter served as the foundation of the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986. Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps )
14352-541: 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
14490-489: 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
14628-452: The on-air talent hired for A-Channel Edmonton came from outside the market, except for Bruce Buchanan , who handled Oilers play-by-play. The Calgary station at 7th Avenue and 5th Street SW, adjacent to the LRT system, was the only major media outlet in the city to be built in the downtown area. As in Edmonton, much of the on-air talent came from elsewhere in Canada. In conjunction with winning
14766-456: The other Alberta stations and reducing overruns from its movies. MTN joined the A-Channel system in 1999; Craig built new downtown studios in Winnipeg's The Forks district. The Winnipeg station expanded its news staff by 15 and adopted the trappings of the Calgary and Edmonton stations, including The Big Breakfast . Craig made proposals for other television properties across the country in
14904-417: The parties at odds over wages and a promise to not move jobs from Edmonton to Calgary; for the start of the fall television season, on September 17, 2003, workers walked out and began a strike. A-Channel continued airing newscasts because only 10 to 15 employees crossed the picket line , out of 108 total. Picketers made it difficult for employees to get inside the studios and sometimes followed news crews, while
15042-502: 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
15180-624: 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
15318-536: 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
15456-506: The programming and scheduling of stations part of Omni and the Crossroads Television System often differs greatly between stations, with the system sometimes serving mainly as a common format and brand positioning, but providing limited common programming. Television systems should not be confused with twinsticks , although some individual stations might be part of both types of operations simultaneously. Moreover,
15594-500: 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
15732-509: The ratings of the stations with the new moniker. The change took effect on August 2 of the same year, when the A-Channel name was transferred to CHUM's NewNet stations. At launch, the A-Channel stations in Calgary and Edmonton offered a two-hour morning program, known as The Big Breakfast . The anchors were Mark Scholz and Yvette Czigli in Edmonton and Dave Kelly and Robin Gill in Calgary. When MTN became A-Channel in Winnipeg in 1999, it began
15870-570: 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
16008-562: The same newscasts, entertainment programming and advertising, which target Hamilton and surrounding areas in the Golden Horseshoe region, across all of these transmitters province-wide. A similar concept exists in Italy , the television circuit system, wherein various local broadcasters would receive programming from a single source. Notable examples include Euro TV, SuperSix, Junior TV, and Odeon . The term likely originated in
16146-499: 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
16284-429: The same time, startup costs for Toronto 1 and a series of new digital specialty channels proved to be a drain on Craig's finances. In late January, Craig Media put itself up for sale. Weeks later, on February 14, 2004, strikers overwhelmingly voted to accept a contract offer, recognizing that much work was needed to regain the viewership that A-Channel had lost during the strike. On April 12, 2004, CHUM Limited announced
16422-423: The set and handheld camerawork. In an assessment of the Calgary station in 1999, Gary Davies noted, "It's very rare to attend a media event in this city and not see a representative from A-Channel." All stations had SUVs emblazoned with black-and-yellow paint schemes. A-Channel Calgary had a Hummer as a newsgathering vehicle; when a major snowstorm paralyzed traffic in the city in March 1998, the station responded to
16560-438: 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
16698-488: 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
16836-625: 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
16974-500: 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
17112-430: The station's 5:00 news program, had just 600 viewers. Over the next two years, the stations became more competitive, with increasing ratings towards their local morning and evening programming. The A-Channel stations built identities as aggressive outlets appealing to a younger demographic in their local and syndicated programming, similar to Citytv in Toronto. The newscasts reflected this style, with anchors walking around
17250-483: 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
17388-476: 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
17526-562: 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
17664-421: The union mounted a pressure campaign to urge national advertisers to cease doing business with A-Channel. Union members rejected a contract offer in December 2003, though about a third of the members had returned to work. The strike was disastrous for A-Channel's ratings in the Edmonton market. A-Channel News at Six lost more than 60 percent of its viewership and slipped into a tie with the CBC for last place. At
17802-401: The wrong stories or froze, while sound failed to play out. At one news conference, a local politician saw an A-Channel cameraman enter the room and began mouthing his words without speaking, mimicking the frequently missing audio on the station's newscasts. Many of the issues came down to the tapeless playback and editing system, which had a tendency to delete segments and stories: over five days,
17940-425: 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,
18078-553: 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
18216-478: 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
18354-491: 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
18492-633: 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
18630-674: 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
18768-562: Was sold to Quebecor Media , owners of the media units TVA and Sun Media . In February 2005, CHUM announced it would align Craig's A-Channel stations with its existing major-market stations under the Citytv name. No other significant changes were made, since the A-Channel stations's on-air look had always been very similar to that of Citytv; they initially retained their local programs, relaunched under Citytv's Breakfast Television morning brand and CityNews news brand. CHUM hoped to lift
18906-410: 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
19044-483: 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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