The Fox Broadcasting Company ( FBC ), commonly referred to as Fox (often stylized FOX ), is an American television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, from 2004 to 2009 Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic. In the 2007–08 season, Fox became the most popular network in America in household ratings for the first time in its history, replacing CBS. CBS took back the top spot in the 2008-09 season, though Fox remains a solid runner-up.
The Fox Broadcasting Company and its affiliates operate many entertainment channels internationally -- including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, South America, Central America, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey -- although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U.S. network. Most viewers in Canada have access to at least one U.S. Fox affiliate, although most of Fox's primetime programming is subject to Canadian simultaneous substitution regulations.
The network is named after sister company 20th Century Fox, and indirectly for producer William Fox, who founded one of the movie studio's predecessors, Fox Film.
History
Twentieth Century-Fox was involved in television production as early as the 1950s. The company produced several syndicated programs during this era. In November 1956, 20th Century-Fox purchased 50% of the NTA Film Network, an early syndicator of films and television programs. The film network was launched as a new "fourth" television network. 20th Century-Fox would also produce original content for the NTA Network. The film network effort would fail after a few years, but Fox continued to dabble in television through its production arm, TCF Television Productions, producing series such as Perry Mason for the Big Three television networks.
1980s: Building a network
Groundwork for a new Fox network was laid in March 1985 by News Corporation's $250-million purchase of 50 percent of TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox movie studio. In May 1985, News Corporation agreed to pay $1.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. cities from John Kluge's company, Metromedia. These stations were WNEW-TV in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D.C., KTTV in Los Angeles, KRIV-TV in Houston, WFLD in Chicago, and KRLD-TV in Dallas. A seventh station, ABC-affiliated WCVB-TV in Boston, was part of the original transaction but was spun off in a separate, concurrent deal to the Hearst Corporation as part of a right of first refusal related to that station's 1982 sale to Metromedia.
In October 1985, 20th Century Fox announced its intentions to form an independent television system, a fourth television network which would compete with the three major U.S. television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). The plans were to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia stations to both produce and distribute programming. Organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. Then, in December 1985, Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the rest of the studio from his original partner, Marvin Davis. The purchase of the Metromedia stations was approved by the Federal Communications Commission in March 1986; the New York and Dallas outlets were subsequently renamed WNYW and KDAF respectively. These first six stations, then broadcasting to 22 percent of the nation's households, became known as the Fox Television Stations group.
The network's first program was a late-night talk show, The Late Show , which debuted on October 9, 1986 with Joan Rivers as host. After a strong start, the show quickly eroded in the ratings and by early 1987 Rivers had quit and the show was being hosted by a succession of guest hosts.
The network debuted in prime time on April 5, 1987, with the series Married... with Children and The Tracey Ullman Show . It added one new show per week over the next several weeks, with the series 21 Jump Street , Mr. President and Duet completing its Sunday schedule. Beginning on July 11, the network rolled out its inaugural Saturday night schedule with a two-hour movie premiere of Werewolf , and over the next three weeks the series The New Adventures of Beans Baxter , Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills were added. Both Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills were cancelled by the start of the 1987-88 television season, the network's first fall launch, and were replaced by Second Chance and Women in Prison .
The network had already decided to cancel The Late Show , and had a replacement series called The Wilton North Report in development, when the show began a ratings resurgence with its final guest host, comedian Arsenio Hall. Wilton North stiffed within just a few weeks, however, and the network was unable to reach a deal with Hall to return when it hurriedly revived The Late Show in early 1988. The show went back to guest hosts again, eventually selecting Ross Shafer as its permanent host, and was permanently cancelled by October 1988, while Hall signed a deal with Paramount Television to develop his own syndicated late night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show .
The network added its third night of programming in the 1989 television season. It gradually added nights of programming over the next few years, airing on all seven nights for the first time in the 1993 television season. The 1989 season also featured a midseason replacement series, The Simpsons ; ranked at a three-way tie for 28th place in the Nielsen ratings, it became the first Fox series to break the Top 30.
Unlike the three larger networks, which aired prime time programming from 8 to 11 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays and 7 to 11 p.m. Sundays, Fox has traditionally avoided programming the 10 p.m. hour, leaving that hour to affiliates to program locally. The network did schedule programming in the 10 p.m. hour on Sunday nights between 1989 and 1992, but never added 10 p.m. programming on any other night.
Except for KDAF (which was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting in 1995 and became a WB affiliate at the same time), all the original stations are still part of the Fox network today. Clarke Ingram, who maintains a memorial website to the failed DuMont Television Network, has suggested that Fox is a revival of DuMont, since Metromedia was a successor to the DuMont corporation and the Metromedia television stations formed the nucleus of the Fox network. WNYW (originally known as WABD) and WTTG were two of the three original owned-and-operated stations of the DuMont network.
Fox is a full member of the North American Broadcasters Association and the National Association of Broadcasters.
1990s: Rise into mainstream success
Despite a few successful shows, the network did not have a significant market share until the mid-1990s, when News Corp. bought more TV station groups. The first was New World Communications, which had signed an affiliation deal with Fox in 1994. Later, in 2001, Fox bought several stations owned by Chris-Craft Industries and its subsidiaries BHC Communications and United Television (most of these were UPN affiliates, although one later became a Fox O&O). This made Fox one of the largest owners of television stations in the United States. 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 big three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC).
This all changed when Fox lured the National Football League away from CBS in 1993. They signed a huge contract to broadcast the NFC, which included luring Pat Summerall, John Madden, Dick Stockton, Matt Millen, James Brown, and Terry Bradshaw (as well as many behind-the-scenes production personnel) from CBS Sports as well. At first, many were skeptical of this whole move, but the first year was a rousing success, and Fox was officially on the map for good.
The early and mid-1990s saw the launch of several soap-opera dramas aimed at younger audiences that became quick hits: Beverly Hills, 90210 , Melrose Place , New York Undercover and Party of Five . September 1993 saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived Western with science-fiction elements, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. However, it was the Friday night show that debuted immediately following it, The X-Files , which would find long-lasting success, and would be Fox's first series to crack Nielsen's year-end Top 25.
The sketch-comedy series In Living Color created many memorable characters (and launched the careers of future movie superstars Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jamie Foxx, and "Fly Girl" dancer Jennifer Lopez).
MADtv , another sketch-comedy series that debuted in 1995, became a solid competitor to NBC's Saturday Night Live for over a decade and the most successful show on Saturday nights.
Fox would expand to seven nights of programming a week by 1993, which included scheduling the breakout hit The Simpsons opposite NBC's The Cosby Show as one of Fox's initial Thursday night offerings in the fall of 1990 (along with future hit Beverly Hills, 90210 ) after only a half-season of success on Sunday nights. The show thrived in its new timeslot, helping to launch Martin , another Fox hit in 1992;
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