Fox Broadcasting Company
Encyclopedia : F : FO : FOX : Fox Broadcasting Company
- "FOX" redirects here. For the animal fox, see Fox. For other uses, see Fox (disambiguation).
The Fox name has been used on other entertainment channels internationally that are affiliated with News Corp., including in Italy, Spain, Portugal, South America, and Australia (FOX8), although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U.S. network.
History
Launch
The groundwork for the launch of the Fox network began in March 1985 with News Corporation's $250 million purchase of 50% of TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox movie studio. Six months later, in September, Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the rest of the studio. In May 1985, News Corp agreed to pay $1.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. media markets from John Kluge's company, Metromedia--KTTV in Los Angeles, WFLD in Chicago, KRLD in Dallas (which was renamed KDAF), KRIV in Houston, WNEW in New York (which was renamed WNYW) and WTTG in Washington, D.C. These first six stations, broadcasting to 22 percent of the nation's households, became known as the Fox Television Stations Group. Except for KDAF (which was sold to Tribune in 1995 and joined The WB after Fox affiliated with, then later bought VHF station KDFW), all of these stations are still part of Fox 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 TV stations formed the nucleus of the Fox network.[link] Indeed, WNYW (then known as WABD) and WTTG were the key stations in the DuMont network.In October 1985, Murdoch announced his intentions to form an independent television system which would compete with the three major U.S. television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). He planned to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia stations both to produce programming and distribute it. Organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles in March 1986. In January 1986, Murdoch said of his planned network, "We at Fox at the moment are deeply involved in working to put shape and form on original programs. These will be shows with no outer limits. The only rules that we will enforce on these programs is they must have taste, they must be engaging, they must be entertaining and they must be original."
On May 6, 1986, Murdoch along with newly-hired Fox CEO and chairman Barry Diller and comedian Joan Rivers announced plans for "FBC" or the "Fox Broadcasting Company", with WNYW in New York as the flagship station, to be launched with a daily late-night talk show program, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. When Fox was launched on October 9, 1986, it was broadcast to 96 stations reaching more than 80 percent of the nation's households. Fox had lined up 90 former independent stations as affiliates in addition to its original six seed stations. By contrast, ABC, CBS and NBC each had between 210 and 215 affiliates reaching more than 97 percent of the nation's households. Despite broadcasting only one show, the network was busy producing new programs with plans to gradually add prime time programming one night at a time.
Rivers would be gone from the show in 1987, with various guest hosts taking over for a few years afterwards; one notable face was Arsenio Hall, who would later front his own late-night talk show to great success - albeit not on FOX.
1980s
From the beginning, Fox established itself as a somewhat edgy, irreverent, youth-oriented network compared to its rivals. Its first primetime shows, which debuted on Sunday nights beginning April 5, 1987, were a comedy about a dysfunctional family (Married... with Children) and a variety show (The Tracey Ullman Show). The former would become a strong hit, airing for 11 seasons, while the latter would spawn the longest-running sitcom and animated series in American television history, The Simpsons, which was spun off in 1989 and as of 2006 is still in production. Another early success was 21 Jump Street (1987–1991), an hour long police drama. The original Sunday lineup also included sitcoms Duet and It's Garry Shandling's Show.Fox debuted its Saturday night programming over four weeks beginning July 11, 1987, with several shows now long forgotten. Those shows were Mr. President, Women in Prison, The New Adventures of Beans Baxter and Second Chance.
The next two years saw the introduction of America's Most Wanted (1988), profiling true crimes in hopes of capturing the criminals, and COPS (1989), a reality show documenting the day-to-day activities of police officers. The two shows are among the network's longest running and are credited with bringing reality television to the mainstream. In August 1988, America's Most Wanted was Fox's first show to break into the top 50 shows of the week according to the Nielsen ratings.
Fox would expand to seven nights a week of programming by 1993.
Differences Between Fox and DuMont
Fox survived where DuMont and other previous attempts to start a fourth network failed in part because it programmed just under the number of hours to be legally considered a network by the FCC. This allowed Fox to make money in ways forbidden to the established networks, since during its first years it was considered to be merely a large group of stations. By comparison, DuMont was hampered by numerous regulatory roadblocks, most notably a ban on acquiring more stations since its minority owner, Paramount Pictures owned two television stations. Combined with DuMont's three television stations, this put DuMont at the legal limit at the time. Also, Murdoch was more than willing to open his wallet to get and keep programming and talent. DuMont, in contrast, operated on a shoestring budget and was unable to keep the programs and stars it had.1990s
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, who had signed an affiliation deal with Fox in 1994 (see below). Later, in 2000, 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 converted to Fox). This made Fox one of the largest owners of television stations in the United States. Though 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).The early and mid-1990s saw the launch of several soap-opera/dramas aimed at younger audiences that became quick hits: Beverly Hills 90210 (1990–2000), Melrose Place (1992–99), and Party of Five (1994–2000). September 1993 saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived Western with science fiction elements, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993-94). However, it was the Friday night show that debuted immediately following it, The X-Files (1993–2002), 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 (1990–94) created many memorable characters (and launched the careers of future movie superstars Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx and "Fly Girl" dancer Jennifer Lopez). Another sketch-comedy series, MADtv (1995–) became a solid competitor to NBC's Saturday Night Live.
Notable shows which debuted in the late 1990s include the quirky dramedy Ally McBeal (1997–2002) and the sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006).
Building around its flagship The Simpsons (1989–)., Fox has been relatively successful with animated shows including Futurama (1999–2003) and King of the Hill (1997–). Family Guy (1999–2002) was cancelled in 2002, but the network commissioned new episodes in 2005 due to strong DVD sales and highly-rated cable reruns. Less successful efforts included The Critic (1994–95), which originally aired on ABC, and The PJ's (1999–2001), which later aired on The WB.
Fox also began airing its first game show, Greed hosted by established veteran game show host Chuck Woolery (1999-2000).
Around 1996, Fox was exploring plans to merge with The WB. A former Fox chairman during the time noted in a Broadcasting and Cable interview after the CW merger was announced: "Well, we tried to merge with The WB, too, but we couldn't because, at that time, UPN was [half] owned by Chris-Craft and there was no way. We even talked about, 'You get one market, we get another,' but we just couldn't work it out."
2000s
Fox arguably hit a few bumps in its programming during 1999 and the early 2000s. Many staple shows of the 1990s had ended or were on the decline. During this time, Fox put much of its efforts into producing "reality" fare with subjects often seen as extravagant, shocking, or distasteful. These included shows such as Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, Temptation Island, Joe Millionaire, and Married by America. During this time, Fox also featured weekly lowbrow shows such as World's Wildest Police Videos and When Animals Attack.After shedding most of these shows, Fox regained a ratings foothold with acclaimed dramas such as 24, The O.C., and House, and comedies such as Arrested Development, The Bernie Mac Show and Malcolm in the Middle. By 2005, Fox's most popular show by far was the talent search American Idol, peaking at up to 30 million viewers on certain episodes and finishing the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons as the nation's highest-rated program. House, airing after Idol on Tuesday nights, has also positioned itself as a top ten hit as of 2005-06.
It was estimated in 2003 that Fox is viewable by 96.18% of all U.S. households, reaching 102,565,710 houses in the United States. Fox has 180 VHF and UHF owned-and-operated or affiliate stations in the U.S. and U.S. possessions. Fox began broadcasting in HDTV in 720p on September 12, 2004 with a series of NFL football games.
Fox hit a milestone in February 2005 by scoring its first-ever sweeps month victory among all viewers. This was largely due to the broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIX, but also on the strength of American Idol, 24, House, and The O.C. By the end of the 2004-2005 television season, Fox ranked #1 among the 18-49 demographic most appealing to advertisers for the first time in the network's history.
News
Unlike the "Big Three", Fox does not air national news programs. However, Fox does air live coverage of the State of the Union Address, as well as live breaking news alerts (also known as a "Fox News Alert"), and produces national news segments to air on the local Fox affiliates' news programs. Fox News Sunday airs on the local Fox network affiliates. In prime time, Fox first tried their hand at a news show in summer 1998, with a newsmagazine called Fox Files, hosted by Fox News anchors Catherine Crier and Jon Scott, as well as a team of correspondents. It lasted a little over a year before being cancelled. During the sweeps of the 2002-2003 TV season, they tried again at airing a newsmagazine series called The Pulse, hosted by Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith.
The network and Fox News are thought by news insiders to be using its new syndicated newsmagazine Geraldo at Large (which airs in prime slots on all of Fox's O&Os) as a test run of rolling out a national newscast. Fox News chairman Roger Ailes is now also chairman of the Fox Television Stations division, and has been pushing for the network's O&O stations to have a more uniform image and presentation in their newscasts.
Fox Sports
Fox management, having seen the critical role that sports programming (soccer programming in particular) had played in the growth of satellite service BSkyB, believed that sports, and specifically professional football, would be the engine that would make Fox a major network the quickest.
To this end, Fox bid aggressively for football from the start. In 1987, after ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract to carry Monday Night Football, Fox offered the NFL to pick up the contract for the same amount ABC had been paying, about $13 million per game at the time. However, the NFL, in part because Fox had not established itself as a major network, chose to renew their contract with ABC.
Six years later, when the football contract was up for renewal again, Fox made what at the time was a bold and aggressive move to acquire the rights. Knowing that they would likely need to bid considerably more than the incumbent networks to acquire a piece of the package, Fox bid $1.58 billion for 4 years of rights to the NFC, considered the more desirable conference due to its presence in most of the largest U.S. markets, such as New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. To the surprise and shock of many, the NFL selected the Fox bid, in the process stripping CBS of football for the first time since 1952.
Fox's acquisition of football was a watershed event not only for the network but for the NFL as well. Not only was it the event that placed Fox on a par with the "big three" broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) but it also ushered in an era of growth for the NFL which continues on largely to this day. More importantly, Fox's acquisition of the NFL rights also quickly led toward Fox reaching a deal with New World Communications to change the affiliation of 10 of their stations to Fox.
The rights gave Fox many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform for advertising its other shows. With a sports division now established with the arrival of the NFL, Fox would later acquire over-air broadcast rights to the National Hockey League (1994-99), Major League Baseball (since 1996), and NASCAR auto racing (since 2001 season).
In the past few years, when Fox aired new episodes of original programing at 7 p.m. on Sundays during football season, some of the markets, especially on the east coast, are unable to see all or part of the new episode of the scheduled show due to NFL overun. Futurama was especially victim to this network decision. Beginning with the 2005 season, Fox has extended their football postgame show to 8 p.m. (the weeks Fox has a doubleheader) or they air reruns of sitcoms (mostly The Simpsons and King of the Hill).
Children's programming
Fox began airing children's programming in 1990 when it launched the Fox Kids Network. Fox's childrens programing featured many cartoons and some live-action series (particularly fantasy action programs) including Power Rangers, Bobby's World, The Tick, Eerie, Indiana, VR Troopers and Goosebumps. When The WB added the Kids' WB programming block in 1995, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and later , (all of which originated either on Fox Kids or in syndication) moved to Kids' WB with new productions and original shows included.
Fox would abandon Fox Kids after selling the children's division and the former Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family) to The Walt Disney Company, then sell the four hours of Saturday morning time to 4Kids Entertainment.
Station standardization
During the early 1990s, Fox began having stations branded as "Fox", then the channel number, with the call signs nearby. By the mid-to-late 1990s, the call signs were minimized to be just barely readable to FCC requirements, and the stations were simply known as "Fox", then channel number. (e.g. WNYW in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D.C., and WAGA in Atlanta, Georgia are referred to as "Fox 5.") This would be the start of the trend for other networks to do such naming schemes, especially at CBS, who uses the CBS Mandate on all of their O&O stations. NBC and ABC are less rigid in this.However, while the traditional "Big Three" don't require their affiliates to have such naming schemes -- unless they happen to be owned and operated of those networks (though some affiliates choose to adopt it anyway) and only on their O&O's are required, Fox mandates it on all stations. All Fox affiliates must have a Fox-approved logo, and most refer to themselves on-air as, for example, "FOX 12." But some affiliates do not include the channel number in the name, and opt instead to place the city's name there (e.g. Parkersburg, WV affiliate WTAP employs the moniker "FOX Parkersburg" rather than "FOX 15").
2006-2007 Line-Ups
Fall 2006
Returning comedies are in red; new comedies are in pink; returning dramas are in green; new dramas are in blue; returning reality shows are in yellow. Times given are ET/PT [FOX Fall & January schedules and new series synopses]
| Fall 2006 | 7:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:30 PM | 10:00 PM | 11:00 PM | 12:00 AM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | NFL Postgame † | The Simpsons | American Dad! (NT) | Family Guy | The War At Home (NT) | Local Programming | Local Programming | ||
| Monday | Local Programming | Prison Break | Vanished | ||||||
| Tuesday | Standoff | House | |||||||
| Wednesday | Bones | Justice | |||||||
| Thursday | 'Til Death | Happy Hour | The O.C. | ||||||
| Friday | Nanny 911 | Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy | |||||||
| Saturday | COPS | COPS | America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back | MADtv | Talk Show with Spike Feresten
| ||||
* Subtract one hour for Central and Mountain time.- (NT) - New Time
- † - NFL Postgame is replaced by comedy repeats in the Eastern and Central time zones when there is no football game on the local FOX station; comedy repeats are in the time slot of NFL Postgame every week in the Mountain and Pacific time zones.
January 2007
Returning comedies are in red; new comedies are in pink; returning dramas are in green; new dramas are in blue; returning reality shows are in yellow. Times given are ET/PT
| January 2007 | 7:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:30 PM | 10:00 PM | 11:00 PM | 12:00 AM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Comedy Repeats | King of the Hill (NT) | The Simpsons | American Dad! | Family Guy | The War At Home | Local Programming | Local Programming | |
| Monday | Local Programming | Standoff (NT) | Vanished | ||||||
| Tuesday | American Idol 6 | House | |||||||
| Wednesday | Justice (NT) | American Idol 6 Results Show | The Loop (NT) | ||||||
| Thursday | 'Til Death | Happy Hour | The O.C. | ||||||
| Friday | Bones (NT) | The Wedding Album | |||||||
| Saturday | COPS | COPS | America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back | MADtv | Talk Show with Spike Feresten
| ||||
* Subtract one hour for Central and Mountain time.- (NT) - New Time
- Prison Break is scheduled to return later in the 2006-2007 season, like it did during the 2005-2006 season
- The Wedding Album is the only currently scheduled new midseason show
Differences between Fox and the \"Big Three\" networks
Fox airs two hours of network programming a night (three hours on Sundays), which allows for many of its stations to air local news during the 10 p.m. time slot. FOX's original reason for the reduced number of primetime hours was to avoid fulfilling the FCC's requirements at the time to be considered a network [link] and to be free of resulting regulations. Although FCC rules have been relaxed, the 10 p.m. timeslot has proven to be quite lucrative for FOX's affiliates.Fox has no national morning or evening news programs unlike the Big Three; many Fox stations have a local morning newscast. Fox, however, did air a nationally-based morning show called Fox After Breakfast (which was formerly Breakfast Time on Fox's FX cable channel) between 1996 to 1998, which aired on all affiliates at 9 to 10 a.m. as opposed to the other major networks airing theirs at 7 to 9 a.m.
Despite the lack of national morning or evening programs, Fox does provide live news coverage by Fox News during breaking news events. Fox News Sunday airs on the local Fox network affiliates.
Fox does not air soap operas or any other network daytime programming (game shows, talk shows) despite being a major network. Because of this, affiliates have more time for lucrative syndicated programming. (Fox actually produces two syndicated daytime courtroom shows, Divorce Court and Judge Alex.)
Criticism
Despite its popularity, Fox has also come under fire from many quarters, especially from fans of sci-fi/fantasy television. This displeasure stems from the supposed premature cancellation of some series, most notably Firefly, Dark Angel, Tru Calling, and Wonderfalls. The cancellations of animated series Family Guy and Futurama were also criticized; in the former's case, the program was picked up again in 2005, while the latter series is being revived for 2008 on cable's Comedy Central.The network's justification for cancelling these programs has generally been poor ratings. Fans of these programs respond by pointing towards critical praise and dedicated core fan followings, and blame the ratings on inconvenient time slots, poor advertising or illogical broadcasting (for example, the first episode of Firefly was the last episode aired, and other episodes were aired out of order).
In 1997, FOX-owned station WTVT in Tampa fired two reporters, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, who had refused instructions from superiors to revise a story on bovine growth hormone in ways that the reporters saw as being in conflict with the facts, and had threatened to report FOX to the FCC. The reporters sued under a Florida whistleblower law. A jury ruled that FOX had indeed ordered the reporters to distort the facts. FOX successfully appealed against judgement on the grounds that their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and press protected them from such litigation, and that the FCC's policy against distortion of news was not a sufficiently significant rule for its breach to invoke the whistleblower law ([link], [link]).
The Parents Television Council named Fox "the worst network to watch with your children", describing many of the shows as "100% immoral."
Since the network bought the rights to post-season baseball coverage, Fox has received criticism from non-baseball fans for not airing first-run original programming during October (Baseball fans point out that there are plenty of other broadcast and cable networks available on every TV package that do show original scripted programming). For the majority of the years that Fox has aired baseball, the network started the season for The Simpsons and other shows in November. In 2005, Fox started its season in September, took the month of October off to show the Major League Baseball playoffs, and resumed non-baseball programming in November. Both approaches have drawn criticism. Fox Sports has also received criticism from sports fans of bias towards teams in certain conferences especially during the Super Bowl and the World Series, usually the NFC in football (due to the fact that they own the rights to NFC games) and the AL, especially the New York Yankees, in baseball.
Among baseball enthusiasts, Fox's coverage of Major League Baseball is not thought of highly. Most cite "whooshing" sound effects to accompany on-screen graphics, the use of "Scooter" (a talking baseball created with the intent of teaching the younger audience the difference between pitches), and even analyst Tim McCarver as reasons for their disdain (even though Tim McCarver used to be an analyst at CBS and ABC before he worked at Fox).
FOX's hockey coverage drew the ire of some hockey fans due to a computer-generated "glowing" effect around the puck, which was intended to help casual fans keep up with the action. Ostensibly, it didn't work, as the network chose not to re-sign with the NHL after the initial four-year contract.
Note
- All times given in the Eastern Time Zone.
See also
- Friday night death slot
- Fox Sports
- List of Fox affiliates
- List of programs broadcast by Fox
- List of United States television networks
- Fox Kids
- 4Kids TV
Further reading
- Alex Ben. Block (1990), Outfoxed ISBN 0312039042
- Daniel M. Kimmel (2004), The Fourth Network ISBN 1566635721
External links
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