Fox Broadcasting Company
The
Fox Broadcasting Company, usually referred to as just
Fox (the company itself prefers the capitalized version
FOX), is a
television network in the
United States. It is owned by
Fox Entertainment Group, part of
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation. Since its launch on
October 9,
1986, FOX has grown from an upstart "netlet" to the highest-rated broadcast network among younger viewers.
The Fox name has been used on other entertainment channels internationally that are affiliated with News Corp., including in
Japan,
Italy,
Spain,
Portugal,
South America, and
Australia (
FOX8), although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U.S. network.
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.[
1] 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. As of
2006, both America's Most Wanted and Cops were still in active production and are among primetime TV's longest running television shows.
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,
Damon Wayans,
Keenen Ivory Wayans,
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 scheduled to be revived) and
King of the Hill (1997–2006).
Family Guy (1999–2002 and 2005–) Family Guy was cancelled in 2002, but the network commissioned new episodes that began 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.
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 and having had a successful run of summer repeats in 2005, 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.
|
FOX News Special Presentation title card for FOX News coverage on the FOX Broadcast Network. |
Unlike the "
Big Three", Fox does not air national morning or evening 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.
Many Fox stations have a local morning newscast that airs on average three to four hours, including an extra two hours from 7 to 9 a.m. as a local alternative to nationwide morning programming. 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. Fox tried its hand again in 2003 at another morning show called
Good Day Live, inspired by KTTV's Good Day L.A. -- this time in syndication mode. The show did not fared well in ratings and was cancelled in 2005. So in January 2007, Fox will try for a third to roll out a new 9 a.m. morning show for its O&O stations, hosted by
Mike Jerrick and
Juliet Huddy of the Fox News Channel's
DaySide program. The plan is for a lighter, more entertainment-oriented show, though that can change when there's big news. The network will try to persuade other Fox affiliates to show the new program before it decides whether to also syndicate it instead. [
2]
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).
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
Batman: The Animated Series, (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. Today, Fox affliates now air syndicated childrens programming from
DiC Entertainment.
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").
In 2006, more standarization of the O&O's is taking place both on the air and online. All the O&O's are adopting an on air look more closely aligned with the Fox News Channel. This includes changing the logos of all O&O's to have the same red white and blue rotating box logo of the Fox News Channel. The news music and graphics will be the same on all the O&O's as well.
Taking a cue from News Corp's recent acquision of Myspace.com, all the Fox O&O's launched new websites that look the same and have similar addresses. Myfoxdc.com, myfoxny.com, myfoxla.com respectively take you to the Washington, D.C., New York City and Los Angeles Fox O&O's. Until now, Fox O&O's had very limited websites with few news updates and almost no video. The new sites are updated constantly and have dozens of video clips.
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. Scheduled premiere dates are shown in parentheses. [
3] [
4]
All times are
Eastern and
Pacific (subtract one hour for
Central and
Mountain time).
Fall 2006
| Fall 2006 | 7:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:30 PM | | Sunday | NFL Postgame † (9/10) | The Simpsons (9/10) | American Dad! (NT) (9/10) | Family Guy (9/10) | The War At Home (NT) (9/10) |
|---|
| Monday | Local Programming | Prison Break (8/21) | Vanished (8/21) |
|---|
| Tuesday | House (NT) (9/5) | Standoff (9/5) |
|---|
| Wednesday | Bones (8/30) | Justice (8/30) |
|---|
| Thursday | 'Til Death (9/7) | Happy Hour (9/7) | The O.C. (11/2) |
|---|
| Friday | Nanny 911 (9/8) | Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy (9/8) |
|---|
| Saturday | COPS (9/9) | COPS (9/9) | America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (9/9)|}
*Saturday latenight lineup
**11:00 PM - MADtv (9/16)
**12:00 AM - Talk Show with Spike Feresten (9/16)
*(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 (tentative)The Wedding Album is the only currently scheduled new midseason show*Saturday latenight lineup
**11:00 PM - MADtv
**12:00 AM - Talk Show with Spike Feresten
*(NT) - New TimeIn addition to the differences in news programming mentioned above, Fox only airs two hours of network programming during the prime time hours (three hours on Sundays), compared to the three hours (four on Sundays) by the other major networks. This 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 [5] 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 also 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.)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 2007 on cable's Comedy Central. FOX was also heavily criticized on its decision to cancel the critically-acclaimed Arrested Development. The show was rumored to be picked up by Showtime or HBO, but no news has yet been released.
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 ([6], [7]).
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 match ESPN/ABC Sports' five-year/$600 million contract - as was their prerogative - with the NHL in August 1998. FOX did not retain the technology for their final season of coverage.*All times given in the Eastern and Pacific Time Zones.*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*Alex Ben. Block (1990), Outfoxed ISBN 0312039042
*Daniel M. Kimmel (2004), The Fourth Network ISBN 1566635721*Fox website
*Fox Japan
|
|---|
