Fox Kids
Network | Fox |
---|---|
Launched | September 8, 1990
|
Closed | September 7, 2002 Saban Entertainment ) | (replaced by
Formerly known as |
|
Sister network | Fox Children's Productions |
Format | Children's programming |
Original language(s) | American English |
Official website | Official website |
Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a joint venture between the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox) and its affiliated stations, it was later owned by Fox Family Worldwide.[2]
The Fox Kids brand originated on a programming block that launched on the Fox network from September 8, 1990, to September 7, 2002. The block aired on Saturday mornings throughout its existence (Sunday mornings in Canada), with an additional lineup on Monday through Friday afternoons airing until January 2002. Fox Kids is the only form of daytime television programming, outside of sports, aired by the Fox network to date.[3][4] Following then-Fox parent News Corporation's sale of Fox Kids Worldwide to The Walt Disney Company in July 2001, Fox put the remaining Saturday morning timeslot up for bidding, with 4Kids Entertainment winning and securing the rights to program that period. The Fox Kids block continued to air until September 7, 2002, and was replaced the following week (on September 14) by the 4Kids-programmed FoxBox block.[5]
Fox Kids was best known for airing the most-popular programs on the network, such as Bobby’s World and the Power Rangers series, with the latter dominating the block's schedule with increased ratings and creating a franchise, resulting in Fox Kids frequently using Power Rangers for its promotions due to the shows’ popularity.[6]
Outside the United States, the first Fox Kids-branded television channel was launched in Australia on October 1, 1995, on cable and satellite television provider Foxtel. It then expanded to the UK and Ireland, launching on BSkyB in 1996, and after that it started broadcasts in Latin America on November of that same year. The channel expanded between 1997 and 2001 in Europe and Middle East,[7] and beginning in 2004, the international Fox Kids channels were gradually relaunched under the Jetix brand following Disney's acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide.[citation needed]
History
According to James B. Stewart's book DisneyWar, Fox Kids' history is intertwined with that of the syndicated children's program block The Disney Afternoon. DuckTales, the series that served as the launching pad for The Disney Afternoon, premiered in syndication in September 1987, airing on Fox's owned-and-operated stations as well as various Fox affiliates in many markets. This may have been due to the fact that the Walt Disney Company's chief operating officer at the time, Michael Eisner, and his then-Fox counterpart, Barry Diller, had worked together at ABC and at Paramount Pictures.[8]
In 1988, Disney purchased
Fox Kids was launched on September 8, 1990, as the Fox Children's Network, a joint venture between the Fox Broadcasting Company and its affiliates.[2] Originally headed by division president Margaret Loesch, its programming aired for 30 minutes per day on Monday through Fridays, and for 3 hours on Saturday mornings.
In September 1991, the block was rebranded as the Fox Kids Network, with its programming expanding to 90 minutes on weekdays and 4 hours on Saturday mornings. The weekday editions of the block grew to three hours the following year.
In 1994, the Fox Kids brand extended to home video, where FoxVideo launched a line, Fox Kids Video, initially releasing titles based on
Scheduling
Throughout most of its history, Fox Kids aired several promos for its programs during commercial breaks, with no exact time slots announced for the shows. This was due to the programs airing at different times depending on the local Fox-affiliated station's schedule in the viewer's television market (i.e., if Fox Kids aired a promo for a show such as Power Rangers, it would not announce an exact Monday-Friday/Saturday time slot to viewers, forcing the viewers to check their local Fox station listings, such as their TV Guide or newspaper, to search for the air time of the show, and some stations use voiceovers to announce the time slot, similar to those like first-run syndicated programs and/or PBS' PTV block at the time).
By the fall of 1992, Fox Kids increased its schedule to three hours on Monday through Fridays, airing usually from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM local time (making Fox the first network to air programming in the 4:00 p.m. hour since 1986),[citation needed] and four hours on Saturdays from 8:00 AM to noon Eastern and Pacific Time (7:00 AM to 11:00 AM Central and Mountain). Many stations split the weekday lineup programming into a one-hour block in the morning and a two-hour block in the afternoon (though this varied slightly in some markets), when network programs intertwined with syndicated children's lineups. Other stations aired all three hours combined in the afternoon due to their carriage of local morning newscasts and/or syndicated talk shows; stations that aired such programming in this case had dropped children's programs acquired via the syndication market, moving them to other "independent" stations. Very few Fox stations aired all three hours of the weekday block in the morning.[citation needed]
In 1992, Fox Kids began holding a "TV Takeover" event on Thanksgiving afternoon.[13]
Broadcasting ambiguities
When Fox Kids launched, it was carried on virtually all of Fox's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates, with few (if any) declining to carry it. The first Fox station to drop the block was Miami affiliate WSVN, the network's first station to maintain a news-intensive format, in 1993 (the station had been a Fox affiliate since January 1989 as a result of NBC purchasing and moving its programming to longtime CBS affiliate WTVJ in a three-station ownership and affiliation swap in the Miami market).
The following year, in May 1994, Fox signed a
Between 1995 and early 1996, Fox acquired three former ABC-affiliated stations (WHBQ-TV/Memphis, KTVI/St. Louis, and WGHP/High Point). Meanwhile,
Much of the Fox Kids lineup's early programming was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, calling Fox Children's Network a "one-stop shop," essentially pulling out of the children's syndication market by signing a $100-million deal with Fox in May 1991. This meant they moved all their existing programming to Fox Kids.[19] Two of Fox Kids' most popular programs, Animaniacs (following a heated dispute with Fox after it ceded the program's timeslot to carry Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which became one of the block's highest-rated programs when it debuted in 1993) and Batman: The Animated Series, moved to The WB after that network launched in January 1995, though Batman: The Animated Series would remain on Fox Kids until 1997. Both Animaniacs and a slightly revamped Batman served as the linchpin of The WB's new children's block, Kids' WB, when it launched in September of that year (Tiny Toon Adventures, another early Fox Kids program that Warner Bros. produced and also aired on Kids' WB in reruns, had already ended its run).
In 1996, after having established a "strategic alliance" with Fox,
In 1998, Fox bought out its affiliates' interest in Fox Kids as part of a deal to help pay for the network's NFL package.[2] The Fox Kids weekday block was reduced to two hours, and in an effort to help its affiliates comply with the recently implemented educational programming mandates defined by the Children's Television Act, reruns of former PBS series The Magic School Bus were added to the lineup.[23] In 2000, affiliates were given the option of pushing the block up one hour to air from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM rather than 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM In the six or so markets where a Fox affiliate carried Fox Kids and carried an early evening newscast at 5:00 PM (such as St. Louis and New Orleans), the station was already running the block an hour early by 1996. Some affiliates (such as WLUK-TV) would tape delay the block to air between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM, one of the lowest-rated time periods on U.S. television (and when virtually all children 5 years of age and older are at school). A few only aired The Magic School Bus in this sort of graveyard slot as an act of malicious compliance with the Children's Television Act. Fox Kids fought vehemently against the E/I rule during its development.[24]
End of Fox Kids
By 2001, members of the Fox affiliate board had felt they were on much more even footing with the "
Fox Kids, which had been the top-rated children's program block among the major networks since 1992, had been overtaken in the ratings by ABC's
After Fox Family Worldwide was sold to The Walt Disney Company in July 2001, Fox Kids was placed under the oversight of
Fox Kids was replaced by the 4Kids Entertainment-produced FoxBox block on September 14, 2002. The block, renamed 4Kids TV on January 22, 2005, ran until December 27, 2008, marking Fox's complete withdrawal from children's programming, with the exception of educational programming acquired from the syndication market, most notably Xploration Station, which began airing primary on Fox stations in 2014.
After Fox Kids
While Fox Kids ended its existence on broadcast television in the United States, Disney instituted a two-hour morning lineup on its newly acquired ABC Family cable channel (known as the "ABC Family Action Block") that was programmed similarly to Fox Kids and featured content originated on the block.
Internationally, Fox Kids Europe continued to operate the international channels in Europe, Israel, while The Walt Disney Company themselves took over the
On January 8, 2004, Fox Kids Europe, Fox Kids Latin America, and ABC Cable Networks Group announced the launch of Jetix, a brand that would take over the Fox Kids networks in Europe, Israel and Latin America, and operate as a block in all other territories, including North America.[31][32] Within the global launch of the brand, the Fox Kids Europe company was renamed as Jetix Europe, with the first European Fox Kids network to make the rebranding being the French feed in August 2004, and ending with the German feed's rebranding in June 2005.
The Fox Kids name was used again for the web series Fox Kids Movie Challenge, produced by 20th Century Fox for the Fox Family Entertainment YouTube channel despite having no affiliation with the brand.[33]
Programming
Radio
In addition to the program block, Fox Kids had its own radio program in the United States, the Fox Kids Radio Countdown. This two-hour broadcast was hosted by Chris Leary of ZDTV and TechTV fame and consisted of contests and gags, with sound effects incorporated throughout the program. It was later renamed as Fox All Access (in effect, growing up with its original audience) and served primarily as a promotional vehicle for Fox television programs, current artists, and films in its later years, before eventually ending its run in 2012.[citation needed]
See also
- 4Kids TV – successor children's program block to Fox Kids, running from September 2002 to December 2008, produced by 4Kids Entertainment.
- Jetix – action-oriented children's program block on ABC Family and Toon Disney, and international cable channels owned by The Walt Disney Company, operating from 2004 to 2009.
- Kids' WB – competitor that was later bought by 4Kids and rebranded as CW4Kids, later Toonzai.
- Vortexx – children's program block produced by Saban Brands for The CW from August 2012 to September 2014.
References
- ^ "Fox Kids Europe Name Change Official". 14 July 2004.
- ^ a b c d Michael Schneider; Melissa Grego (September 9, 2001). "Fox Kids net adopted by Fox TV Ent". Variety. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
- ^ Heather Tomlinson (July 28, 2001). "Murdoch parts with the Power Rangers and the preacher man". The Independent. London. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
- ^ Daniel Cerone (February 20, 1993). "Animated Series Has Helped Fox Challenge the Other Networks on Saturday Mornings". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
- ^ a b Paula Bernstein (January 18, 2002). "4Kids buys 4 hours from Fox Kids". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
- ^ "'Power Rangers' takes Fox Kids to the top". USA Today. October 9, 1994.
- ^ "Channel Launches". Archived from the original on 2005-09-11.
- ISBN 0-6848-0993-1.
- ^ Michael Cieply (February 22, 1990). "Disney, Fox Clash Over Children's TV Programming". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
- ^ McCormick, Moira (March 5, 1994). "Child's Play" (PDF). Billboard. p. 55. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
- ^ Goldstein, Seth; Fitzpatrick, Eileen (April 22, 1995). "FoxVideo Aims Titles At Toddlers" (PDF). Billboard. p. 6. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
- ^ Goldstein, Seth (February 22, 1997). "Picture This" (PDF). Billboard. p. 75. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
- ^ "HOLIDAY TV : Zoning Out on Turkeys, Pigskins, Parades". Los Angeles Times. 1993-11-25. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
- ^ "Fox Gains 12 Stations in New World Deal". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. May 23, 1994. Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
- ^ "CBS, NBC Battle for AFC Rights // Fox Steals NFC Package". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. December 18, 1993. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012.
- ^ Brian Lowry (July 18, 1996). "New World Vision : Murdoch's News Corp. to Buy Broadcast Group". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- St. Louis Post Dispatch.
- St. Louis Post Dispatch.
- ^ CERONE, DANIEL (17 July 1991). "Fox Goes on a Children's Crusade : Television: Fox is aggressively targeting young viewers, programming on weekdays as well as Saturdays". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
- ^ Barry Hillier (November 1, 1996). "Fox Kids Worldwide is born". Kidscreen. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
- ^ Katz, Richard (July 10, 1998). "Fox Family squeezes 'Club' in youthful sked". Variety. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ Connie Bruck (May 10, 2010). "The Influencer". The New Yorker. Condé Nast.
- ^ Cynthia Littleton (December 3, 1997). "'Bus' rolling to Fox Kids". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
- ^ Wharton, Dennis (October 30, 1995). "NAB, FCC square off over kidvid". Variety. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
- ^ Katz, Richard (May 8, 1998). "ABC kids block tops Fox on Saturday". Variety. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
- ^ "NICK RETAINS SATURDAY CROWN". Broadcasting &Cable. June 18, 2001. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
- ^ "Fox Kids wins Broadcast Ratings". Anime News Network. 2001-02-19. Retrieved 2018-11-02.
- ^ a b Michael Schneider (November 7, 2001). "Fox outgrows kids programs". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
- ^ Hofmeister, Sallie (21 July 2001). "Walt Disney to Acquire Fox Family". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Annual report 2002Archived 8 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Edmunds, Marlene (9 January 2004). "Fox Kids, ABC cable jet to int'l Jetix kidvid pact". Daily Variety. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
- ^ Derrick, Stuart (22 March 2004). "Licensing: Fox Kids readies a European shake-up". Marketing Magazine. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ "Fox Kids Movie Challenge". YouTube. Fox Family Entertainment. Retrieved 28 March 2019.