(which originally stood for the '''United Paramount Network''') is a
Television Network in the
United States , owned by
CBS Corporation , which also owns the more widespread
CBS network. Because of this dual corporate ownership, in several large American cities, the local CBS and UPN stations are operated as "
Duopolies ."
On
January 24 ,
2006 ,
CBS Corporation and
Warner Bros. Entertainment announced plans to launch the
CW Network in the fall of 2006. This new
Joint Venture network will feature programming from both
The WB and
UPN . CBS chairman
Les Moonves and Warner Bros. Entertainment CEO
Barry Meyer announced that both The WB and UPN will cease independent operations as of September 4, 2006.
[http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060124/nytu143.html?.v=43
'', plans for the new Paramount network were scrapped, though Paramount would contribute some programs to ''
Operation Prime Time '', like the mini-series ''A Woman Called Golda'', and the weekly pop music program, ''
Solid Gold ''.
Paramount, and its eventual parent Viacom, didn't forget about the possibility. Independent stations, even more than network affiliates, were feeling the growing pressure of audience erosion to ''.
Paramount had formed Paramount Stations Group when it purchased the
TVX Group , which owned several independent stations in major markets, a move not unlike that of the purchase of the
Metromedia Group by Fox several years previously. All indicators suggested what was to come.
UPN was launched '', was an auspiciously widely viewed start; however, ''Voyager'' would never achieve such viewership levels again, nor would any of the series debuting on UPN's second night of broadcasting survive the season. In contrast,
The WB Network (UPN's arch-rival) debuted two days later, on
January 18 , with four series, only one of which, ''
Muscle '', would not survive its first season.
In
2000 , Paramount's parent company,
Viacom , bought out Chris-Craft's share to gain 100 percent control of the venture. Shortly afterward, Viacom dropped the "United" name for its new network, opting to change the official corporate name to the three-letter initials, "UPN." Viacom also aimed to relaunch UPN as , using the famous Paramount Pictures mountain logo as the new network logo. This idea was abandoned after many affiliates protested, citing that the new branding might cause confusion and erode viewership. A few months before, Viacom bought CBS, thus creating CBS-UPN duopolies in
Philadelphia ,
Boston ,
Dallas ,
Detroit , and
Pittsburgh -it is said that Viacom's purchase of CBS was the "death knell" for the FCC's "no duopolies at all rule". Since then, acquisitions of stations have added
San Francisco and
Sacramento to the mix.
Although considered a major network by the '', perhaps suffering the most and ultimately being cancelled by the network in a controversial decision in February 2005. The most consistent ratings performer for the network has been their Thursday offering from
World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly the WWF), ''WWE
SmackDown! '' (although it now airs on Fridays). In the
2004 -
2005 season, the network was getting consistently better ratings than the WB, much of this thanks to the WWE. Executives at UPN also suggested those same-season Nielsen ratings may underrepresent the viewership of its core
African-American audience, after noticing a 20% dip in key demographics for its
African-American -oriented
Situation Comedies early in the season.
It was estimated in
2003 that UPN is viewable by 85.98% of all households, reaching 91,689,290 houses in the United States. UPN has approximately 143 full-power owned-and-operated or primary affiliate stations in the U.S. and another 65 stations air some UPN programming as secondary affiliates. Many existing stations operate a UPN affiliate on one of their digital channels.
Chris-Craft later sold its television group to Fox. The sale placed UPN's future in doubt, as it included the network's flagship,
WWOR-TV in
Secaucus , as well as
West Coast flagship
KCOP-TV in
Los Angeles . Fox later bought the third-largest UPN affiliate,
WPWR-TV in
Gary . Until this time, WWOR was the largest owned-and-operated UPN affiliate, due to Chris-Craft owning the station. After the sale, the largest owned-and-operated UPN station became
WPSG-TV in Philadelphia, although the most watched UPN affiliate became
WGNT-TV , a UPN owned-and-operated affiliate in Norfolk, VA.
New shows began to breathe life into the network starting in Fall 2003 with ''
America's Next Top Model '', in Fall 2004 with ''
Veronica Mars '' and ''
Kevin Hill '' (starring
Taye Diggs ), and in Fall 2005 with
Chris Rock 's ''
Everybody Hates Chris ''. Network executives have stated that UPN's current desired demographic is young women and
African-American s. This was seen as a contributing factor in the network's decision to drop the ''Star Trek'' franchise, and also contemplate not renewing its contract with the WWE, though ''SmackDown'' has been renewed in
2006 for another two seasons.
When Viacom split into two companies at the end of 2005, UPN became a unit of the
CBS Corporation .
The first official UPN network programming was the series ''''. Other early UPN programs included the action show ''
Nowhere Man '' starring
Bruce Greenwood , the action show ''
Marker '' starring
Richard Grieco , the action comedy ''
Legend '' starring
Richard Dean Anderson , the science-fiction themed action show, ''
The Sentinel '', and ''
Moesha '', a sitcom starring
Brandy Norwood .
After ''Voyager'''s 7-season run came to an end, UPN began broadcasting the newest ''''. UPN also bought the rights to broadcast the popular television shows ''
Buffy The Vampire Slayer '', ''
Clueless '', ''
The Hughleys '', and ''
Roswell '' from
20th Century Fox ,
Viacom ,
ABC and
The WB , respectively, after ABC and The WB cancelled those series.
The network also produced some special programs.
For example, they presented the ''
Iron Chef USA '' program during
Christmas 2001 . UPN also shows the
WWE 's ''
SmackDown! '' show, ''
America's Next Top Model '', ''
Girlfriends '',
''
Veronica Mars '', ''
Everybody Hates Chris '', loosely based on the childhood of comedian
Chris Rock , and in the Summer of 2005 UPN aired ''
R U The Girl '', in which
R&B group
TLC searched for a woman to join them on a new song.
UPN has a new policy of ''"not picking up other networks' scraps,"'' which was a strong argument when fan pressure was generated in 2004 for them to pick up ''
Angel '', the
Spin-off of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' which was dropped from the WB.
UPN is one of only two of the broadcast networks (
I is the other) not to air a children's programming block on weekend mornings. When UPN launched in
1995 , the station aired cartoons on weekends; the lineup was known as . In
1998 , UPN went a different way with its children's program block by airing reruns of the syndicated ''
Sweet Valley High '' and a new series, ''
Breaker High '' on weekdays and weekends aiming the programs at teenagers. As opposed to ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox stations, some UPN affiliates aired the weekend children's program block on Sunday mornings instead of Saturdays.
In '' moved to the lineup from
Fox Kids .
After seven years of airing children's programming, UPN dropped out of the kids program business in
October 2004 when Disney's contract with UPN came to an end. As of
April 2006 , UPN has no current plans of returning kids programming to the network. When
The CW Television Network launches, they are expected to utilize the
Kids' WB lineup for children's programming.
Some Fox stations decide to carry Fox's
4Kids Entertainment block to a UPN station in their market (or an
Independent Station ) so the Fox affiliate can air general entertainment or local news programming on Saturday mornings.
WFLD 32 in
Chicago , for example, has recently moved the 4KidsTV schedule to UPN affiliate
WPWR-TV Channel 50, while Channel 32 airs news and children's programming in place of the shows. Also some UPN stations some times aired cartoons from the 1980's, most of these cartoons were made by
DIC Entertainment and usually air one cartoon per day (similar to the WB and Fox stations).
Although they currently run them very rarely, UPN has produced a number of
Television Movies . Almost all of them were
Science-fiction , and mostly ran during the late 1990s. For a full list, see
List Of Television Films Produced For United Paramount Network .
During the mid-1990s when it was launched, UPN began having most of its stations branded as "UPN" or "Paramount", then the channel number, with the call signs nearby. By the late 1990s, the call signs were minimized to be just barely readable to meet
FCC requirements, and the stations were simply known as "UPN", then channel number or city. (e.g.
WPWR in Chicago had been referred to as "UPN Chicago" and
WWOR in New York was referred to as "UPN 9" until the CW merger was announced in late January 2006.) This would be a continuation of the trend for networks to do such naming schemes, originated at Fox, especially at CBS, who uses the CBS Mandate on all of their O&O stations. The WB,
NBC and
ABC also do similar naming schemes, but not to that extreme.
However, while the traditional "Big Three" don't require their affiliates to have such naming schemes (though some affiliates choose to adopt it anyway) and only on their O&O's are required,
Fox and UPN mandate it on all stations, though
The WB does not.
