Information AboutFox Kids |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT FOX KIDS | |
| fox network shows | |
| television programming blocks | |
| childrens television | |
| fox television network | |
| kids | |
| companies established in 1990 | |
| 2002 disestablishments | |
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Fox Kids (officially Fox Family Worldwide, Inc) was the Fox network's children's programming division and brand name from September 8 , 1990 until December 28 , 2001 . It was a Joint Venture between News Corporation Limited and Haim Saban 's Saban Entertainment (known for the Power Rangers Franchise ), airing Mondays-Saturdays. Fox Kids would end in 2001 when Fox sold the money-losing Fox Family Channel and the Fox Kids division to The Walt Disney Company , owing to widening competition from cable channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network . The block continued to run until September 2002 in repeat form, when Fox sold the Saturday morning programming time to 4Kids Entertainment for their own children's block. HISTORY According to James B. Stewart's '' DisneyWar '', Fox Kids' history is intertwined with the history of '' The Disney Afternoon ''. ''Afternoon'' launched on Fox's owned-and-operated stations, as well as the various Fox affiliates. This was due in no small part to the fact that then Disney CEO Michael Eisner and then Fox head Barry Diller had worked together at the ABC network and at Paramount Pictures . When Disney bought a Los Angeles television station, KCAL-TV , it wanted ''Afternoon'' to be shown on it, thus taking it away from Fox owned & operated KTTV . Furious at the breach of contract, Diller then pulled ''Afternoon'' from all other Fox owned & operated stations, and encouraged Fox affiliates to do the same. Fox then went about with the process of launching its own children's programming lineup. Fox Kids began in the Fall of 1990, originally headed up by division president Margaret Loesch and airing programming originally for 30 minutes per day Monday-Friday and three hours on Saturday Morning . In 1991 it expanded to 90 minutes on weekdays and four hours on Saturday mornings. In 1992 the network eventually expanded to 2 1/2 hours Monday-Friday. SCHEDULING In 1993 Fox Kids was up to three hours on Monday-Fridays (usually 2 PM-5PM local time) and four hours on Saturdays (8 AM-12 noon ET / PT , 7 AM-11 AM CT / MT ). Stations had the choice of airing one weekday hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, or all three at the same time in the morning or afternoon. This was because some stations had morning Newscasts , while other stations had strong syndicated programming and news in the afternoons. A few stations had evening newscasts, but wanted to continue to have regular syndicated programming to lead into the news instead of cartoons, so they would run Fox Kids at a different time, earlier in the afternoon from 1-4 PM. Stations that would run it at this time included; Most Emmis -owned (at the time) stations;
In other cities with alternate Independent , UPN or WB stations, Fox contracted to air the Fox Kids block on these other stations so that their O&O and affiliate stations were free to program all of their hours for older audiences or news. The majority of such stations are those that were owned by New World Communications which were once ABC, CBS or NBC affiliates. New World (later merged with Newscorp) affiliated its stations with Fox in 1994-1995 when Fox won the contract to air the NFC football division package. In some cases Fox Kids would be airing on the same station as their competitors, Kids' WB and the former UPN Kids block. Examples include;
LATER HISTORY In 1996, Fox Kids merged with Haim Saban's Saban Entertainment, Inc. ; some of this programming would also air on Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family ). In 1999 the Fox Kids programming weekday block was trimmed to 2 hours, in addition to '' The Magic School Bus '', which had previously aired on PBS . In 2000, affiliates were all given options to push the block up to 2-4 PM instead of 3-5 PM. In the 6 or so markets with 5 PM newscasts that carried Fox Kids (such as St. Louis and New Orleans for example) they already were running the block an hour early back in 1996. Some affiliates (like WLUK) would even Tape Delay the block to air between 10AM and 1PM, one of the lowest-rated time periods on US television. A few only aired ''The Magic School Bus'' in this inconvenient slot, in order to fulfill FCC -mandated 'educational/informational programming' requirements, which require a station air 3 hours of E/I shows per week and to reduce the hit taken by airing lower-cost children's Advertising instead of higher-rated syndicated programming with more advertising revenue. END OF AN ERA, THE TRANSFORMATION TO THE FOXBOX By 2001, Fox stations felt they were on much more even footing with " The Big Three " networks and wanted to take back the Fox Kids programming blocks to air their own programming. Saturday mornings, long only the province of children's programming, had become a liability as the other networks started to extend their weekday Morning Show franchises to the weekends, and the local Fox stations wanted to start Saturday morning newscasts, owing to the cultural change of Saturday becoming the theoretical ' Sixth Weekday '. Fox Kids, long the #1 kids network since at least 1993, had been overtaken by Kids' WB two years prior with the stronger animated block backed by Warner Brothers and containing '' Pokémon '' as well as other Video Game and Anime -based shows like '' Yu-Gi-Oh ''. ABC aired the 'tween-coms' primarily on its sister network Disney Channel , while CBS aired preschool progamming from Nickelodeon , splintering the audience. The added factor of Nickelodeon's aggressive schedule that out-rated all the broadcast networks among children on Saturday mornings left Fox Kids behind, and the programmers could find no way to catch up and stand out in this crowded field. The acquisition of Fox Family Channel by Disney was the final blow to Fox Kids, as it was the second outlet for the block's programming. Without a strong cable network to supplement the broadcast side, Fox felt that it was better to end the block than to let it slowly wither in all the competition. In January 2002 , Saban and News Corp sold the group to The Walt Disney Company , at which time Fox discontinued the daytime children's programming, giving the time back to their affiliates. It maintained a Saturday morning schedule until September 2002 , when it gave the time to 4Kids Entertainment , producers of '' Pokémon ''. The block would be renamed FoxBox for two years until January 2005 , when it was again only to be renamed to ''' 4Kids TV '''. The Walt Disney Company dissolved the U.S. Fox Kids brand in 2001, and it was not until 2004 when they started their own brand, known as Jetix . The worldwide ''Fox Kids'' are slowly being converted to Jetix now, and in Latin America and Europe the rebranding has already taken place. Some of the former Fox Kids programming, such as the ''Power Rangers'', now airs on the US on ABC Family and Toon Disney , which have hours branded as ''Jetix on ABC Family/Toon Disney''; ''Power Rangers'' also airs on the broadcast ABC Kids block. PROGRAMMING TIMELINE 1971-1980
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