Information AboutUpn |
UPN (which originally stood for the '''United Paramount Network''') was a Television Network that broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States and that was in production for over eleven years. UPN was owned by CBS Corporation , which also owns the more widespread CBS network. Its first night of broadcasting was January 16 , 1995 . UPN shut down on September 15 , 2006 , and was replaced with The CW Television Network . HISTORY Origins Paramount Pictures (the "P" in UPN) has played a pivotal role in the development of network television; it was a partner in the DuMont Television Network , and the Paramount Theaters chain, spun off from the corporate/studio parent, was an early, important component of the ABC television network's survival in the 1950s. See Also: Paramount Television Network In the wake of the successful '', 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 ''. Launch Paramount had formed Paramount Stations Group when it purchased the TVX Group , which owned several independent stations in major markets. This was not unlike of the purchase of the Metromedia stations by FOX several years previously. All indicators suggested what was to come. UPN 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 debuted one week earlier, on January 11 , with four series; only one of which, '' Muscle '', would not survive its first season. Viacom takes full control 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 Paramount Network, using a logo based off the famous Paramount Pictures mountain logo and the '''P''' triangle of the UPN logo (which already stood for Paramount) 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/Fort Worth , 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". Further transactions added San Francisco (which was traded to Viacom/CBS by FOX) and Sacramento to the mix. 2001-2005 At the time of UPN's launch, the network's Flagship Station was WWOR-TV in New York City , owned by Chris-Craft . Even after Chris-Craft sold its share of the network to Viacom, WWOR was still commonly regarded as the flagship station since it had long been common practice to accord this status to a network's New York station. For this reason, some cast doubt on UPN's future after FOX bought most of Chris-Craft's television holdings. Several UPN stations were part of the deal, including WWOR and West Coast flagship KCOP-TV in Los Angeles . FOX later bought the third-largest UPN affiliate, WPWR-TV in Chicago . After Chris-Craft sold its stake in UPN, the network's largest Owned And Operated Station was WPSG in Philadelphia . New shows began to breathe life into the network starting in Fall 2003 with '' America's Next Top Model '' and Will Smith 's '' All Of Us '', in Fall 2004 with '' Veronica Mars '', and in Fall 2005 with Chris Rock 's '' Everybody Hates Chris ''. During the later years of the network's life, UPN's desired demographic was young Women and African-Americans . This was seen as a contributing factor in the network's decision to drop the '' Star Trek '' franchise, and also why it contemplated not renewing its contract with World Wrestling Entertainment , though '' Friday Night SmackDown! '' was 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 . Network closure UPN quietly went off the air on '' was the last official program (although some affiliates aired the optional weekend encore block), ending its existence after 11 years. However, UPN affiliates owned by Fox Television Stations Group ended all ties to the network on August 31 , 2006 . As a result UPN did not air its last two weeks of programming in New York City , Los Angeles , Chicago and six other Media Market s in which FOX owned the UPN station, also due in part to then upstart FOX owned MyNetworkTV , which was set to debut during that time on those stations. With the exception of ''WWE Friday Night SmackDown!'', all programming during the final three months were reruns. ''Friday Night SmackDown!'', however, was aired in those markets on WB stations owned by Tribune, which have since become CW stations. After the network's official closure, UPN's website was redirected to CBS's website. Executive management
AVAILABILITY See Also: List of UPN affiliates Although it was 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 was '' WWE SmackDown! ''. In the 2004 - 2005 season, the network was getting consistently better ratings than The WB, much of this thanks to WWE. John Consoli, "UPN's Start-of-Week Blues", ''Mediaweek'', October 23, 2004.. It was estimated in 2003 that UPN was viewable by 85.98% of all households, reaching 91,689,290 houses in the United States. UPN had approximately 143 full-power owned-and-operated or primary affiliate stations in the U.S. and another 65 stations aired some UPN programming as secondary affiliates. PROGRAMMING See Also: List of programs broadcast by UPN The first official UPN network programming was the series '' slot. The lead off comedy was '' Platypus Man '' starring Richard Jeni and also featuring Denise Miller of '' Archie Bunker's Place '' fame. This debuted in the 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central Time) slot. Both received mixed reviews and neither lasted long. Other early UPN programs included the action show '' Nowhere Man '' starring Bruce Greenwood , the action show '' Marker '' starring Richard Grieco , the comic western '' Legend '' starring Richard Dean Anderson , the science-fiction themed action show, '' The Sentinel '', and '' Moesha '', a sitcom starring Brandy Norwood . Of the network's first season lineup, only ''Star Trek: Voyager'' lasted longer than one season. UPN outmaneuvered The WB to buy the critically acclaimed '' Buffy The Vampire Slayer '' from 20th Century Fox in 2001. ''Buffy'' continued on UPN for two more seasons. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117795697.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&query=buffy+upn+20th UPN also bought the rights to broadcast the popular television shows '' Clueless '' (formerly on ABC), '' The Hughleys '' (formerly on ABC), and '' Roswell '' (formerly on The WB). The former show is from Viacom , while the latter two are from 20th Century Fox . After ''Voyager'''s 7-season run came to an end, UPN began broadcasting the newest ''''. The network also produced some special programs. For example, they presented the '' Iron Chef USA '' program during Christmas 2001 . UPN also showed the WWE 's '' SmackDown! '' show, '' America's Next Top Model '', '' Girlfriends '', '' Veronica Mars '', and '' Everybody Hates Chris '', loosely based on the childhood of comedian Chris Rock . 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. In its later years, as part of the network's desire to maintain its own unique identity with its own unique shows, UPN had a 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 aired only one network sports event program: the much-hyped XFL aired in 2001 , as part of a package from co-creator Vince McMahon which also included what was then '' WWF SmackDown! '' UPN had planned to air a second season of the league in 2002 , but it also demanded a reduction in the airtime of ''SmackDown!'' by 30 minutes. McMahon did not agree to the change and the XFL folded just after that. Like The WB, UPN never aired a national Newscast . Children's programming See Also: UPN Kids In its last three seasons, UPN was one of only two of the broadcast networks ( ION Television was 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 UPN Kids . 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 . This was due to Disney's acquisition of FOX's children's programming department (now known as Jetix ) as well as the Fox Family Channel, now renamed ABC Family . After eight years of airing children's programming, UPN dropped out of the kids program business in September 2003 when Disney's contract with UPN came to an end. Reasons included FCC restrictions on quantity of advertising on children's programs, the content of such advertising, the fact syndicators were moving their most popular product to cable only, and the growth of cable channels directed at children (which have fewer advertising restrictions). As of January 2006, UPN had no plans of returning kids programming to the network, but it became a moot point due to its merger with The WB creating The CW. When The CW launched, they carried over the Kids' WB Saturday morning lineup from The WB. Some FOX stations decided to carry over Fox's 4Kids TV block to a UPN, WB, or Independent Station , so the FOX affiliate could air general entertainment or local news programming on Saturday mornings. WFLD 32 in Chicago , for example, moved the 4Kids TV schedule to co-owned UPN (now MyNetworkTV ) affiliate WPWR-TV Channel 50, while Channel 32 airs news and different children's programming in place of the shows. Also, some UPN stations aired a block of cartoon programming from DIC Entertainment (such as '' Trollz '' and '' Sherlock Holmes In The 22nd Century '') which was designed to meet the minimal three hours of E/I programming required by the FCC, and usually airs either six days a week for a half-hour each day, or in three hour-long blocks throughout the week. Television movies See Also: List of television films produced for UPN Although they ran them very rarely at its closure, UPN produced a number of Television Movies . Almost all of them were Science Fiction , and mostly ran during the late 1990s. The network also offered a weekend afternoon movie series called the ''UPN Movie Trailer'' to their stations from the network's inception up until 2002 , which featured mostly older Hollywood action and comedy films which had their rights acquired by UPN or were Paramount Pictures releases. ''UPN Movie Trailer'' was discontinued after 2002 to add an optional second weekend run of ''Star Trek: Enterprise'', ''America's Next Top Model'', and later ''Veronica Mars'', for stations that wanted to take it. Shows that almost aired on UPN
STATION STANDARDIZATION 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-TV in Chicago had been referred to as "UPN Chicago" and WWOR-TV in New York was referred to as "UPN 9" until the CW merger was announced in late January 2006). But most UPN Owned And Operated Station s under the CBS Corporation branded it by network and city according to the CBS Mandate . For example, KBCW in San Francisco was branded "UPN Bay Area," WKBD in Detroit was branded "UPN Detroit" and WUPL in New Orleans was branded "UPN New Orleans." However, that didn't always apply, as WSBK-TV in Boston was branded "UPN 38" and KMAX-TV in Sacramento was branded "UPN 31," for example. WPCW Channel 19 in Pittsburgh (formerly WNPA) originally branded itself as "UPN 19", but changed over to "UPN Pittsburgh" soon after the UPN logo change, making it one of the few that had carried both standardization styles. This would be a continuation of the trend for networks to do such naming schemes, originated at FOX (and even earlier at CBC in Canada), especially at CBS , who uses the CBS Mandate on almost 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 is the style required, UPN mandated it on all stations (as FOX currently does), though The WB did not. IN POPULAR CULTURE
NOTES SEE ALSO
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