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FOX: Difference between revisions
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The [[Fox]] network began broadcasts in 1986 in [[Late Night]] with the ''Late Show with Joan Rivers'', but it was more of a whimper than a bang. [[The Tonight Show|Johnny Carson]] [[I Have No Son|disowned]] his former guest host Rivers completely, providing a literal kiss of death (she was never forgiven by Carson) to the show before it ever began. She lasted less than a year before the show would die a slow death with guest hosts. Fox has never done well in late night and eventually gave the time back to their affiliates to run mainly ''[[Seinfeld]]'' reruns (after ''The Wilton-North Report'' nearly broke up the network completely), and the less said about Chevy Chase's [[Old Shame|short run on Fox, the better]].
Fox truly launched in April 1987 in primetime, making its name with edgy, risque TV shows like ''[[The Simpsons]]'', ''[[Married... with Children]]'', ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'', and the pioneering [[Reality Show]] ''[[Cops (series)]]''. In 1993, they shocked the industry by picking up the [[wikipedia:National Football Conference|NFC]] contract for over a billion dollars. The network then signed up with stations owned by [[wikipedia:New World Communications|New World Communications]], owner of stations in several NFC markets. While [[ABC]] and [[NBC]] were hurt by this loss, it had truly devastating effects on [[CBS]], who had to move to lower-tier UHF stations in several cities (such as [[wikipedia:WGCL-TV|channel 46 in Atlanta]], initially set to affiliate with [[The WB]], and [[wikipedia:WWJ-TV|channel 62 in Detroit]]). Fox also signed over football commentators from CBS in addition to plundering its affiliates. The combination of the New World deal and the football contract in the early '90s were responsible for cementing Fox's status as being on par to the three major networks.
Today, thanks to the success of ''[[American Idol]]'', [[Fox]] is running neck-and-neck with CBS for first place in the ratings, eliminating any doubt as to its position on American television. The network is often stereotyped (rightfully or wrongly) for being [[The Firefly Effect|overly trigger-happy]] [[Screwed by the Network|in terms of cancelling shows]], which has been mocked by ''[[Family Guy]]'', [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/080226.html among others].
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