Still The One
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- This article is about the promotional campaign. For the song by the band Orleans, see Still The One (song).
Still the One is a promotional campaign that has been used on several television networks around the world. The slogan was originated by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 1977, and later adopted by the Nine Network in Australia, as well as Sky Television (now British Sky Broadcasting) in the United Kingdom.
[edit] American Broadcasting Company
Early on in its history, ABC often finished third in the ratings behind the other two networks in the United States: CBS and NBC. However, the network's fortune had improved by the late 1970s, with hits such as Roots and Happy Days. The 1976-77 season marked the first time that ABC placed first in the national ratings.
At around the same time, the network began using various versions of the phrase "The One" in its promotional materials. "Let Us Be the One" was introduced in 1976, based on the song by The Carpenters. The next season, coinciding with its newfound success as the number one network, ABC launched the "Still the One" campaign with help from JAM Productions of Dallas, Texas. It featured a version of the 1976 song by the group Orleans, also called "Still The One".
ABC used a different campaign, "We're the One", in the following season. "Still the One" was brought back for the 1979-80 season, before being replaced by "You and Me and ABC".
ABC's owned-and-operated station in New York City, WABC-TV, also used an instrumental version of the music to close its evening newscasts from 1980 to 1984. [1]
[edit] Nine Network
Australia's Nine Network often used similar promotional campaigns as ABC [2], and adopted "Still the One" a few years after its introduction in the United States. The campaign's original incarnation also made use of the song by Orleans.
The network uses the slogan as part of its boast of being the overall ratings leader. Nine has dominated television ratings for many years in Australia, only falling to second place for short periods (for example, during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which were telecast on its arch-rival, the Seven Network).
It is a favourite target of satirists including D-Generation on The Late Show in the early 1990s with a fairly famous sketch called "Still Number Four", where number four refers to ABC TV.
The promo persisted in Australia even long after it had been dropped in the United States, and Nine continued to air various versions of it over the years. Updates to the original Orleans song were used in some years, while other years saw the use of decidedly unrelated songs, with the "Still the One" tagline only seen in text form. The promo has also been shortened over time, from almost 3 minutes in the original version down to 90 seconds by 2003.
Although there were rumours that the campaign could be dropped after the Nine Network's rebranding in 2006, Nine returned the slogan with a 90-second promotion advertisement featuring many of Nine's identities.
[edit] Sky Television
The promotional campaign was also used as part of Sky Television's (now British Sky Broadcasting) idents for its launch in 1989. It also used the Orleans song, with the tagline modified to say "We're the One, We're Britain's Number One" instead. The campaign returned the next year, with the tagline changed back to "Still the One".
