| Type | Defunct Saturday morning cartoon block and Weekday afternoon cartoon block (1990–2002) |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Availability | National International |
| Slogan | It's On Fox (1992) Fox Kids Is What? Fox Kids Is Cool! (1995) Fox Kids! Rocks Kids! (1997) Fox Kids Take the Ride! (1998) Fox Kids, Where Heroes Live! (2001) |
| Owner | Fox Television Entertainment |
| Key people | Haim Saban |
| Launch date | September 8, 1990 (USA) October 1, 1995 (AUS) 1996 (Europe) |
| Dissolved | September 7, 2002 (USA) January 31, 2004 (AUS) January 1, 2005 (Europe) |
| Former names | Fox Children's Network (1990–1998) Fox Kids Network (1990–1998) |
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.[1][2][3]
Depending on the show, the programming block was aimed at young children, aged 7–11, and preteens ages 12–14. It continued to run repeats until September 7, 2002. At that time, Fox put the time slots up for bidding, with 4Kids Entertainment winning and securing Saturday morning programming.[4] The network lived to be the longest running children's television block/network, alongside Nickelodeon, and managed to have high ratings throughout its run.
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According to James B. Stewart's DisneyWar, Fox Kids' history is intertwined with the history of The Disney Afternoon. DuckTales, the series which served as the launching pad for the Disney Afternoon, premiered in September 1987 on Fox's owned-and-operated stations, as well as various Fox affiliates. This may have been due in no small part to the fact that then-Disney chief operating officer Michael Eisner and his then-Fox counterpart, Barry Diller, had worked together at the ABC network and at Paramount Pictures.
In 1988, Disney purchased Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV, later renaming it as KCAL-TV. The station's new owners wanted DuckTales to be shown on KCAL, thus taking it away from Fox-owned KTTV. Furious at the breach of contract, Diller pulled DuckTales from all other Fox owned-and-operated stations in the fall of 1989. Diller also encouraged Fox affiliates to do the same,[5] though most did not initially. As Disney went forward in building the Disney Afternoon, Fox then began the process of launching its own children's programming lineup.
Fox Kids was launched on September 8, 1990, a joint venture between Fox Broadcasting Company and its affiliates.[1] Originally headed up by division president Margaret Loesch and airing programming originally for 30 minutes per day Monday through Friday, and three hours on Saturday morning. In 1991, programming expanded to 90 minutes on weekdays and four hours on Saturday mornings, and a year later grew to 2½ hours on weekdays.
Fox Kids had its own radio lineup as well. Entitled the Fox Kids Radio Countdown, it was two hours in length and was hosted by Chris Leary of TechTV and ZDTV fame. The show consisted of contests, gags, and funny sound effects. It was later renamed to Fox All Access and continues to air currently, mainly as a promotional vehicle for current artists, films, and programs on the primetime Fox schedule.
By 1993, Fox Kids was up to three hours on Monday-Fridays (usually 2 p.m.-5 p.m. local time, making Fox Kids the first network programming to air in the 4:00 P.M. hour since 1986) and four hours on Saturdays (8 a.m.-noon ET/PT, 7 a.m.-11 a.m. 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. In 1995 and early 1996 Fox acquired three former ABC affiliates and Savoy/Fox (Emmis a few years later) acquired three former NBC affiliates and an ABC affiliate. Those stations all 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 one hour earlier in the afternoon from 1-4 p.m.
From 1992 to 1998, Fox Kids would have a special programming block on Thanksgiving Day, called "The Fox Kids T.V. Takeover".
Stations that would run it at this time included;
WHBQ (Channel 13) in Memphis became a Fox O & O in September 1995. The weekday schedule was initially shown from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., followed by Family Matters. In 1998, only two hours of the three hour lineup was shown from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.. Beginning in the fall of 1999, the weekday block was no longer aired at all; instead, the timeslot was occupied by syndicated talk and court shows. Also, beginning in 1996, the Saturday block was split in half; the first half was shown from 5-7 AM local time, followed by syndicated shows like Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures and The Magic School Bus, then the second half of the block was shown from 9-11 AM local time. This policy continues with 4Kids TV programming.
Savvoy/Fox and later Emmis-owned (at the time) stations;
The 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. All except one of such stations are those that were owned by New World Communications which were once CBS, ABC, or NBC (in only one case) affiliates. New World (later merged with Newscorp) affiliated its stations with Fox in 1994-1995 when Fox won the contract to air the National Football Conference 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;
In 1996, Fox Kids merged with Haim Saban's Saban Entertainment, Inc. to form Fox Kids Worldwide Inc.[1][6][7] Some of this programming also aired on Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family).
In 1998 Fox bought out their affiliates' interest in Fox Kids as part of a deal to help pay for the network's pricey NFL football package.[1] The Fox Kids programming weekday block was trimmed to 2 hours, and added The Magic School Bus, which originally aired on PBS.[8] In 2000, affiliates were all given options to push the block up to 2-4 p.m. instead of 3-5 p.m.. In the 6 or so markets with 5 p.m. 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 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., 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 'educational/informational programming' requirements mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 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.
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 1992, had been overtaken by Kids' WB two years prior with the stronger animated block backed by Warner Bros. and containing Pokémon as well Yu-Gi-Oh!. ABC & UPN aired mostly comical cartoons, with the exception of Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens, which were sitcoms aimed at teenagers, while CBS aired preschool programming from Nick Jr., and NBC was airing E/I programming from Discovery Kids, 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.
After Fox Family Worldwide was sold to Disney in July 2001, Fox Kids was placed under the oversight of Fox Television Entertainment and moved to Fox headquarters on the 20th Century Fox lot,[1] at which time Fox discontinued the daytime children's programming, giving the time back to their affiliates.[9] Fox put their programming up for bidding, and 4Kids Entertainment, English-dub producers of Pokémon, won. Fox Kids maintained a Saturday morning-only schedule until September 14, 2002, when it gave the time to 4Kids Entertainment.[4] The block was renamed FoxBox and then in January 2005, three years later renamed again to 4Kids TV. 4Kids TV lasted until December 27, 2008, when Fox and 4Kids parted ways, and as of late 2008, Fox completely ceased airing children's programming.
While Fox Kids was ending on United States broadcast television, Disney instituted a two-hour morning lineup on its newly acquired ABC Family, programmed similarly to Fox Kids. Internationally, Fox Kids continued to air under the same name, despite its new Disney ownership.
It was not until 2004 that Disney unveiled Fox Kids's new brand name for action and adventure programming, Jetix. The new name was applied first in the United States on the ABC Family morning block and a new prime-time lineup on Toon Disney. Internationally, the name was phased in, first as a programming block, then the new network name.
Disney now holds the rights to nearly all of the Fox Family/Saban archives under Disney-ABC Domestic Television, including Digimon, The Tick, Eek! Stravaganza, and the Marvel animated titles. Most of these shows aired on Jetix, although Eek! Stravaganza, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and select other shows were streamed online (complete with Fox Family branding during end credits) on ABC Family's website.
There are several exceptions:
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