“News Corporation’s television operations capture more viewers, more desirable demographics and more awards than perhaps any other television group in the world. Its businesses include the FOX Broadcasting Company – the number one network in the United States – and the 35 stations in the Fox Television Stations group, as well as STAR in Asia, and various television operations in Eastern Europe.”–From the News Corporation Website

Say what you will about Rupert Murdoch, but there’s no doubt Fox Broadcasting has become a game changer for American television–and proved that four could play the network game.

More than two decades ago, the Australian-born media magnate purchased a group of television stations that became the nucleus of a network to compete with America’s established “Big Three” broadcast networks. In the process, Fox has turned the industry upside down. Not since the heyday of CBS’ Bill Paley, NBC-RCA founder David Sarnoff and ABC’s Leonard Goldenson has one individual changed the rules for broadcasting in the States. Of course, the conservative Murdoch’s ideology has been a lightning rod for criticism, but the network that bears the Fox name can be described as “liberal” in tone and language. Too much so for some critics.

The controversy does not obscure the fact that Fox has done what the long-defunct DuMont Broadcasting could not do–create a broadcast network that stands toe-to-toe with the “Big Three,” while turning in robust profits. And while there have been many bad Fox series, the network has also brought Americans some of the best and most inventive television series ever.

The Fox saga began with Murdoch’s purchase of 50 percent of the 20th Century Fox movie and television studios in 1985. He inherited the studio’s inventive head, Barry Diller–who helped build ABC from an also-ran network into a true competitor with NBC and CBS, and who later ran Paramount Pictures with great success (everything from “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease” to “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Footloose,” and “Flashdance”). Soon after, Murdoch became total owner of the Fox studios, and made plans to create a “fourth network” with Diller at the helm for day-to-day operations. At Diller’s urging, Murdoch spent more than two billion dollars to buy most of the television stations owned by John Kluge’s Metromedia (a station owner and television syndicator formed from the ashes of DuMont in the late 1950's). The deal gave Murdoch owned and operated stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston and Washington, DC–some of the largest cities in America. Under federal law, Murdoch was required to become a legal citizen to own television stations in America–which he did soon after.

Murdoch and his News Corp wisely called the new Fox Broadcasting venture a “satellite-delivered programming service.” Under Federal Communications Commission rules at the time, a “network” was defined as airing more than 20 hours of programming per week. By coming in below the legal limit and broadcasting just a few hours of shows every week, Fox would not be forced to play by the same rules the established broadcasters were required to follow. For example, as a network, Murdoch would not be able to own the 20th Century Fox studios, and produce new television shows for other networks, syndication or overseas distribution. And Murdoch would not be able to syndicate such past 20th Century Fox hits as “M*A*S*H” to local stations for reruns. Whenever a legal question arose, usually over ownership of a TV station and a newspaper in the same city, Murdoch simply filed for and received a waiver until a decision was announced. In the Reagan-era, a free-market-oriented FCC gave Murdoch more than one victory.

Many independent stations (those not affiliated with any of the networks) and a few stations affiliated with one of the Big Three networks put enough faith in Murdoch and Diller to sign up with Fox. By the time of Fox’s launch in October 1986, it had snapped up 96 stations across the country, reaching about 80 percent of the American population.

But that was small potatoes compared to the Big Three, each of whom had more than 200 stations broadcasting to nearly all of the country (and areas of Canada as well). The television industry was unimpressed with Fox’s plans. NBC’s entertainment chief Brandon Tartikoff called the new venture a “coat hanger network,” because many of Fox’s affiliates were on the UHF band–harder to tune than VHF stations where viewers could easily find most network affiliates. Plus, local cable companies were more reluctant to carry a Fox station on their systems, taking a “wait and see” attitude to see if the new operation would last.

Fox Broadcasting’s first programme was not a prime time series. It began by invading the late-night (post-11:30 PM) time slot dominated by Johnny Carson’s “Tonight” show on NBC. Fox successfully lured Carson’s “substitute” co-host, comic Joan Rivers, to host the new entry, called “Late Show Starring Joan Rivers.” (Her decision to leave NBC led to a permanent rift in her relationship with Carson. Rivers later admitted she never talked to Carson again for the rest of his life. Carson reportedly felt betrayed that Rivers left NBC without consulting him first.)

“The Late Show” started off strong in the ratings, but except for the fact it featured Rivers and had acts more likely to draw younger viewers, it was little different from what Carson was doing. Once the initial interest waned, viewers either stopped tuning in or switched back to NBC. Even worse, Fox guaranteed advertisers the Rivers show would grab a certain percentage of the audience–when it failed to do so, Fox had to give back money or so-called “make goods” to sponsors, offering them free time on the show to compensate for the lower ratings. It led to a number of much-publicized fights between Fox, Rivers and her husband, show producer Edgar Rosenberg, who produced the show.

In 1987, Fox fired Rivers and tried a number of other potential hosts (including Arsenio Hall, who would go on to his own successful syndicated late-night entry). None of them did any better than Rivers. Soon after Joan Rivers was let go, Rosenberg–who was reportedly ill–took his own life. Rivers eventually bounced back from her personal and professional losses. But “The Late Show” never recovered and was eventually gone from the airwaves. Despite occasional and ill-fated attempts at a return to late night (“The Wilton-North Report;” “The Chevy Chase Show”), Fox has all but given up on a post-11:00 PM entry on weeknights, giving the time back to its affiliates.

Meanwhile, Fox was gearing up to make its assault in prime time. On April 5th, 1987, Fox premiered its first entries on a Sunday night–“The Tracy Ullman Show” and “Married...With Children.” Each show was shown three times that night, in an effort to lure viewers from the other networks. Ullman, a British television star and pop singer, easily slipped into different characters in a half-hour sketch show with a talented group of regulars that included former “Rhoda” co-star Julie Kavner and actor Dan Castellaneta. The industry loved “Tracy Ullman” (it became the first Fox series to win an Emmy Award) but it was one of the network’s lowest-rated entries. Still, it brought much-needed prestige to Fox–and led to one of most successful series ever. (More on that later). Ullman ended her show in 1990 and became a popular comic on HBO and cable.

“Married,” by contrast, would eventually become Fox’s biggest fictional series hit in the late 1980's–while other Fox programmes were at or near the bottom of the weekly Nielsen ratings, “Married” would hug the middle of the charts. That’s partly because the show was a subversive family comedy that went against the grain of the more gentle, traditional domestic sitcoms airing on the other networks at the time. (See the review section in Television Heaven for more on “Married...With Children’s” history.)

A week later, Fox launched its first drama–“21 Jump Street,” a series about young undercover police officers. It quickly caught on with the 18-to-34 crowd that would not watch its direct competition on CBS, the news magazine “60 Minutes.” (FCC rules at the time required networks to air news or “family friendly” programming between 7:00 and 8:00 PM on Sunday nights. Since Fox was not a “network” in the legal sense, it was exempt.) “Jump Street” also launched the successful film career of its star, Johnny Depp. Soon after, two more shows landed on the Fox Sunday schedule–a lame sitcom with George C. Scott called “Mr. President,” and a romantic comedy called “Duet.” In July, Fox launched its second night of programming on Saturday nights with a quartet of half-hour comedies and dramas; despite new entries and time shift shuffles, they quickly encased themselves at the bottom of the ratings on a traditionally low-rated viewing night.

Fox had better luck with what was then called “non-fiction” programming (known today as the “reality”series.) In 1988, a show that profiled wanted criminals aired to great success on the Fox-owned station in Washington, DC–and led to the arrest of one of the suspects profiled. Fox soon renamed the local programme “America’s Most Wanted,” and broadcast it over the entire network. Hosted by John Walsh, whose son Adam was murdered in a much-publicized incident that led to two made-for-television movies, “AMW” became the first Fox show to rank among the top 50 TV programmes. In early 1989, another local Fox entry made its debut on the network–“COPS,” which followed the daily calls of police officers in different cities. (Both “COPS” and “America’s Most Wanted” continue to air on Fox’s Saturday night schedule to this day.)

Meanwhile, the ratings for some of Fox’s other shows began to rise, helped by an increase in affiliates and growing positive buzz. “Married...With Children” benefited from the boost the most and became the anchor of Fox’s Sunday line-up for many years. And in early 1990, Fox brought back the prime-time animated series, which all but died with the cancellation of “The Flintstones” two decades earlier. A series of short cartoon segments about a strange yellow-coloured family in-between skits and commercials on “Tracy Ullman” became a weekly half-hour programme.

“The Simpsons” became the first Fox series to crack the top-30 (sometimes landing in the top ten). By the fall of 1990, the brood from Springfield moved to lead off Fox’s new Thursday night schedule–directly against NBC’s long-running hit “The Cosby Show.” The move was a success, and “The Simpsons” would eventually become the longest running half-hour comedy in American television history–live or animated! Also in 1990, Fox found success with the urban-oriented comedy sketch series “In Living Color.” And after a slow start, an Aaron Spelling-produced drama about teenagers in one of the most exclusive zip codes in America became a success. “Beverly Hills, 90210" took more than a season to catch on, but it eventually clicked with teens and young adults, leading to a successful spin-off about older 20-something adults, “Melrose Place.”.

By the fall of 1991, Fox added Monday and Friday nights to its line-up; it finally aired two hours in prime time every night of the week by 1993 (three hours on Sundays). Fox also launched a weekday cartoon schedule in the afternoons and went head-to-head very successfully on Saturday mornings; the success of Fox led NBC to end its decades-old cartoon programming on Saturdays and forced both CBS and ABC to air products from their cable cousins (Nickelodeon and Disney, respectively). Eventually, the FCC repealed some of its rules–allowing networks to own movie studios, raising the number of stations a network could own, and revising the definition of a network. Despite growing success across the schedule, Fox remained fourth behind the traditional “big three” in audiences, even though by this time, it turned a profit. (And unlike its older competitors, Fox had no morning “breakfast show;” no daytime quiz or drama shows, and no national weeknight news programme.)

But the industry soon learned Rupert Murdoch would do what it took to bring new viewers to the network. In 1993, Fox shocked the broadcast world when it won the right to air professional U.S. football (the American Football Conference games) for four years, at a cost of just over $1.5 billion dollars. Not only did Fox pick up a tremendous audience draw, it snatched the games away from CBS, which aired AFC games for nearly four decades! (CBS’ sports commentators, including John Madden and Pat Summerall, finding themselves with nothing to do, signed to anchor Fox’s football coverage.)

Soon after, Fox struck a deal with New World Communications to switch most of New World’s stations to Fox affiliates–some of which were aligned with the competition. (Murdoch later bought all of New World.) The New World deal and the football blitz had an effect on Fox; a number of non-New World affiliates with other networks (mostly CBS) signed up with Fox, increasing the network’s coverage across the country. Fox later obtained rights to other sports, including baseball, hockey and auto racing.

And Fox kept rolling with a number of successes in the mid and late 1990's: “The X-Files” was a science fiction-government conspiracy drama that became the first Fox series to place among the top 25 programmes for an entire season). Fox also found a hit with the quirky legal comedy-drama “Ally McBeal;” the heartwarming and off-beat family drama “Party of Five;” the down-to-earth animated saga “King of the Hill;” the nostalgic sitcom “That 70's Show” and the late-night sketch comedy “MADtv,” which eventually became a credible competitor to NBC’s long-running “Saturday Night Live.”

But there were periods Fox also ran into resistance with some of its new series. It was left to the network’s vice-president of specials, Mike Darnell, to come up with programmes that could help boost viewership during the crucial November, February and May “ratings sweeps” that set advertising rates for local stations. He moved away from music specials and awards shows, and came up with tabloid-like programmes such as “Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction?”; “World’s Greatest Hoaxes;” “When Animals Attack;” “World’s Wildest Police Videos;” “Busted On The Job” and “Breaking The Magician’s Code.” Each one seemed more outrageous than the next (an instalment of “Busted on the Job” showed hidden videotape of a disgruntled worker actually urinating in a coffee-filled pot). But viewers–especially young men–simply could not get enough. Ratings were generally high for these shows, which Darnell described as ways to get a reaction “that shocks you, but generally doesn’t turn your stomach.” Darnell reached a peak in February 2000 with the special “Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire?” It featured a rich man who chose among 50 women during a two-hour live broadcast; “multi-millionaire” Rick Rockwell picked and married nurse Darva Conger on the air! Critics howled, but the ratings were tremendous.

Just days after the broadcast, Fox’s golden goose became a lame duck: Conger filed for an annulment, claiming the marriage was not consummated; and it was learned the rich Rockwell was the target of several restraining orders by former girlfriends. Fox executives quickly washed their hands of the concept (a second version was scrapped) and Darnell was placed in the executive deep-freeze. “Marry” and Darnell’s other “specials” were becoming harder to sell to advertisers; the questionable content offset generally good ratings. But in the wake of the tremendous success of CBS’ “Survivor,” Fox brought Darnell out from the cold. He quickly launched a new series of specials and series such as “Temptation Island” and “Joe Millionaire.” Those shows initially did well despite the protests of both television critics and rival networks. But their successes tended to be short-lived; a second season of each show proved to be too much for the viewing public to take.

In 2002, Fox finally stumbled upon its own long-running reality hit that didn’t alienate advertisers. UK’s ITV had found major success with a singing talent competition called “Pop Idol,” and its producer Simon Fuller was shopping the concept around to the major networks. Fox was interested, but negotiations were sluggish at best. Around the same time, Murdoch’s daughter (who was a fan of “Pop Idol”) suggested to her father that he should consider airing the show in the States. Murdoch ordered Fox executive Peter Chernin to move immediately: “Don’t look at it, BUY it. Right now!” Chernin quickly sealed a deal for eight episodes (which was expanded to include two prime time viewings a week–the singing competition and a results show the following night). Renamed “American Idol,” the show brought British regular Simon Cowell to the US version (he joined the judge’s panel with record producer Randy Jackson and singer Paula Abdul).

Initially, “American Idol” had two hosts–radio announcer Ryan Seacrest and actor-comic Brian Dunkleman. “American Idol” captured ten million viewers the first week. The first-season finale in September 2002 crowned Kelly Clarkson as the first U.S. “Idol” winner–and 50 million Americans watched. That was the best performance ever for a Fox series. “Idol” was quickly renewed for a second season, minus Dunkleman, and returned in the spring of 2003 to become the most-popular series of the season. It was the first time a Fox series topped the ratings charts, and it propelled the network to ratings parity with the older webs.

But “Idol” wasn’t the only show that powered Fox’s line-up. There was “Malcolm In The Middle” (a sharply written and acted family comedy in the dysfunctional Fox mode); “The Bernie Mac Show,” starring the comic as a reluctant temporary dad to his sister’s three children; “24" (a continuing drama starring Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bower, an American agent who works to fight terrorism; each episode follows one hour in a day of Bower’s life; “Family Guy,” another animated series that was cancelled, then renewed because of its rerun success on cable and DVD. Also giving Fox a boost in the early years of the new century were “Prison Break,” a continuing drama about a man who tries to free his brother from a state penitentiary; and “House,” a medical series that starred British actor/comic Hugh Laurie as an abrasive American doctor who solved hard-to-diagnose cases. “House” (which followed “Idol”on Tuesday nights) became Fox’s highest-rated fictional series, and a regular member of television’s top ten.

When Fox began, few of its owned or affiliated stations did local news. Pressured by Fox, most stations spent the money to create their own news operations. Nationally, the debut of cable’s Fox News Channel in 1996 did give the network a presence during major events and breaking stories (national elections and 9/11, for instance.)

Fox’s success led Warner Brothers and Paramount to launch their own broadcast networks; both The WB and UPN made their debuts in early 1995. Each started with just a few nights of programming–much like Fox did. And several former Fox executives were involved in the new ventures. But despite some successes, neither network broke out the way Fox did, and both lost money. When WB and UPN merged to become The CW in 2006, it left many former UPN and WB stations with no network affiliation. Fox quickly launched a second programme service called MyNetworkTV. It wasn’t really a network, but more like a syndication operation designed to air two hours a night Mondays through Fridays.

When MyNetworkTV launched its service in the fall of 2006, it filled its schedule with Americanised “telenovelas,” essentially prime time soaps with titles such as “Fashion House” and “Desire.” But critical response was bad, and even the US Spanish language networks (Univision and Telemundo) beat MyNetworkTV in the ratings week after week. For the fall of 2007, the “telenovela” format was gone and the service provided movies, reality and sports-oriented programmes to affiliates every weeknight. One thing Fox did was establish Murdoch as a formidable figure in the United States, after years of success outside Northern America.

His first U.S. acquisition came in 1973 when he bought a newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. Soon after, he launched the tabloid “Star” to compete with “The National Inquirer,” and bought the “New York Post” (which he still owns). But the Fox Network venture gave Murdoch a power base in America. Fox allowed Murdoch to expand into broadcasting and cable around the world. His conservative political viewpoints went with him–both in his newspapers and on his Fox News Channel. It has been accused by liberal groups of having a pro-Republican, pro-George W. Bush agenda. Most of the criticism centres on FNC’s line-up of conservative talk shows such as “The O’Reilly Factor,” though its straight news reporting is seen by some watchdog groups (both independent and politically liberal) as favouring the Bush Administration at the expense of the Democratic Party. Robert Bianco, the television critic for “USA Today,” is one such critic: “The issue (is) whether (rival cable news channels) MSNBC and CNN slant their news reports with the same shameless vigour shown by Fox News - and the answer is no, they don't. Anchors may sometimes cross a line; reporters may sometimes let their opinions show - mistakes like that happen. But only Fox News systematically slants the news, and makes doing so an institutional goal.” (It remains to be seen how Murdoch will influence the much-respected daily “The Wall Street Journal,” which he purchased from The Dow Jones Company in the summer of 2007.)

Conservative groups have their own bone to pick with Murdoch’s Fox Network; they have denounced many of its shows for their sexual and violent content; the use of language on some Fox shows has also been criticized. But the “in your face” style of Fox, while denounced by executives at other networks, has been adopted to varying degrees by its rivals. All that means in business terms, Murdoch’s broadcast vision is equal to any of America’s broadcast pioneers such as David Sarnoff and Bill Paley. Fox was the right network at the right time: By the 1980's, the American economy was more than able to handle four broadcast networks–and unlike the failed DuMont network, which was hindered by a lack of money and federal restrictions on how many stations it could own, Fox was able to skirt the FCC regulations to grow from a “satellite service” to a full-fledged network that competes on equal terms with ABC, CBS and NBC. It may have its critics, but there are plenty of viewers who enjoy another choice in the broadcast stew.
Advantage: Rupert Murdoch.