FOX: THE FOURTH NETWORK

A New Network

The first four decades of commercial American television were dominated by three huge networks of affiliated stations, known as the "Big Three"—CBS, NBC, and ABC. The Big Three provided virtually all of the programs aired on television stations around the country, particularly between the hours of 8:00 and 11:00 P.M.—"prime time." By the early 1980s, however, it was clear that television was changing in fundamental ways that the executives at the Big Three barely understood, if at all. Cable television was offering alternatives to major-network programming in the form of unedited movies, all-news and all-sports formats, music-video channels, and a variety of other endeavors that were challenging conventional wisdom about how the business of television operated. In 1985 the picture for the Big Three seemed especially bleak: all three networks were purchased by larger companies between March and December of that year.

Murdoch

For Australian entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch this troubled time for the major networks offered the perfect opportunity to launch a fourth network that would comprise independent stations around the country. Murdoch had made his fortune with a variety of newspaper and television holdings around the world, most notoriously the tabloid-style New York Post. In 1985, the same year ownership of each of the Big Three changed hands, he purchased 20th Century-Fox, the movie studio, which produced television programs as well, and Metromedia, a chain of major-market independent television stations. These new acquisitions would form the foundation for the Fox network.

Talented Team

Murdoch assembled an impressive array of executive talent to run his new network, including Barry Diller, the head of 20th Century-Fox; Jamie Kellner, a producer and former CBS executive who was hired to serve as the network's president; and Garth Ancier and Kevin Wendle, programming executives who had been lured away from NBC. Murdoch had acquired a star for the network as well: Joan Rivers, the popular comedian, who had signed a contract for $15 million to develop and host a late-night talk show for Fox. Rivers's new show would compete directly with NBC's long-running Tonight Show which Rivers guest-hosted when regular star Johnny Carson was on one of his frequent vacations. Murdoch and Diller hoped that Joan Rivers would provide the big-name entertainment that would sell their network to independents around the country.

MAS*H FAREWELL

T he 251st episode of M*A*S*H, the sitcom set during the Korean War, was a media event. CBS decided to terminate the series after eleven successful seasons while the show still drew a large audience. On 28 February 1983 the final episode, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," a heavily promoted two-and-a-half-hour special was broadcast. It was about the end of the war and the disbanding of the medical unit that had provided the focus of the series. Seventy-seven percent of the national television audience tuned in. Alan Alda, the series star, called the final show "a long piece…in which the people say goodbye to each other and the experience."

Doubt of Success

Observers of the industry doubted the new network's potential. Cable and the growing popularity of home videocasette recorders had cut the Big Three's audience share by 25 percent since 1970; consequently, there were simply fewer advertising dollars (the source of a network's profits) out there to compete for. Fox executives claimed that the few stations they had assembled for their network would reach 85 percent of American homes, but competitors suspected that the Fox affiliates—mostly weak UHF stations—more likely would be available to about 55 percent of viewers. Murdoch, however, was willing to commit as much of his considerable resources as were necessary to give the Fox network a real chance. The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers made its debut on the new network in October 1986 to encouraging audience numbers, but after its initial few weeks the show settled into a 2 percent audience share, well below the number of viewers Fox executives had promised advertisers. Fox soon found itself in the uncomfortable position of having to give away commercial time on The Late Show to make up for what they had over-charged sponsors.

Expansion

Despite the fact that the network was losing money on The Late Show, it expanded its schedule to offer prime-time programming on Saturday and Sunday nights by the summer of 1987. Most of those early shows were unmemorable and low-rated sitcoms, but there were also encouraging successes: 21 Jump Street, a police melodrama about young cops who went undercover as teenagers that launched the career of teen heartthrob Johnny Depp; Married…With Children, an irreverent, tasteless, and often hilarious send-up of family-style sitcoms; and America's Most Wanted, which offered viewers rewards for tips leading to the capture of fugitive criminals. Hosted by John Walsh, a victim's-rights activist whose own son had been murdered, America's Most Wanted told each villain's story through lurid dramatizations that most critics considered blatantly exploitative; still, the show was Fox's first bonafide ratings hit and actually was responsible for the capture of many fugitives. The network gambled big that year by buying the rights to telecast the Television Academy's annual Emmy awards show, but their presentation was a resounding failure, earning the lowest ratings ever for the event.

Failure of Rivers

The Late Show, meanwhile, self-destructed on the air in front of the few American viewers watching. Joan Rivers and her manager husband had well-publicized disputes with the Fox executives before the show even reached the air, and as the ratings for The Late Show continued to decline Fox sought to exercise more control over it. Fearing that affiliates would begin to pull out of the network if The Late Show continued to lose them money, Fox finally decided to pay off Rivers's contract and fire her as host of the show. Rivers's bitter departure from the network had a tragic postscript: husband Edgar Rosenberg, depressed over his role in the failure of The Late Show, committed suicide a few months after Rivers's firing. Fox kept the talk show on with a different host every night; one of them, Arsenio Hall, hosted his own successful late-night talk show beginning in 1988.

Success

Despite the Late Show debacle, Fox was stronger than ever at the end of the decade. On 16 July 1989 Americas Most Wanted won its time slot over all three of the major networks, and later that week Married.…With Children repeated the feat. Fox executives were understandably triumphant that their shows were beating the Big Three in a little more than two years since the network had signed on. In the early 1990s the network expanded its programming schedule to seven days a week and introduced several of the most popular shows of the decade, including The Simpsons, Beverly Hills 90210, and Melrose Place.

Sources:

Ken Auletta, Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way (New York: Random House, 1991);

Alex Ben Block, Outfoxed: Marvin Davis, Barry Dilier, Rupert Murdoch, Joan Rivers, and the Inside Story of America's Fourth Television Network (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990).