ABC Family
Encyclopedia
ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American
television network
, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group
division of The Walt Disney Company
. ABC Family offers contemporary and family programming, including off-network syndicated reruns and original series, feature films and Made-for-TV original movies, and some religious programming.
The network was founded
in 1977 as an extension of televangelist Pat Robertson
's christian television ministry, and eventually evolved into The Family Channel by 1990. In 1998, it was sold to Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. and renamed Fox Family. On October 24, 2001, Fox Family Worldwide Inc was sold to The Walt Disney Company
. The sale to Disney included Saban Entertainment and Fox Family. The channel generally offers programming aimed at a wide audience, but primarily features series and movies aimed at older teens and young adults (age 15-30).
(CBN). The name later changed to the CBN Cable Network in 1981 and grew to a million homes by that year. On August 1, 1988, the word "Family
" was incorporated into the name to better reflect the format, becoming The CBN Family Channel. By 1990, the network had grown too profitable to remain under the CBN banner without endangering CBN's non-profit status. CBN spun it off to a new company called International Family Entertainment Inc. (run by Robertson's son, Tim Robertson), and the name was changed to simply The Family Channel on September 15, 1990.
As The Family Channel
, it attracted a slightly older (and religious) audience not sought by advertisers; only about one-third of homes watching the network included children or youth. The Family Channel started airing television shows for preschool children, preteens, and teenagers to target all members of the family.
International Family Entertainment, Inc. was sold to Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. in July 1997, and Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. was renamed Fox Family Worldwide Inc. The Family Channel was officially renamed Fox Family Channel on August 15, 1998. Following the sale to News Corporation
, The 700 Club
was scaled back to two airings a day (though the sale agreement required the channel to air it three times daily, once each in the morning, late evening and overnight hours), with the evening broadcast being moved out of prime time
, pushed an hour later to 11 p.m. ET from 10 p.m., while Columbo
was moved from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET on Sundays. More cartoons were added to the lineup, many of which were from the Fox Kids
library, with about eight hours of cartoons airing a day. However, Fox Family also became a cornerstone for syndicating foreign TV series, such as the popular British S Club 7
TV series, which became their flagship series for the channel until the early 2000s. The channel also syndicated many Canadian series, both animated and live action, including Angela Anaconda
, Big Wolf on Campus
, I Was a 6th Grade Alien, and briefly The Zack Files
; along with running cartoons and anime based on video games, such as Donkey Kong Country
, Megaman, and Monster Rancher
, mostly a part of the channel's morning lineup. The channel aired reruns of some Fox Kids series such as Bobby's World
, Eek! The Cat
, and Life with Louie
, and added some recent family sitcoms as well. The new schedule also included reruns of the CBS
Saturday morning series Pee-wee's Playhouse
, which had not been seen on television since 1991. When Fox bought the channel in 1997, programmers sought a new dual audience—kids in daytime, families at night. In 1999, Fox tried to spin off two digital cable networks from Fox Family, the Boyz Channel and the Girlz Channel, which both contained content focusing on each gender; both networks went off the air a year later due to lack of demand and the controversy that developed over the gender-segregated channels. To a point, Disney is attempting to relaunch the concept somewhat in February 2009 with the conversion of Toon Disney
into the tween boy-targeting Disney XD
, while Disney Channel has shifted towards featuring programming appealing to girls (though not necessarily in the same gender-exclusionary manner as the Boyz/Girlz Channel concept).
Under Fox's ownership, Fox Family saw its ranking slide from 10th to 17th place as a result of an increasingly competitive race for younger viewers and the bickering over ownership between News Corp. and Haim Saban
. Some observers believe that it chased away some of the older viewers and never really replaced the core audience. As a result, primetime ratings declined 35% in the past three years. It is also suggested that Fox hired more employees than needed, and when Disney took over, as many as 500 were laid off (this came at a time when Disney itself was downsizing, with 400 others laid off from its failed Go Network online service), but Fox Family also used many freelancers for certain aspects of the channel, such as their short-lived "block jocks" and most of the monikers for the network were created by freelance artists. However, the Disney acquisition took the channel into a deeper decline in its early years.
Fox Family Worldwide Inc was sold to The Walt Disney Company
, for $
2.9 billion on October 24, 2001. The sale to The Walt Disney Company included Saban Entertainment. The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC in February 1996, and changed the corporate name to ABC, and the network was officially renamed ABC Family on November 10, 2001.
The sale to Disney was considered one of the largest mistakes or problems occurring during the tenure of Michael Eisner
. The failure was primarily due to the acquisition being done by the strategic planning department of Disney, without consulting anyone at ABC. The original plan was to use the channel to essentially show re-runs of ABC programming, but this plan was completely impossible since ABC had no syndication rights to the majority of their own programs. During this time, the network did air same-season repeats of Alias
, Less Than Perfect
, Life with Bonnie
, and The Bachelor, almost all of which were Touchstone Television productions (The Bachelor is distributed by Time Warner
's Telepictures
). But in trying to change the focus of the channel, Disney also canceled several Fox Family series, like State of Grace, and cut back on the network's TV movies, which were among the few programs Fox Family was doing well with. The ratings tumbled further as the network became dependent on syndicated reruns and no original programs (save for original wrap-around segments around Bachelor repeats, and children's programming).
The next major plan was to reposition the channel to market it to college students, young women, or to a more hip audience under the name XYZ, a reverse reference to ABC
. Disney soon found that the channel could never be renamed as such. The original sale from CBN to Fox/Saban contained a stipulation that the channel contain the word "Family" in the name forever, no matter who owns the network. To create XYZ, the Family Channel would have had to cease to exist—terminating all existing cable TV contracts—and XYZ would have to be created as a new network. Cable companies would not be obligated to put XYZ in the spot vacated by the Family Channel. ABC scrapped the idea after discovering this clause.
The name was revisited at one point in 2003, serving as a program block entitled "The XYZ.", showing programs and movies aimed at the above groups. The network was also used as a buffer to burn off failed ABC series, such as All American Girl
, which featured Spice Girl Geri Haliwell.
, be aired twice daily on the network (although the channel is only required to carry the program twice a day, ABC Family carries The 700 Club three times each weekday; once in the morning, twice at night), along with a shorter CBN talk show called Living the Life. Following controversial remarks made by Robertson on the former program about Venezuela
n president Hugo Chávez
, as well as other equally controversial comments regarding gay
s, feminists, Muslims, abortion
, and many other social issues, ABC Family moved to distance itself from the program (the showing of which is also required under Robertson's original sale stipulations, along with the airing of a day-long CBN telethon in late January every year); ABC Family changed the disclaimers before, during, and after the broadcasts from "The following/preceding program is brought to you by CBN" to "The following/preceding CBN telecast does not reflect the views of ABC Family." Since 2003, ABC Family has been producing more successful original movies and series.
On August 31, 2006, ABC Family aired Jetix
for the last time as a part of Disney's plan to convert all Jetix airings to Toon Disney. Jetix aired various programs since its debut on the network in 2002, which included Metabots, Beyblade
, Digimon: Digital Monsters, Daigunder
, Get Ed
, and many others. Of its long list of programs, the Power Rangers
series was its most successful. Sitcom repeats currently air in Jetix's former timeslot from 7-9 a.m. ET, with the morning airing of the 700 Club/Living the Life block pushed back a half-hour further to 9:30 a.m. ET and sitcom reruns airing during the 9 a.m. ET half-hour. Since the removal of Jetix, ABC Family has not aired any programming targeted at pre-teen audiences; those programs now air on sister network Disney Channel (though this is nothing new for the network, as just before the Fox purchase, ABC Family (as The Family Channel) did not carry any children's programming at all).
Despite being co-owned with Disney Channel
—and targeting a similar audience, very little of Disney Channel's programming has aired on ABC Family (except for reruns of Boy Meets World
and Sister, Sister
which have previously aired on that network; in fact, episodes of Sister, Sister that aired on ABC Family until it was removed from the lineup in April 2010 were the edited Disney Channel versions as ABC Family did not purchase the original syndicated prints of the show from CBS Television Distribution
). However, the channel has aired some films featuring performers that have been associated with Disney in recent years, such as Hilary Duff
, The Jonas Brothers, Ashley Tisdale
, Demi Lovato
and Selena Gomez
. The only Disney Channel productions to air on ABC Family were the 2008 movie Camp Rock
and the 2011 film Lemonade Mouth
, both of which are also two of only four Disney Channel movies to air domestically on a non-Disney Channel branded network (Cadet Kelly
is the other having aired on The Wonderful World of Disney in 2002; though TV Guide once claimed that ABC Family once aired reruns of The Famous Jett Jackson
just prior to the removal of the Jetix lineup).
In October 2007, ABC Family completely redesigned their website, giving it a more modern look as compared to its previous look. They also streamlined the Broadband Player, putting more content on it including reruns of Three Moons Over Milford
, and episodes of 7th Heaven
, Grounded for Life
, Kyle XY
, and Greek
, as well as adding some Fox Kids
programming they still own, such as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
.
Kyle XY
had given the channel the most viewers in the network's history, but in 2008 that record was broken by the series premiere of The Secret Life of the American Teenager
. After nearly 3 years, the record was broken again with Switched at Birth
premiering to 3.3 million viewers on June 6, 2011. Since then, ABC Family has launched more shows geared towards young females, such as popular dramas Make It or Break It and The Nine Lives of Chloe King
, and comedies 10 Things I Hate About You
, Melissa & Joey
, and State of Georgia
In July 2009, the network posted best-ever July deliveries in Prime and Total viewers thanks to returning series The Secret Life of the American Teenager
and new series Make It or Break It, 10 Things I Hate About You
and Ruby & The Rockits along with extended features from the Harry Potter
film franchise and the TV debut of Labor Pains
. On June 8, 2010, the premiere of the ABC Family original drama series Pretty Little Liars
, successfully broke series premiere ratings records for ABC Family, across all major viewing demographics of women and young people.
Aside from some common programming and targeting the same audience, the various iterations of CBN/Fox/ABC Family have had no affiliation with the Canadian network Family, although some electronic guide providers confusingly display Family's 1988-1998 logo (which partially resembles ABC Family's pre-1998 logo as The Family Channel) as that of ABC Family's logo.
ABC Family HD is a 720p
high definition simulcast of ABC Family that launched in early 2008. All of the network's original series and films currently are produced in high definition, which are aired in a widescreen
letterbox
forrmat on the SD channel. Films when possible also air in HD. ABC Family HD is being offered on select cable and satellite providers such as Comcast
, Time Warner Cable
, Cox Communications
, Verizon FiOS
, AT&T U-verse, Charter Communications
and DirecTV
. Dish Network
does not carry the HD feed due to a carriage dispute with Disney.
, 8 Simple Rules
, Grounded For Life
, Still Standing
, What I Like About You
, America's Funniest Home Videos
, That '70s Show
and My Wife and Kids
, with the only off-network drama series on the schedule being Friday Night Lights
and Gilmore Girls
. Since 2000, the network has aired several sitcoms that have aired on ABC's former TGIF
block, including the Miller-Boyett
produced Step by Step (one of the longest-running shows on the channel, running from 2001 to 2010), Family Matters (2003-2008), Two of a Kind (1999-2005), Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
(2006-2011), Boy Meets World
and Full House
, with the latter two still airing today.
The channel also produces a limited amount of original series, such as The Secret Life of the American Teenager
, Make It or Break It, Melissa & Joey
, Pretty Little Liars
, Switched at Birth
, and The Lying Game
, and former series such as Kyle XY, GREEK, Lincoln Heights, 10 Things I Hate About You, Ruby and the Rockits, Huge, and the recently cancelled series, State of Georgia
and The Nine Lives of Chloe King
. Of these original series, the channel has had minimal success with situation comedy programming as of recent, with its drama series having generally outlasted the original sitcoms. ABC Family airs their original series on Monday and/or Tuesday nights, and recently Wednesday nights for its new comedy block, typically preempting programming that airs in the 7 and 10 p.m. ET timeslots the rest of the week. The network airs each season of its original series in a relatively uncommon format for broadcast television or basic cable, as the first half of the season airs with consecutive episodes, followed by a 4-6 month break, then the remaining episodes of the season are broadcast afterward; ABC Family typically only reruns episodes of their original series in a marathon
that airs prior to a season premiere, mid-season or season finale, or other special occasion, though the channel does air week-behind encores of original series that air in the 8 p.m. ET hour prior to the newest episode and a same-night encore of the newest episode the evening of an episode premiere.
The channel also airs a limited amount of religious programming, a remnant from the network's CBN ownership, including the aforementioned weekdaily broadcasts of The 700 Club and The 700 Club Interactive, as well as ministry programs from Joel Osteen
, Joyce Meyer
, James Robison, Joseph Prince
, Doug Batchelor
, Ed Young and the late Zola Levitt; aside from the 700 Club and 700 Club Interactive airings, most of the religious programming carried by ABC Family generally airs between 5-7 a.m. ET each weekday and on Sunday nights from 12-1:30 a.m. ET.
It is one of only two Disney-owned cable channels in the U.S. (ESPN Classic
being the other) to air infomercial
s and one of the only cable channels to air informercials before 2:30 a.m. ET.; they air from 1-7 a.m. ET weekdays, 2-7 a.m. ET Saturdays and 12-7 a.m. ET on Sundays.
(owned by the channel's former parent News Corporation
) and Warner Bros. Entertainment. ABC Family has also purchased the cable television rights to many film series, such as the Harry Potter
film series (which ABC and Disney Channel also hold rights to), 2004's A Cinderella Story
and its 2008 made-for-DVD spinoff Another Cinderella Story
and most recently the Legally Blonde
film series (after securing rights to the 2009 made-for-DVD release Legally Blondes
). From 1998 to 2002, ABC Family also secured cable rights to several films starring Mary-Kate
and Ashley Olsen
(this was around the time the network aired their short-lived ABC sitcom Two of a Kind, but just prior to carrying Full House
).
The channel also produces its own original movies, as sister network Disney Channel does (though Disney Channel's movies are targeted at a slightly younger audience); some of ABC Family's most popular original movies include Night of the Twisters
, Holiday in Handcuffs
, the Au Pair trilogy, My Fake Fiance
and Cyberbully
. ABC Family has also recently been generating high levels of viewers with their weekend movie events. The "Harry Potter Weekend" Block in July 2009 generated some of the highest levels of viewers for the year so far weekend events.
ABC Family is also becoming known for giving previews to upcoming movies, as it has done for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
, Hairspray
and Stardust.
game (a game that had previously aired nationwide on Fox Sports Net
from 1997–1999), as well as select games in the Division Series
round of playoffs. As part of its purchase of Fox Family, in addition to that game, Disney acquired the MLB rights that were also held by Fox Family's sister station FX. Those two game packages were moved to ESPN beginning with the next baseball season
, but the playoff games remained on ABC Family for one additional year due to contractual issues. A deal was made to move those playoff games to ESPN, who produced the games for ABC Family, starting with the 2003
season. Although the games aired on Disney networks, Fox kept the exclusive negotiation to renew the contract after the 2006
season. Fox chose not to renew their rights to the Division Series, which went to TBS as part of its new baseball contract
.
. ABC has since expanded this holiday programming, adding made-for-television movies, a litany of Rankin-Bass sequels (this was complicated somewhat because the broadcasting rights some of the original specials, including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
, were still owned by CBS), and other original programming to create "The 25 Days of Christmas." This program block airs from December 1 through 25th, in prime time during the weekdays and from noon through prime time during the weekends. There have been some movies that aren't necessarily holiday related. In 2006, for example, Harry Potter
movies were shown along with Mary Poppins
(the 2004 Enhanced Home Theater Mix version) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
. Also that year, Dr. Seuss on the Loose
and The Cat in the Hat
were added, however, not with How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
, Corpse Bride
, Scooby Doo
and occasionally Stephen King's It and Nightworld: Lost Souls
.
, Beyblade
, Digimon: Digital Monsters, Daigunder
, Get Ed
, and many others. Was rebranded into Jetix in February 2004 when the Jetix block was launched on Toon Disney
. Of its long list of programs, the Power Rangers
series was its most successful. Discontinued on the network in September 2006, though it continued to air on Toon Disney. Sitcom repeats currently air in Jetix's former timeslot from 7-9 a.m. ET, with the morning airing of the 700 Club/Living the Life block pushed back an hour further to 9 a.m. ET. Most of Jetix's programming was previously aired on Fox Kids
and Fox Family. As of February 13, 2009, Jetix's official home, Toon Disney, was rebranded into Disney XD, and Jetix no longer exists.
to launch a Canadian version of ABC Family under the name ABC Spark, set to launch in Spring 2012. The channel, which is licensed by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission as a Category B specialty channel (which under CRTC rules, Canadian digital cable
and direct broadcast satellite
providers can choose to carry the channel on an optional basis), is aimed at 15-34 year olds. The ABC Spark name was chosen to avoid viewer confusion and/or legal issues with the preexisting and unrelated Canadian channel Family, which is owned by competitor Astral Media
, and carries programming from ABC Family sister network Disney Channel
.
and The Secret Life of the American Teenager
are far too racy for "family viewers." Critics feel the executives at ABC Family are only after viewership numbers and are unconcerned about showing younger generations in questionable scenarios in series and film. Mostly, the main focus is on teenage pregnancy and underage drinking.
It should be noted that despite the channel's name including the word "Family", the channel's programming content standards had changed several years earlier after the sale of the channel by International Family Entertainment, and the channel had been airing even some acquired series and movies that contain profanity, violence and sexual content or dialogue after the sale, particularly since being purchased by The Walt Disney Company. ABC Family does air parental advisory tags at the beginning of some TV-14 rated programs, such as That '70s Show and some episodes of The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group
Disney-ABC Television Group
Disney-ABC Television Group manages all of The Walt Disney Company's worldwide entertainment and news television properties...
division of The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
. ABC Family offers contemporary and family programming, including off-network syndicated reruns and original series, feature films and Made-for-TV original movies, and some religious programming.
The network was founded
Television networks preceding ABC Family
The cable television network ABC Family has gone through several different owners during its history. Stipulations in sales terms for the network require that the network maintain the word "Family" in its name.-CBN Cable :...
in 1977 as an extension of televangelist Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....
's christian television ministry, and eventually evolved into The Family Channel by 1990. In 1998, it was sold to Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. and renamed Fox Family. On October 24, 2001, Fox Family Worldwide Inc was sold to The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
. The sale to Disney included Saban Entertainment and Fox Family. The channel generally offers programming aimed at a wide audience, but primarily features series and movies aimed at older teens and young adults (age 15-30).
History
ABC Family launched on April 29, 1977, as the CBN Satellite Service, an arm of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting NetworkChristian Broadcasting Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
(CBN). The name later changed to the CBN Cable Network in 1981 and grew to a million homes by that year. On August 1, 1988, the word "Family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
" was incorporated into the name to better reflect the format, becoming The CBN Family Channel. By 1990, the network had grown too profitable to remain under the CBN banner without endangering CBN's non-profit status. CBN spun it off to a new company called International Family Entertainment Inc. (run by Robertson's son, Tim Robertson), and the name was changed to simply The Family Channel on September 15, 1990.
As The Family Channel
Television networks preceding ABC Family
The cable television network ABC Family has gone through several different owners during its history. Stipulations in sales terms for the network require that the network maintain the word "Family" in its name.-CBN Cable :...
, it attracted a slightly older (and religious) audience not sought by advertisers; only about one-third of homes watching the network included children or youth. The Family Channel started airing television shows for preschool children, preteens, and teenagers to target all members of the family.
International Family Entertainment, Inc. was sold to Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. in July 1997, and Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. was renamed Fox Family Worldwide Inc. The Family Channel was officially renamed Fox Family Channel on August 15, 1998. Following the sale to News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, The 700 Club
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
was scaled back to two airings a day (though the sale agreement required the channel to air it three times daily, once each in the morning, late evening and overnight hours), with the evening broadcast being moved out of prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
, pushed an hour later to 11 p.m. ET from 10 p.m., while Columbo
Columbo
Columbo is an American crime fiction television film series, which starred Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. It was created by William Link and Richard Levinson. The show popularized the inverted detective story format...
was moved from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET on Sundays. More cartoons were added to the lineup, many of which were from the Fox Kids
Fox Kids
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.Depending on the show, the...
library, with about eight hours of cartoons airing a day. However, Fox Family also became a cornerstone for syndicating foreign TV series, such as the popular British S Club 7
S Club 7
S Club, formerly known as S Club 7, were a pop group created by former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller, consisting of members Tina Barrett, Paul Cattermole, Jon Lee, Bradley McIntosh, de facto lead singer Jo O'Meara, Hannah Spearritt and Rachel Stevens. The group rose to fame by starring in their...
TV series, which became their flagship series for the channel until the early 2000s. The channel also syndicated many Canadian series, both animated and live action, including Angela Anaconda
Angela Anaconda
Angela Anaconda is a Canadian cutout animation television series that aired on the channels Teletoon and Fox Family. It centers on the adventures of an eight-year-old girl named Angela who lives in the fictional town of Tapwater Springs, has wacky brothers, weird friends, and hates a snobbish...
, Big Wolf on Campus
Big Wolf on Campus
Big Wolf on Campus is a Canadian television series created by Peter A. Knight and Christopher Briggs that ran from 1999 to 2002. In the lighthearted horror/teen drama tradition of Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, it is about a teenage boy named Thomas "Tommy" P. Dawkins, who was bitten by a werewolf...
, I Was a 6th Grade Alien, and briefly The Zack Files
The Zack Files
The Zack Files is a science fiction television program that revolves around a young boy, played by Robert Clark, who is a magnet for paranormal activity and attends Horace White High School for Boys along with his three friends Cam, Gwen, and Spencer. Zack manages to get himself into trouble with...
; along with running cartoons and anime based on video games, such as Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platformer video game developed by Rare, featuring the character Donkey Kong. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. Following an intense marketing campaign, the original SNES version sold over 8 million copies worldwide, making...
, Megaman, and Monster Rancher
Monster Rancher
Monster Rancher, known in Japan as , is a series of life simulation role-playing video games created by Tecmo . The series currently consists of fourteen games across different video game platforms, and future titles are planned...
, mostly a part of the channel's morning lineup. The channel aired reruns of some Fox Kids series such as Bobby's World
Bobby's World
Bobby's World is an American animated television series, which ran from 1990 to 1998, on FOX Kids. It was about the daily life of Bobby Generic and his very overactive imagination on how he sees the world. The show was created by Canadian actor-comedian Howie Mandel...
, Eek! The Cat
Eek! The Cat
Eek! The Cat is an American and Canadian animated series, created by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp and produced by Fox Kids and Savage Studios with animation by Nelvana, that ran from September 11, 1992, to August 1, 1997.-Premise:Eek! the Cat is about a purple cat named Eek whose motto is...
, and Life with Louie
Life with Louie
Life with Louie is an American animated series. The show is based on the childhood of stand-up comedian Louie Anderson, growing up with his family in Wisconsin.The first two episodes aired in primetime on Fox....
, and added some recent family sitcoms as well. The new schedule also included reruns of the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Saturday morning series Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
, which had not been seen on television since 1991. When Fox bought the channel in 1997, programmers sought a new dual audience—kids in daytime, families at night. In 1999, Fox tried to spin off two digital cable networks from Fox Family, the Boyz Channel and the Girlz Channel, which both contained content focusing on each gender; both networks went off the air a year later due to lack of demand and the controversy that developed over the gender-segregated channels. To a point, Disney is attempting to relaunch the concept somewhat in February 2009 with the conversion of Toon Disney
Toon Disney
Toon Disney was an American cable television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company. A spinoff of Disney Channel, it mostly aired children's animated series and some live action programming. Its format had similarities to those of Cartoon Network and Nicktoons...
into the tween boy-targeting Disney XD
Disney XD
Disney XD is a brand of children's TV channels worldwide targeting young males, owned by The Walt Disney Company. The channel was formerly known as Toon Disney and/or Jetix in most areas. According to Gary Marsh, President of Entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide, "XD" does not "stand for...
, while Disney Channel has shifted towards featuring programming appealing to girls (though not necessarily in the same gender-exclusionary manner as the Boyz/Girlz Channel concept).
Under Fox's ownership, Fox Family saw its ranking slide from 10th to 17th place as a result of an increasingly competitive race for younger viewers and the bickering over ownership between News Corp. and Haim Saban
Haim Saban
Haim Saban is an Egyptian born Israeli-American television and media proprietor. With an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 104th richest person in America.-Biography:...
. Some observers believe that it chased away some of the older viewers and never really replaced the core audience. As a result, primetime ratings declined 35% in the past three years. It is also suggested that Fox hired more employees than needed, and when Disney took over, as many as 500 were laid off (this came at a time when Disney itself was downsizing, with 400 others laid off from its failed Go Network online service), but Fox Family also used many freelancers for certain aspects of the channel, such as their short-lived "block jocks" and most of the monikers for the network were created by freelance artists. However, the Disney acquisition took the channel into a deeper decline in its early years.
Fox Family Worldwide Inc was sold to The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, for $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
2.9 billion on October 24, 2001. The sale to The Walt Disney Company included Saban Entertainment. The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC in February 1996, and changed the corporate name to ABC, and the network was officially renamed ABC Family on November 10, 2001.
The sale to Disney was considered one of the largest mistakes or problems occurring during the tenure of Michael Eisner
Michael Eisner
Michael Dammann Eisner is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until 2005.-Early life:...
. The failure was primarily due to the acquisition being done by the strategic planning department of Disney, without consulting anyone at ABC. The original plan was to use the channel to essentially show re-runs of ABC programming, but this plan was completely impossible since ABC had no syndication rights to the majority of their own programs. During this time, the network did air same-season repeats of Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
, Less Than Perfect
Less Than Perfect
Less Than Perfect is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from October 1, 2002, to June 6, 2006. The show was about a young female office employee and her co-workers...
, Life with Bonnie
Life With Bonnie
Life with Bonnie is an ABC television sitcom that originally aired from 2002 to 2004. The show outlined the life of character Bonnie Malloy, who juggled her personal life and a TV talk show position. The series was created by Bonnie Hunt and Don Lake, and produced by Miss Hunt's company, Bob &...
, and The Bachelor, almost all of which were Touchstone Television productions (The Bachelor is distributed by Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
's Telepictures
Telepictures
Telepictures is an American production company, currently operating as a label of Warner Bros. Television, with Hilary Estey McLoughlin currently serving as President...
). But in trying to change the focus of the channel, Disney also canceled several Fox Family series, like State of Grace, and cut back on the network's TV movies, which were among the few programs Fox Family was doing well with. The ratings tumbled further as the network became dependent on syndicated reruns and no original programs (save for original wrap-around segments around Bachelor repeats, and children's programming).
The next major plan was to reposition the channel to market it to college students, young women, or to a more hip audience under the name XYZ, a reverse reference to ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. Disney soon found that the channel could never be renamed as such. The original sale from CBN to Fox/Saban contained a stipulation that the channel contain the word "Family" in the name forever, no matter who owns the network. To create XYZ, the Family Channel would have had to cease to exist—terminating all existing cable TV contracts—and XYZ would have to be created as a new network. Cable companies would not be obligated to put XYZ in the spot vacated by the Family Channel. ABC scrapped the idea after discovering this clause.
The name was revisited at one point in 2003, serving as a program block entitled "The XYZ.", showing programs and movies aimed at the above groups. The network was also used as a buffer to burn off failed ABC series, such as All American Girl
All American Girl (2003 TV series)
All American Girl is a 2003 reality competition that started with 45 females vying for the title of the same name. In the first episode the field of 45 is cut down to 15 by means of a talent show competition and obstacle course. At the talent show and obstacle course, three coaches decided who...
, which featured Spice Girl Geri Haliwell.
Change
Another one of Robertson's stipulations in his sale of the original Family Channel to its future line of secular owners was that his syndicated talk show, The 700 ClubThe 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
, be aired twice daily on the network (although the channel is only required to carry the program twice a day, ABC Family carries The 700 Club three times each weekday; once in the morning, twice at night), along with a shorter CBN talk show called Living the Life. Following controversial remarks made by Robertson on the former program about Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n president Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
, as well as other equally controversial comments regarding gay
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
s, feminists, Muslims, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, and many other social issues, ABC Family moved to distance itself from the program (the showing of which is also required under Robertson's original sale stipulations, along with the airing of a day-long CBN telethon in late January every year); ABC Family changed the disclaimers before, during, and after the broadcasts from "The following/preceding program is brought to you by CBN" to "The following/preceding CBN telecast does not reflect the views of ABC Family." Since 2003, ABC Family has been producing more successful original movies and series.
Today
In August 2006, an all new slogan and visual style premiered on ABC Family: A New Kind of Family. As previously stated, the word "Family" is required under the terms of the lease from Robertson.On August 31, 2006, ABC Family aired Jetix
Jetix
Jetix was a worldwide children's television programming brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The Jetix brand was used for blocks and channels featuring action-related and adventure-related live-action and animated programming. It was also what Disney eventually turned Fox Kids into...
for the last time as a part of Disney's plan to convert all Jetix airings to Toon Disney. Jetix aired various programs since its debut on the network in 2002, which included Metabots, Beyblade
Beyblade
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Aoki. Originally serialized in CoroCoro Comic from 2000 to 2002, the individual chapters were collected and published in 14 tankōbon by Shogakukan...
, Digimon: Digital Monsters, Daigunder
Daigunder
is an anime series about humans using robots in tournaments. Created by Aeon and Takara and animated by Animation Studio Brains Base, the series aired in TV Tokyo from April 2002 to December 2002.-Plot:...
, Get Ed
Get Ed
Get Ed is an American computer-animated television series which debuted in 2005 that aired as a part of the Jetix programming block on the United States cable television network Toon Disney until the channel closed in 2009, and also used to run on the ABC Family channel before they switched over to...
, and many others. Of its long list of programs, the Power Rangers
Power Rangers
Power Rangers is a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live action children's television series featuring teams of costumed heroes...
series was its most successful. Sitcom repeats currently air in Jetix's former timeslot from 7-9 a.m. ET, with the morning airing of the 700 Club/Living the Life block pushed back a half-hour further to 9:30 a.m. ET and sitcom reruns airing during the 9 a.m. ET half-hour. Since the removal of Jetix, ABC Family has not aired any programming targeted at pre-teen audiences; those programs now air on sister network Disney Channel (though this is nothing new for the network, as just before the Fox purchase, ABC Family (as The Family Channel) did not carry any children's programming at all).
Despite being co-owned with Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
—and targeting a similar audience, very little of Disney Channel's programming has aired on ABC Family (except for reruns of Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
and Sister, Sister
Sister, Sister (TV series)
Sister, Sister is an American television sitcom about identical twin girls Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell , who were separated and adopted at birth, when one day they come face-to-face after 14 years apart....
which have previously aired on that network; in fact, episodes of Sister, Sister that aired on ABC Family until it was removed from the lineup in April 2010 were the edited Disney Channel versions as ABC Family did not purchase the original syndicated prints of the show from CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution is a global television distribution company, formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's two domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including its home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment...
). However, the channel has aired some films featuring performers that have been associated with Disney in recent years, such as Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff
Hilary Erhard Duff is an American actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and author. After working in local theater plays and television commercials in her childhood, she achieved fame playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She also reprised her role in...
, The Jonas Brothers, Ashley Tisdale
Ashley Tisdale
Ashley Michelle Tisdale is an American actress and singer who rose to prominence portraying the candy-counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick in Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and the female antagonist Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical film series...
, Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato
"She’s got the range, the full emotional spectrum, incredible control… Vocally, she’s the best thing Disney’s had since Christina Aguilera."—Producer Toby Gad on Demi Lovato's vocals...
and Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez
Selena Marie Gomez is an American actress and singer best known for portraying Alex Russo in the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place...
. The only Disney Channel productions to air on ABC Family were the 2008 movie Camp Rock
Camp Rock
Camp Rock is a 2008 Disney Channel Original Movie starring the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. The music is written by Julie Brown, Paul Brown, Regina Hicks and Karen Gist. The film is directed by Matthew Diamond and produced by Alan Sacks....
and the 2011 film Lemonade Mouth
Lemonade Mouth (film)
Lemonade Mouth is a 2011 musical drama film based on the book of the same name by Mark Peter Hughes. The film was directed by Patricia Riggen and written by April Blair, and stars Bridgit Mendler, Adam Hicks, Hayley Kiyoko, Naomi Scott, and Blake Michael...
, both of which are also two of only four Disney Channel movies to air domestically on a non-Disney Channel branded network (Cadet Kelly
Cadet Kelly
Cadet Kelly is a 2002 Disney Channel Original Movie starring Hilary Duff. The film premiered with 7.8 million viewers. It was Duff's second film where she played the main character, her first being the film Casper Meets Wendy...
is the other having aired on The Wonderful World of Disney in 2002; though TV Guide once claimed that ABC Family once aired reruns of The Famous Jett Jackson
The Famous Jett Jackson
The Famous Jett Jackson is a joint Canadian and American Disney Channel Original Series coming-of-age television series for children ages 12–16 about a boy named Jett Jackson who plays a teenage secret-agent on a fictional TV show-within-a-show called Silverstone...
just prior to the removal of the Jetix lineup).
In October 2007, ABC Family completely redesigned their website, giving it a more modern look as compared to its previous look. They also streamlined the Broadband Player, putting more content on it including reruns of Three Moons Over Milford
Three Moons Over Milford
Three Moons Over Milford is an American science fiction dramedy set in a picturesque small town in southern Vermont. Shortly before the series begins, an asteroid hits the Moon, shattering it into three fragments, threatening to eventually fall to Earth and end life...
, and episodes of 7th Heaven
7th Heaven
7th Heaven is an American family drama television series, created and produced by Brenda Hampton. The series premiered on August 26, 1996, on the WB, the first time that the network aired Monday night programming, and was originally broadcast from August 26, 1996 to May 13, 2007...
, Grounded for Life
Grounded for Life
Grounded for Life is an American television sitcom that debuted on January 10, 2001 as a mid-season replacement on the FOX Network. It was created by Mike Schiff and Bill Martin. It ran for two seasons on the network until being cancelled only two episodes into its third season...
, Kyle XY
Kyle XY
Kyle XY is an American television series with a science fiction premise and mystery-drama style. The central character is a teenage boy who awakens naked in a forest outside Seattle, Washington, with no more knowledge or abilities than a newborn. He is taken in by a family and given the name Kyle...
, and Greek
Greek (TV series)
Greek is an American comedy-drama television series, which follows students of the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University , located in Ohio, who participate in the school's Greek system...
, as well as adding some Fox Kids
Fox Kids
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.Depending on the show, the...
programming they still own, such as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a 1978 comedy film directed by John De Bello and starring David Miller. The film is a spoof of B movies. Made on a budget of less than US$100,000, the story involves tomatoes becoming sentient by unknown means and revolting against humanity. Writing credits were...
.
Kyle XY
Kyle XY
Kyle XY is an American television series with a science fiction premise and mystery-drama style. The central character is a teenage boy who awakens naked in a forest outside Seattle, Washington, with no more knowledge or abilities than a newborn. He is taken in by a family and given the name Kyle...
had given the channel the most viewers in the network's history, but in 2008 that record was broken by the series premiere of The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on July 1, 2008. The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 24 episodes on February 9, 2009, which began airing on June 22, 2009...
. After nearly 3 years, the record was broken again with Switched at Birth
Switched at Birth
Switched at Birth is a 1991 television film directed by Waris Hussein. It is based on the true story of Kimberly Mays and Arlena Twigg, babies switched soon after birth in a Florida hospital in 1978.-Plot:...
premiering to 3.3 million viewers on June 6, 2011. Since then, ABC Family has launched more shows geared towards young females, such as popular dramas Make It or Break It and The Nine Lives of Chloe King
The Nine Lives of Chloe King
The Nine Lives of Chloe King is an American fantasy drama television series which premiered on ABC Family on June 14, 2011 and ended on August 16, 2011. The one-hour drama is based on the book series of the same name by Liz Braswell...
, and comedies 10 Things I Hate About You
10 Things I Hate About You (TV series)
10 Things I Hate About You is an American television situation comedy broadcast on ABC Family beginning in 2009. Developed by Carter Covington, the show is a half-hour, single camera series based on the 1999 film of the same name...
, Melissa & Joey
Melissa & Joey
Melissa & Joey is an ABC Family original television series starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence. It first aired on ABC Family on August 17, 2010...
, and State of Georgia
State of Georgia (TV series)
State of Georgia is an American television situation comedy. It stars Raven-Symoné, Majandra Delfino and Loretta Devine. The half-hour multi-cam comedy series stars Raven-Symoné as Georgia, an aspiring actress with a larger-than-life personality, and her science geek best friend, Jo , who are...
In July 2009, the network posted best-ever July deliveries in Prime and Total viewers thanks to returning series The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on July 1, 2008. The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 24 episodes on February 9, 2009, which began airing on June 22, 2009...
and new series Make It or Break It, 10 Things I Hate About You
10 Things I Hate About You (TV series)
10 Things I Hate About You is an American television situation comedy broadcast on ABC Family beginning in 2009. Developed by Carter Covington, the show is a half-hour, single camera series based on the 1999 film of the same name...
and Ruby & The Rockits along with extended features from the Harry Potter
Harry Potter (film series)
The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling...
film franchise and the TV debut of Labor Pains
Labor Pains
Labor Pains is a 2009 romantic comedy starring Lindsay Lohan, Luke Kirby, Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell, Bridgit Mendler, and Kevin Covais. The film received a television premiere on ABC Family on July 19, 2009. It was originally scheduled to be released in theatres...
. On June 8, 2010, the premiere of the ABC Family original drama series Pretty Little Liars
Pretty Little Liars (TV series)
Pretty Little Liars is an American mystery-thriller teen drama television series created by Marlene King. Based on the popular series of novels written by Sara Shepard, the show premiered on June 8, 2010 on ABC Family...
, successfully broke series premiere ratings records for ABC Family, across all major viewing demographics of women and young people.
Aside from some common programming and targeting the same audience, the various iterations of CBN/Fox/ABC Family have had no affiliation with the Canadian network Family, although some electronic guide providers confusingly display Family's 1988-1998 logo (which partially resembles ABC Family's pre-1998 logo as The Family Channel) as that of ABC Family's logo.
ABC Family HD
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...
high definition simulcast of ABC Family that launched in early 2008. All of the network's original series and films currently are produced in high definition, which are aired in a widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
letterbox
Letterbox
Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes above and below it; these mattes are part of the image...
forrmat on the SD channel. Films when possible also air in HD. ABC Family HD is being offered on select cable and satellite providers such as Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
, Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
, Cox Communications
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
, Verizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service which operates over a fiber-optic communications network. It is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon Communications. Verizon was one of the first major U.S...
, AT&T U-verse, Charter Communications
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...
and DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
. Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
does not carry the HD feed due to a carriage dispute with Disney.
Programming
ABC Family currently offers a slate of mostly reruns of contemporary comedies, such as Full HouseFull House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
, 8 Simple Rules
8 Simple Rules
8 Simple Rules is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 17, 2002, to April 15, 2005, with 76 episodes produced over three seasons. It is based on the self-improvement book of the same name. The show starred John Ritter until his death on September 11, 2003...
, Grounded For Life
Grounded for Life
Grounded for Life is an American television sitcom that debuted on January 10, 2001 as a mid-season replacement on the FOX Network. It was created by Mike Schiff and Bill Martin. It ran for two seasons on the network until being cancelled only two episodes into its third season...
, Still Standing
Still Standing (TV series)
Still Standing is an American sitcom television series. It debuted on CBS on September 30, 2002, and ended March 8, 2006. Lifetime obtained the United States syndication rights to the show in February 2005 and aired it until 2009...
, What I Like About You
What I Like About You (TV series)
What I Like About You is an American television sitcom set mainly in New York City, following the lives of two sisters, Valerie Tyler and Holly Tyler . The series ran on The WB Television Network from September 20, 2002, to March 24, 2006, with a total of 86 episodes produced...
, America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos is an American reality television program on ABC in which viewers are able to send in humorous homemade videotapes. The most common videos usually feature slapstick physical comedy arising from incidents, accidents and mishaps...
, That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
and My Wife and Kids
My Wife and Kids
My Wife and Kids is an American television family sitcom that ran on ABC from March 28, 2001 until May 17, 2005. Produced by Touchstone Television , it starred Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin, and centers on the character of Michael Kyle, a loving husband and modern-day patriarch who rules...
, with the only off-network drama series on the schedule being Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights (TV series)
Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. The series details events surrounding a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team...
and Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls is an American family comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. On October 5, 2000, the series debuted on The WB and was cancelled in its seventh season, ending on May 15, 2007 on The CW...
. Since 2000, the network has aired several sitcoms that have aired on ABC's former TGIF
TGIF (ABC)
TGIF was the name of an American family-friendly prime time television programming block on the ABC network. The name comes from the initials of the popular phrase "Thank God It's Friday"...
block, including the Miller-Boyett
Miller-Boyett Productions
Miller-Boyett Productions was an American television production company that mainly developed television sitcoms from the 1970s through the 1990s...
produced Step by Step (one of the longest-running shows on the channel, running from 2001 to 2010), Family Matters (2003-2008), Two of a Kind (1999-2005), Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
Sabrina the Teenage Witch is a comic book series published by Archie Comics about the adventures of a teenage fictional character named Sabrina Spellman. The character was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo. The comic's characters have also appeared in various other media...
(2006-2011), Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
and Full House
Full House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
, with the latter two still airing today.
The channel also produces a limited amount of original series, such as The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on July 1, 2008. The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 24 episodes on February 9, 2009, which began airing on June 22, 2009...
, Make It or Break It, Melissa & Joey
Melissa & Joey
Melissa & Joey is an ABC Family original television series starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence. It first aired on ABC Family on August 17, 2010...
, Pretty Little Liars
Pretty Little Liars (TV series)
Pretty Little Liars is an American mystery-thriller teen drama television series created by Marlene King. Based on the popular series of novels written by Sara Shepard, the show premiered on June 8, 2010 on ABC Family...
, Switched at Birth
Switched at Birth (TV series)
Switched at Birth is an American television series that premiered on ABC Family on June 6, 2011 at 9:00 ET/PT. The one-hour scripted drama revolves around two teenagers who were switched at birth and grew up in very different environments...
, and The Lying Game
The Lying Game
The Lying Game is an American drama television series produced by Alloy Entertainment and Warner Horizon Television for ABC Family. The show is based on a series of novels of the same name by Sara Shepard. The network green-lighted the series in February 2011 with a 10 episode order, with the...
, and former series such as Kyle XY, GREEK, Lincoln Heights, 10 Things I Hate About You, Ruby and the Rockits, Huge, and the recently cancelled series, State of Georgia
State of Georgia (TV series)
State of Georgia is an American television situation comedy. It stars Raven-Symoné, Majandra Delfino and Loretta Devine. The half-hour multi-cam comedy series stars Raven-Symoné as Georgia, an aspiring actress with a larger-than-life personality, and her science geek best friend, Jo , who are...
and The Nine Lives of Chloe King
The Nine Lives of Chloe King
The Nine Lives of Chloe King is an American fantasy drama television series which premiered on ABC Family on June 14, 2011 and ended on August 16, 2011. The one-hour drama is based on the book series of the same name by Liz Braswell...
. Of these original series, the channel has had minimal success with situation comedy programming as of recent, with its drama series having generally outlasted the original sitcoms. ABC Family airs their original series on Monday and/or Tuesday nights, and recently Wednesday nights for its new comedy block, typically preempting programming that airs in the 7 and 10 p.m. ET timeslots the rest of the week. The network airs each season of its original series in a relatively uncommon format for broadcast television or basic cable, as the first half of the season airs with consecutive episodes, followed by a 4-6 month break, then the remaining episodes of the season are broadcast afterward; ABC Family typically only reruns episodes of their original series in a marathon
Marathon (television)
In television, a marathon is typically the sequential broadcast of a single or a number of related television programs, most notably reflecting a theme....
that airs prior to a season premiere, mid-season or season finale, or other special occasion, though the channel does air week-behind encores of original series that air in the 8 p.m. ET hour prior to the newest episode and a same-night encore of the newest episode the evening of an episode premiere.
The channel also airs a limited amount of religious programming, a remnant from the network's CBN ownership, including the aforementioned weekdaily broadcasts of The 700 Club and The 700 Club Interactive, as well as ministry programs from Joel Osteen
Joel Osteen
Joel Scott Osteen is an American author, televangelist, and the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His ministry reaches over seven million broadcast media viewers weekly in over 100 nations around the world.-Biography:...
, Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer is a Charismatic Christian author and speaker. Meyer and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her ministry is headquartered in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.-Early life:Meyer was born Pauline Joyce Hutchison in south St. Louis in...
, James Robison, Joseph Prince
Joseph Prince
Joseph Prince is the senior pastor of New Creation Church in Singapore, one of Asia's biggest churches. He was one of the young pioneers who founded the church in 1983.-Background:...
, Doug Batchelor
Doug Batchelor
Doug Batchelor is an evangelist of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and author of several books including The Richest Caveman. His primary ministry is Amazing Facts - a worldwide television and radio broadcast ministry based in Sacramento, California. He also pastors the Sacramento Central...
, Ed Young and the late Zola Levitt; aside from the 700 Club and 700 Club Interactive airings, most of the religious programming carried by ABC Family generally airs between 5-7 a.m. ET each weekday and on Sunday nights from 12-1:30 a.m. ET.
It is one of only two Disney-owned cable channels in the U.S. (ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic is a sports channel that features reruns of famous sporting events, sports documentaries, and sports themed movies. Such programs includes biographies of famous sports figures or a rerun of a famous World Series or Super Bowl, often with added commentary on the event...
being the other) to air infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s and one of the only cable channels to air informercials before 2:30 a.m. ET.; they air from 1-7 a.m. ET weekdays, 2-7 a.m. ET Saturdays and 12-7 a.m. ET on Sundays.
Movies
ABC Family airs movies Wednesday nights at 9 p.m ET and Thursday nights (and if no original series are scheduled, Monday and/or Tuesdays also) at 8 p.m. ET and a day-long schedule of films on weekends from as early as 7 a.m. (sometimes later, such as around 7:30 or 8 a.m. ET) to as late as 2 a.m. ET on Saturdays and 12 a.m. ET on Sundays. Movies airing on the network are targeted at various audiences, from pre-teens to teens and adults, with a large amount of films airing on ABC Family being distributed by Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group (owned by ABC Family's parent company The Walt Disney Company), 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
(owned by the channel's former parent News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
) and Warner Bros. Entertainment. ABC Family has also purchased the cable television rights to many film series, such as the Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
film series (which ABC and Disney Channel also hold rights to), 2004's A Cinderella Story
A Cinderella Story
A Cinderella Story is a 2004 American romantic comedy film. The film stars Hilary Duff, Jennifer Coolidge, Chad Michael Murray and Regina King and was directed by Mark Rosman. The film's plot revolves around two Internet pen pals who meet at a school dance and fall in love but two different worlds...
and its 2008 made-for-DVD spinoff Another Cinderella Story
Another Cinderella Story
Another Cinderella Story is a 2008 romantic comedy directed by Damon Santostefano and starring Selena Gomez and Drew Seeley. The film was released direct-to-DVD by Warner Premiere on September 16, 2008. It was released on DVD in the UK on October 27, 2008...
and most recently the Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Robert Luketic, written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, and produced by Marc E. Platt...
film series (after securing rights to the 2009 made-for-DVD release Legally Blondes
Legally Blondes
Legally Blondes is a 2009 spin-off film of the Legally Blonde series from MGM. Elle Woods, previously played by Reese Witherspoon, does not appear in the film, but is mentioned several times. Witherspoon produced the film. The film aired on ABC Family and Disney Channel, and is directed towards a...
). From 1998 to 2002, ABC Family also secured cable rights to several films starring Mary-Kate
Mary-Kate Olsen
Mary-Kate Olsen is an American actress, producer, author and fashion designer. She made her career debut in 1987 alongside her twin sister Ashley Olsen in the television series Full House...
and Ashley Olsen
Ashley Olsen
Ashley Fuller Olsen is an American actress, fashion designer, producer, and author. She co-founded luxury fashion brand The Row and the more affordable line Olsenboye with her twin sister Mary-Kate Olsen and started her own fashion company called Elizabeth and James...
(this was around the time the network aired their short-lived ABC sitcom Two of a Kind, but just prior to carrying Full House
Full House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
).
The channel also produces its own original movies, as sister network Disney Channel does (though Disney Channel's movies are targeted at a slightly younger audience); some of ABC Family's most popular original movies include Night of the Twisters
Night of the Twisters
Night of the Twisters is a film directed by Timothy Bond, released by MTM Enterprises, and distributed by PorchLight Entertainment about a family's struggle to survive a night with a bizarre and terrible storm passing over their town. The TV movie is based on the novel by Ivy Ruckman, which centers...
, Holiday in Handcuffs
Holiday in Handcuffs
Holiday in Handcuffs is an American television movie that originally aired on ABC Family on December 9, 2007, as a part of the network's 25 Days of Christmas programming block. The film stars Melissa Joan Hart, Mario Lopez, Markie Post and Timothy Bottoms....
, the Au Pair trilogy, My Fake Fiance
My Fake Fiance
My Fake Fiancé is a 2009 TV film starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence. It premiered on the ABC Family channel on April 19, 2009.-Plot synopsis:...
and Cyberbully
Cyberbully (film)
Cyberbully is a film that premiered on July 17, 2011 on ABC Family. ABC Family worked with Seventeen Magazine to make the film, and hopes it will "delete digital drama". The film tells the story of a teenage girl who is bullied online...
. ABC Family has also recently been generating high levels of viewers with their weekend movie events. The "Harry Potter Weekend" Block in July 2009 generated some of the highest levels of viewers for the year so far weekend events.
ABC Family is also becoming known for giving previews to upcoming movies, as it has done for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a 2007 fantasy film directed by David Yates and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the fifth instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Michael Goldenberg and produced by David Heyman and David Barron...
, Hairspray
Hairspray (2007 film)
Hairspray is a 2007 musical film produced by Kolaja Productions and distributed by New Line Cinema. It was released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2007. The film is an adaptation of the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on John...
and Stardust.
Sports
For the 2000 and 2001 seasons, Fox Family was home to a weekly Thursday night Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
game (a game that had previously aired nationwide on Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports Net
The Fox Sports Regional Networks, or simply Fox Sports Net , are a collection of cable TV regional sports networks in the United States owned and operated by News Corporation.- Beginnings :...
from 1997–1999), as well as select games in the Division Series
Division Series
In baseball, the Division Series is the official name for the first round of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Currently, a total of four series are played in this opening round, two each for both the American League and the National League.-1981 season:...
round of playoffs. As part of its purchase of Fox Family, in addition to that game, Disney acquired the MLB rights that were also held by Fox Family's sister station FX. Those two game packages were moved to ESPN beginning with the next baseball season
2002 in baseball
-Major League Baseball:*Regular Season Champions*World Series Champion - Anaheim Angels*Postseason - October 1 to October 27Click on any series score to link to that series' page....
, but the playoff games remained on ABC Family for one additional year due to contractual issues. A deal was made to move those playoff games to ESPN, who produced the games for ABC Family, starting with the 2003
2003 in baseball
-Headline event of the year:*The Florida Marlins become World Series champions, holding off a dynastic New York Yankees team, 4 games to 2.-Major League Baseball:*Regular Season Champions*World Series Champion - Florida Marlins...
season. Although the games aired on Disney networks, Fox kept the exclusive negotiation to renew the contract after the 2006
2006 in baseball
-Headline Event of the Year:*The 2006 World Baseball Classic final 4 teams are Japan, Cuba, Korea and the Dominican Republic, with the United States at 3–3 failing to qualify for the semi-finals. Under the leadership of manager Sadaharu Oh and veterans Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka, Japan ...
season. Fox chose not to renew their rights to the Division Series, which went to TBS as part of its new baseball contract
MLB on TBS
Major League Baseball on TBS is a presentation of Major League Baseball games produced by Turner Sports and airing on the television channel TBS.-Pre-2007: relationship with the Braves:...
.
25 Days of Christmas
The channel has been known for airing many Christmas specials, such as the Rankin-Bass programs The Little Drummer Boy and Santa Claus Is Coming to TownSanta Claus Is Coming to Town
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is a Christmas song. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934....
. ABC has since expanded this holiday programming, adding made-for-television movies, a litany of Rankin-Bass sequels (this was complicated somewhat because the broadcasting rights some of the original specials, including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer with a glowing red nose. He is popularly known as "Santa's 9th Reindeer" and, when depicted, is the lead reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. The luminosity of his nose is so great that it illuminates the team's path through...
, were still owned by CBS), and other original programming to create "The 25 Days of Christmas." This program block airs from December 1 through 25th, in prime time during the weekdays and from noon through prime time during the weekends. There have been some movies that aren't necessarily holiday related. In 2006, for example, Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
movies were shown along with Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins (film)
Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
(the 2004 Enhanced Home Theater Mix version) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. The...
. Also that year, Dr. Seuss on the Loose
Dr. Seuss on the Loose
Dr. Seuss on the Loose is an animated musical television special, cartoon first airing on CBS on October 15, 1973, and hosted by The Cat in the Hat. who appears in bridging sequences where he introduced animated adaptations of Dr...
and The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss and perhaps the most famous, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. He also carries a pale blue umbrella...
were added, however, not with How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
13 Nights of Halloween
The success of 25 Days of Christmas led to this holiday spin-off, which airs from October 19 to October 31 each year. It was previously known as the 13 Days of Halloween during the Fox Family era. Fox Family created The 13 Days of Halloween in 1998. The programming block became one of the biggest successes of the network, being repeated in 1999, 2000, and 2001. In 2002 after ABC purchased Fox Family, it was changed to the 13 Nights of Halloween. It was not aired in 2003 as new programming executives simply decided not to air the successful programming for reasons that remain unclear. The 13 Nights of Halloween returned in 2004, featuring reruns of Scariest Places on Earth, the premiere of the ABC Family Original Movie “The Hollow", and other shows like Smallville and Gilmore Girls. The 2005 schedule provided a return to more traditional Halloween programming and scary movies. It has been steadily growing ever since but still hasn't gotten the same attention it had in the Fox Family era. Films that air during 13 Nights of Halloween include The Sixth SenseThe Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear , a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist who tries to help him...
, Corpse Bride
Corpse Bride
Corpse Bride, often promoted as Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, is a 2005 stop-motion-animated fantasy musical film directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton. It is set in a fictional Victorian era village in Europe. Johnny Depp led an all-star cast as the voice of Victor, while Helena Bonham Carter ...
, Scooby Doo
Scooby-Doo (film)
Scooby-Doo is a 2002 American comedy film based on the Hanna-Barbera television cartoon series Scooby-Doo about a group of young detectives and their talking dog. It is the first installment in the Scooby-Doo live action film series...
and occasionally Stephen King's It and Nightworld: Lost Souls
Nightworld: Lost Souls
Lost Souls is a made-for-TV movie created for UPN in 1998 for the Nightworld movie series. It was the second in the series to be shown by the network. It was frequently shown on the Fox Family Channel during the 13 nights of Halloween special in October....
.
ABC Family's Campus Crush
In 2009, ABC Family debuted this back-to-school-themed block, which airs from the first week of August. "Campus Crush" features episodes of its original series and romantic comedy and drama films, as well as school-themed episodes of its syndicated series.ABC Family Action Block / Jetix
Aired various children's programs since its debut on the network in September 2002, which included MedabotsMedabots
Medabots, known in Japan as , is a role-playing video game franchise developed by Natsume and published by Imagineer in Japan in 1997. The video game franchise was later adapted into a Japanese anime television series produced by Bee Train. Spanning 52 episodes, the series originally aired on TV...
, Beyblade
Beyblade
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Aoki. Originally serialized in CoroCoro Comic from 2000 to 2002, the individual chapters were collected and published in 14 tankōbon by Shogakukan...
, Digimon: Digital Monsters, Daigunder
Daigunder
is an anime series about humans using robots in tournaments. Created by Aeon and Takara and animated by Animation Studio Brains Base, the series aired in TV Tokyo from April 2002 to December 2002.-Plot:...
, Get Ed
Get Ed
Get Ed is an American computer-animated television series which debuted in 2005 that aired as a part of the Jetix programming block on the United States cable television network Toon Disney until the channel closed in 2009, and also used to run on the ABC Family channel before they switched over to...
, and many others. Was rebranded into Jetix in February 2004 when the Jetix block was launched on Toon Disney
Toon Disney
Toon Disney was an American cable television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company. A spinoff of Disney Channel, it mostly aired children's animated series and some live action programming. Its format had similarities to those of Cartoon Network and Nicktoons...
. Of its long list of programs, the Power Rangers
Power Rangers
Power Rangers is a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live action children's television series featuring teams of costumed heroes...
series was its most successful. Discontinued on the network in September 2006, though it continued to air on Toon Disney. Sitcom repeats currently air in Jetix's former timeslot from 7-9 a.m. ET, with the morning airing of the 700 Club/Living the Life block pushed back an hour further to 9 a.m. ET. Most of Jetix's programming was previously aired on Fox Kids
Fox Kids
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.Depending on the show, the...
and Fox Family. As of February 13, 2009, Jetix's official home, Toon Disney, was rebranded into Disney XD, and Jetix no longer exists.
ABC Spark
On October 26, 2011, it was announced that Disney/ABC would be partnering with Toronto-based media company Corus EntertainmentCorus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a publicly traded Canadian media and entertainment conglomerate.Corus is a leading Canadian specialty television and radio producer, with additional assets in pay television, advertising services, television broadcasting, children's book publishing and children's...
to launch a Canadian version of ABC Family under the name ABC Spark, set to launch in Spring 2012. The channel, which is licensed by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission as a Category B specialty channel (which under CRTC rules, Canadian digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
and direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
providers can choose to carry the channel on an optional basis), is aimed at 15-34 year olds. The ABC Spark name was chosen to avoid viewer confusion and/or legal issues with the preexisting and unrelated Canadian channel Family, which is owned by competitor Astral Media
Astral Media
Astral Media Inc. is a Canadian media corporation. It is Canada's largest radio broadcaster with 83 radio stations in eight provinces, and is a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, including The Movie Network, Super Écran, Family, Teletoon, Canal D, Canal Vie, VRAK.TV,...
, and carries programming from ABC Family sister network Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
.
Criticism
Since 2006, the critics have gone after programming on ABC Family. Most feel the network has gone from family friendly to "too risqué," and shows like GreekGreek (TV series)
Greek is an American comedy-drama television series, which follows students of the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University , located in Ohio, who participate in the school's Greek system...
and The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on July 1, 2008. The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 24 episodes on February 9, 2009, which began airing on June 22, 2009...
are far too racy for "family viewers." Critics feel the executives at ABC Family are only after viewership numbers and are unconcerned about showing younger generations in questionable scenarios in series and film. Mostly, the main focus is on teenage pregnancy and underage drinking.
It should be noted that despite the channel's name including the word "Family", the channel's programming content standards had changed several years earlier after the sale of the channel by International Family Entertainment, and the channel had been airing even some acquired series and movies that contain profanity, violence and sexual content or dialogue after the sale, particularly since being purchased by The Walt Disney Company. ABC Family does air parental advisory tags at the beginning of some TV-14 rated programs, such as That '70s Show and some episodes of The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Network slogans
- Stay with Us/Just Watch Us (1977–1988; as CBN Satellite Service and CBN Cable)
- The Greatest in the Family (1988–1991; as The CBN Family Channel)
- Together with Family (1991–1995; as The Family Channel)
- There's Nothing Stronger (1995–1996)
- Just Watch Us Now! (1996–1998)
- You Belong (1998–2000; as Fox Family)
- It's Electric (2000–2001)
- Everything You Want to Know from A to Z (2001–2003; as ABC Family)
- It's All About You (2003–2006)
- A New Kind of Family (2006–present)