Remember When We Used to Laugh at Fox?

 

That line was once a Letterman gag, said again and again to side-man Paul Schaffer back in the day when American Idol was new. Fox was just starting to cover sports back then and had just begun programming the whole week.

 

Launched as “the fourth network” in October 1986, Fox relied on programming like Married with Children, 21 Jump Street (featuring the young Johnny Depp) and a short while later the wildly successful Simpsons (which started as part of The Tracey Ullman Show). They programmed then, as now, two hours a night instead of the usual three. They had no sports, no news and no daytime schedule.

 

In 1993, Fox began programming seven nights of the week. They also accomplished a huge coup that would help fuel their climb to the top of the ratings: They lured NFC football, and commentators John Madden and Pat Summerall, away from CBS. Not only did they start airing football, they did it differently, and in some opinions, better than the other networks.

 

Their graphics were sharp and fast. Their ex-player announcers got out from behind their anchor desk and “played” on a mocked-up studio “field” to illustrate a formation or to prove a point. Putting innovation, fun and creativity into the telecast made what we’d all been watching for years fresh. The coverage of games was compelling even when your team was in the tank.

 

Football brings audience to a net in many ways. First, you have all those people watching the game from every demo, every part of the country. Mostly they’re those “hard to reach” males. You also get a great big platform on which to promote other shows.

 

Fox improved upon and delivered to that audience what had worked for them from the start; Animated shows, reality and dramas. Some of the reality didn’t work out so well. Remember My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiancé and The Littlest Groom? But an awful lot of it did work, including Joe Millionaire and, of course, American Idol.

 

WhenIdol took off, it became yet another platform Fox could use to promote shows, as well as a powerful lead-in. My favorite Fox show, House, has Idol to thank for drawing in much of its initial audience, myself included. Once people started to watch, the show’s excellence carried it forward to its current position, firmly in the Top 10 ratings weekly, whether Idol leads into it or not.

 

In February 2005, Fox scored its first-ever sweeps win with Adults 18-49 with the help of the Super Bowl, 24, Idol and House. Since gaining football in 1993, Fox has also added the Bowl Championship Series and coverage of the NHL, Major League Baseball, including the playoffs and World Series, and NASCAR to its sports line-up.

 

This year, Fox stands to become the No. 1 network in Adults 18-49 outright and the writers’ strike could actually HELP make that happen. Reality and sports, where Fox excels, are virtually strike-proof. TV-starved viewers are flocking to ANYTHING that isn’t a rerun, particularly sports.The NFC Championship game on Fox on Jan. 20 drew 53.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-Super Bowl telecast since the Seinfeld series finale in 1998.

 

Last week, the quizzer Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? helped Fox to WIN Thursday night for the second week in a row, as Thursday night hits Grey’s Anatomy on ABC and CBS’ CSI remain mired in reruns.

 

This Sunday, Fox will air the Super Bowl, followed by a new House episode saved especially for this plum time slot. Houseis one of the few top dramas with new episodes left, three in all, which will air this Tuesday, post-Super Bowl on Sunday, and next Tuesday, Feb. 5.

 

These offerings andIdol virtually insure Fox a February sweeps win, and if the WGA strike carries on much longer, we can count on them winning the whole season easily.

 

Remember when we used to laugh at Fox? Not anymore. Maybe not ever again.