The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' subsidiary, United Television. Viacom turned it into a joint venture in 1996 after acquiring a 50% stake in the network, and subsequently purchased Chris-Craft's remaining stake in 2000. On December 31, 2005, UPN was kept by CBS Corporation, which was the new name for Viacom when it split into two separate companies. CBS Corporation and Time Warner jointly announced on January 24, 2006, that the companies would shut down UPN and competitor The WB to launch a new joint venture network later that year. UPN ceased broadcasting on September 15, 2006, with The WB following two days later. Select programs from both networks moved to the new network, The CW, when it launched on September 18, 2006.
Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series about the lives of a close-knit group of friends in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, beginning in high school and continuing into college that ran from January 20, 1998, to May 14, 2003. The series starred James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery; Katie Holmes as his best friend and love interest, Joey Potter; Joshua Jackson as their fellow friend Pacey Witter and Michelle Williams as Jen Lindley, a New York City transplant to Capeside. The show was created by Kevin Williamson and debuted on The WB on January 20, 1998. It was produced by Columbia TriStar Television and was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina. The series ended on May 14, 2003. A total of 128 episodes were produced.
Smallville is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar/Gough Ink, Tollin/Robbins Productions, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Television. Initially broadcast by the WB, the show premiered on October 16, 2001. After its fifth season, the WB and UPN merged to form The CW, the series' later United States broadcaster until its tenth and final season ended on May 13, 2011.
KUTP, branded on-air as Fox 10 Xtra, is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox outlet KSAZ-TV. Both stations share studios on West Adams Street in Downtown Phoenix, while KUTP's transmitter is located atop South Mountain.
WPHL-TV is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW Television Network. The station also maintains a secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV. Owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, WPHL-TV has studios in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia; it maintains a channel sharing agreement with Vineland, New Jersey–licensed Univision station WUVP-DT, under which the two stations transmit using WPHL-TV's spectrum from a tower in the Roxborough antenna farm.
In the United States, there are three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks — NBC, CBS, and ABC — that due to their longevity and ratings success are informally referred to as the "Big Three". They dominated American television until the 1990s and are still considered major U.S. broadcast companies to this day.
KMAX-TV is an independent television station in Sacramento, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside Stockton-licensed CBS owned-and-operated station KOVR. Both stations share studios on KOVR Drive in West Sacramento, while KMAX-TV's transmitter is located in Walnut Grove, California.
All of Us is an American sitcom that premiered on the UPN network in the United States on September 16, 2003, where it aired for its first three seasons. On October 1, 2006, the show moved to The CW, a new network formed by the merger of UPN and The WB, where it aired for one season, then was cancelled on May 15, 2007.
The CW Television Network is an American English-language commercial broadcast television network that is controlled – through The CW Network, LLC – by Nexstar Media Group, with a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the first letters of the names of its two founding co-owners CBS Corporation and Warner Bros.. Nexstar closed its acquisition of a controlling interest in The CW on October 3, 2022, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each retaining a 12.5% ownership stake.
MyNetworkTV is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations division, and distributed through the syndication structure of Fox First Run. MyNetworkTV began its operations on September 5, 2006, with an initial affiliate lineup covering about 96% of the country, most of which consisted of stations that were former affiliates of The WB and UPN that did not join the successor of those two networks, The CW. Under the ownership structure of Fox Corporation, the service is incorporated as a subsidiary company known as MyNetworkTV, Inc.
In January 2006, America's two "second-tier" television networks, UPN and The WB, announced they would both cease operations on September 15 and 17 respectively, and their operations would be transferred to a new joint-venture "fifth" network, The CW. Meanwhile, Fox Television Stations signed up with MyNetworkTV, a new "sixth" network owned by then-parent company News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group.
Swift Justice is an American detective drama television series created by Dick Wolf and Richard Albarino. It aired for one season on United Paramount Network (UPN) from March 13 to July 17, 1996. It follows former Navy SEAL Mac Swift, a private investigator who was fired from the New York City Police Department. He receives support from his former partner Detective Randall Patterson and his father Al Swift. Completed on a limited budget, episodes were filmed on location in New York.
Lucille "Lucie" Salhany is an American media executive of Jordanian and Lebanese Heritage. Salhany was the first woman to head a broadcast television network in 1993 in the position as Chairwoman of Fox Broadcasting Company. She later created the United Paramount Network. She has had over 30 years of experience in the entertainment business, and during the height of her career, was one of the most powerful women at the C-Suite level.
The Strip is an American action drama series created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, which aired on UPN from October 12, 1999 to July 7, 2000, during the 1999–2000 television season. The drama series was produced by Silver Pictures Television, Millar Gough Ink and Warner Bros. Television.
Family Affair is a television comedy that aired on The WB from September 12, 2002 to March 13, 2003. It was a remake of the original 1966 television series. This version was from Sid and Marty Krofft, and was produced by Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures, Pariah Films, and Turner Television. The WB canceled the series after airing thirteen of the fifteen episodes produced.
Susanne Lieberstein Daniels is an American entertainment executive, producer, and author. She developed TV shows such as Dawson's Creek, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and Cobra Kai, and YouTube livestream events with artists including Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and Paul McCartney.
A Season finale is the final episode of a season of a television program
In 1995, Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries' United Television launched United Paramount Network (UPN) with Star Trek: Voyager as its flagship series, fulfilling Barry Diller's plan for a Paramount network from 25 years earlier. In 1999, Viacom bought out United Television's interests, and handed responsibility for the start-up network to the newly acquired CBS unit, which Viacom bought in 1999 – an ironic confluence of events as Paramount had once invested in CBS, and Viacom had once been the syndication arm of CBS as well. During this period the studio acquired some 30 television stations to support the UPN network as well acquiring and merging in the assets of Republic Pictures, Spelling Television and Viacom Television, almost doubling the size of the studio's television library.
With the success with Fox, several other companies started to enter the broadcasting world in the 1990s to become the fifth commercial broadcast network that would allow a station to brand itself better and to stand out amongst the increasing number of channels particularly cable. Chris-Craft Industries and Warner Bros. Television Distribution jointly launched the Prime Time Entertainment Network in September 1993, a consortium created in attempt at creating a new "fifth network." PTEN, Spelling Premiere Network, Family Network and the proposed WB Network & Paramount Network were being shopped in January 1994 against syndicated blocks Disney Afternoon and Universal's "Action Pack." Spelling Premiere Network had launched in August 1994. All American Television considered launching a first-run movie network with 22 movies as of November 1994. Chris-Craft subsidiary United Television then partnered with Paramount to create the United Paramount Network (UPN), which launched in January 1995. Warner Bros. parent Time Warner then formed a partnership with the Tribune Company to create The WB, which also launched less than a week after UPN made its debut. Concurrently, United left PTEN's parent, the Prime Time Consortium, to focus on UPN, leaving PTEN as primarily a syndicator of its remaining programs; the service shared affiliations with its respective parents' own network ventures until it finally folded in September 1997.
