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Why doesn't Fox have their own daytime schedule?


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I've noticed that CBS, NBC and ABC have their own daytime schedule for a least some part of the day. CBS has the Price Is Right and The Talk, NBC has Days of Our Lives and ABC has The View and The Chew. I was wondering if there is any reason why FOX has no original programing standard for their affiliates?

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I think maybe because Fox wants to provide more flexibility to their affiliates. Some air news, some air talk, some air game shows, many (including KABB) air tons of court shows and "untraditional" talk shows like Maury and Jerry Springer. They're probably out to reach the younger demographic. Talk shows like "The Talk", cooking shows like "The Chew" (p.s. network television has run out of original names for shows), and soaps like "Days of our Lives" tend to target older women who may be at home at the time watching television. Fox tends to go after younger viewers who probably are at work or school during daytime therefore they can't watch those shows.

 

Look at the CW, they primarily aim to the younger viewers under 25 but they air Bill Cunningham as a daytime show. The CW knows that young people won't watch that and aren't home to watch it. Yes, the CW tries to attract younger viewers than what Fox attracts but Fox is still trying to go younger than the Big 3. I like this arrangement if you ask me.

 

You'll also notice the ads in these shows (especially "The Price is Right") are stereotypical old people, such as hearing aids, "The Scooter Store", and stay at home moms such as products for infants and children. Doesn't that tell you something?

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Yeah, Fox has grown enough that they could do a daytime schedule if they wanted, but affiliate control and flexibility is a bigger deal. Remember when rumors were that Conan could move to Fox after NBC booted him, a lot of affiliates were hesitant on it because they had successful late news and/or syndicated repeats they didn't want to let go. Same would be true in the daytime I imagine.

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Since Fox is a younger network, they've had little history or legacy like NBC, CBS or ABC. That said, there's also no inertia of where they feel they must program daytime because they've programmed daytime for decades. Likewise, the big three networks have been cutting back on daytime for years -- cancelling soap operas because of falling and aging audiences for those shows, replacing them with chat and game shows. And before that, networks cancelled a lot of their morning game shows, giving that time back to the affiliates or replacing them with chat or news.

 

Fox probably doesn't see daytime making much money for them, and the affiliates are better at monetizing the time with talk shows, court shows and other syndicated content. Remember that in the early years, they did have an afternoon programming block -- Fox Kids. That ended in 2001.

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You can edit your own thread title. Just click "Edit" next to your original post, then click "Use Full Editor". On that screen you can change the thread title.

 

One thing I'm sure Fox looks at is the time in which people are likely to watch their programming. People are at work or school during the daytime, so why bother with networked programming?

 

Besides, primetime is where the real money is. Almost everyone's at home so more people are likely to watch Fox programming. For Fox, after studying those types of patterns and observing what the Big 3 are doing to their daytime schedules (cutting them,) it's a no brainer. Leave daytime to the affiliates, go all out for primetime.

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