Television production company
King World Productions, Inc.
(also known as
King World Entertainment
,
King World Enterprises
, or simply
King World
) was a
production company
and
syndicator
of
television programming
in the
United States
founded by Charles King (1912?1972) that was active from 1964 to 2007.
Following his death, it was run by his son
Roger
until it was acquired acquired by
CBS
in 1999 and merged with CBS Paramount Domestic Television to form CBS Television Distribution (now
CBS Media Ventures
). Following Roger King's death, the company continues to exist on paper as an intellectual property holder and under the moniker of
KWP Studios Inc.
to hold the copyrights for television shows like
Rachael Ray
, which aired from September 18, 2006 to July 28, 2023.
History
[
edit
]
Founding with
The Little Rascals
[
edit
]
The division was started in 1964 by Charles King (1912?1972). It was a company that expressly handled television distribution of the
Hal Roach
-produced
Our Gang
short comedy films from the 1930s. When Roach lost the rights to the name
Our Gang
(it was retained by the
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
film studio, who bought the series from Roach in 1938), the shorts were retitled as
The Little Rascals
.
It was through this acquisition that the comedy shorts made from 1929 through 1938 have been made available to audiences for the past fifty years. King World later co-produced an animated TV special with Muller-Rosen Productions and
Murakami-Wolf-Swenson
in 1979 called
The Little Rascals Christmas Special
and later co-produced an 1982?1984 animated
The Little Rascals
TV series with
Hanna-Barbera
. King died in 1972 and the company was taken over by King's children:
Roger M. King
(1944-2007), Michael (1948-2015),
[1]
Robert (1940-2020),
[2]
Diana (1949-2019),
[3]
Richard (1941-2020),
[4]
and Karen.
[
citation needed
]
1980s expansion
[
edit
]
In 1983, the company acquired the syndication rights to
NBC
's
daytime
game show
Wheel of Fortune
.
Merv Griffin
, the show's creator and producer, had shopped the program to various other studios prior to reaching a deal with King World. King World also would acquire the rights to distribute
Griffin's own long-running talk/variety program
from
Metromedia
's syndication division.
[
citation needed
]
A year later, Griffin announced plans to revive another of his game show creations,
Jeopardy!
, and King World agreed to distribute that program as well.
In 1984 King World formed an ad-sales barter division called
Camelot Entertainment Sales
. Later that year president Robert King left the company to form
The Television Program Source
; a television syndication company that was founded as a joint venture between King, Alan Bennett, and
Columbia Pictures Television
.
[5]
King World also purchased television and film distributor Leo A. Gutman, Inc. whose titles included the theatricals
Joan of Arc
,
Anna Karenina
and the
Sherlock Holmes
and
East Side Kids
series; and two 1960s television westerns,
Branded
and
The Guns of Will Sonnett
.
[6]
In 1986, King World signed
Oprah Winfrey
to a syndication deal and agreed to distribute her
Chicago
-based daytime talk program nationally, resulting in the premiere of
The Oprah Winfrey Show
in September of that year. The acquisitions paid off, and
Oprah
,
Jeopardy!
and
Wheel of Fortune
became three of the most popular shows in the history of television syndication, drawing high ratings consistently well into the 21st century. In particular, the success of
Oprah
eventually led to the creation of the spin-off series
Dr. Phil
,
Rachael Ray
, and
The Dr. Oz Show
.
Other acquisitions
[
edit
]
On February 11, 1985, King World formed the King World Enterprises division to develop joint-venture programs with advertisers and station groups and to handle international distribution for King World and Camelot.
[7]
In 1987, King World's Camelot Entertainment Sales entered into an agreement with
Buena Vista Television
, whereas Camelot would sell all national spots for all programming produced by Buena Vista Television, which included
Siskel & Ebert
,
DuckTales
,
Disney Magic I
and
Win, Lose or Draw
, and Camelot was willing to accept the lower figure because
DuckTales
represented King World's first foray into the animated strip business, and
Disney Magic I
marked King World to the barter movie operation business for the first time.
[8]
In 1988, the company made its only foray onto television stations when it bought out
WIVB-TV
in
Buffalo
for $100 million.
[9]
King World ended up selling the station to
LIN TV Corporation
in 1995.
[10]
Former King World-owned stations
[
edit
]
Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and
city of license
.
1990s: King World Direct and KWP
[
edit
]
In the 1990s, King World operated an "
As Seen on TV
" VHS service called
King World Direct
.
Stuart Hersch, a lawyer by trade, was the financial expert who helped to take the company public, making it one of the hottest stocks on Wall Street at the time.
[
citation needed
]
The company traded as "KWP". King World had virtually no debt and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues after going public.
[
citation needed
]
Television stations that broadcast King World programming had first choice on any series King World offered to distribute.
On November 25, 1991, King World acquired the
Hollywood Squares
format rights from
Orion Pictures
after Orion closed down its television division.
[11]
In 1995, it made a partner deal with
Columbia TriStar Television
to launch game shows.
[12]
In 1996, King World began co-distributing
Geraldo
(later
The Geraldo Rivera Show
) with
Tribune Entertainment
, and would continue co-distributing the show until its cancellation in 1998.
On September 28, 1998, King World acquired the worldwide leasing rights to the solo-developed game shows by Merrill Heatter Productions for a limited time.
[13]
Acquisition by CBS
[
edit
]
In April 1999, King World was acquired by
CBS
.
[14]
[15]
On January 19, 2000,
Eyemark Entertainment
, the successor to
Westinghouse Broadcasting
following the CBS/
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
merger, was folded into King World.
[16]
[17]
The sale was first discussed on March 28, 1999, for $3 billion.
[18]
After the network purchased King World, CBS was bought by
Viacom
always in 1999;
[19]
such buyout was reversed at the end of 2005, when King World became part of the post-split
CBS Corporation
as well as all of Viacom's former TV production and distribution operations.
[20]
In its latter days, King World was considered the syndication branch of the CBS network (a role Viacom actually first served upon its creation), having succeeded Eyemark in that role. King World, however, distributed newer CBS shows such as
Everybody Loves Raymond
while the older shows were syndicated by corporate affiliate
CBS Paramount Television
, the successor to the original distributor
Viacom Enterprises
. Additionally, from 2000 to 2006, King World distributed archive programs from Group W, such as
The Mike Douglas Show
.
On September 26, 2006, CBS announced that King World and CBS Paramount Television's syndication operations would be combined to form the
CBS Television Distribution
Group (CTD). Roger King was announced as CEO of the new entity and retained that position until suffering a stroke on December 7, 2007, and dying the next day. Paul Franklin currently serves as President of CTD.
[21]
For one year, the King World on-screen identity was kept for the programs it distributed at its closure. However, most of the programs handled by King World were distributed under CTD. On September 27, 2007, CBS Television Distribution introduced a new
closing logo
to replace the old logos of King World, CBS Paramount Domestic Television, and its predecessors. CBS Television Distribution was renamed
CBS Media Ventures
in 2021.
[22]
Programming
[
edit
]
King World was responsible for the highest rated shows in syndication for over two decades.
[
citation needed
]
They also had the television rights to a large library of theatrical films. When it was acquired by
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
in 2000, it distributed a number of
CBS
-produced series for syndication, such as
Everybody Loves Raymond
(ancillary rights to this series are owned by
HBO
),
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
,
CSI: NY
, and
CSI: Miami
. King World turned part of its attention to producing in-house newsmagazines including
American Journal
and
Inside Edition
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Petski, Denise (2015-05-28).
"Michael King Dead: TV Exec Who Helped Launch 'Oprah' Show Was 66"
.
Deadline
. Retrieved
2019-01-04
.
- ^
"Robert King Obituary (1940-2020)"
.
Legacy.com
. 2020-03-22
. Retrieved
2020-12-11
.
- ^
"DIANA KING Obituary"
.
Legacy.com
. 2019-01-09
. Retrieved
2020-03-21
.
- ^
"Richard King, Founding Partner of King World Productions, Dies at 79"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. 2020-12-11
. Retrieved
2020-12-11
.
- ^
"In Brief".
Broadcasting
. 1984-10-15. p. 96.
- ^
"In Brief: King World Productions acquired Leo A. Gutman Inc. for $5 million in cash"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting Magazine
. August 6, 1984. p. 98.
- ^
"In Brief"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. 1985-02-11. p. 94
. Retrieved
2013-06-29
.
- ^
Dempsey, John (1987-06-17). "King World seals Disney barter deal".
Variety
. p. 69.
- ^
"KING WORLD REACHES PACT ON WIVB DEBT"
.
The Buffalo News
. Retrieved
2021-11-29
.
- ^
"WIVB-TV IS SOLD FOR $95 MILLION"
.
The Buffalo News
. Retrieved
2021-11-29
.
- ^
"KING GETS THE SQUARE".
Broadcasting
. 1991-11-25. p. 26.
- ^
"Sony, KW Game For Alliance"
.
Variety
. 1995-12-18
. Retrieved
2021-08-29
.
- ^
KING WORLD INTERNATIONAL ACQUIRES EXCLUSIVE INTERNATIONAL FORMAT RIGHTS TO GAME SHOW CATALOGUE FROM MERRILL HEATTER PRODUCTIONS, INC.
, prnewswire.co.uk
- ^
Kyle Pope (1 April 1999).
"CBS Agrees to Acquire King World for $2.5 Billion"
.
The Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
3 February
2022
.
- ^
Viacom Inc.
(23 November 1999).
"Amendment No. 2 to Form S-4 Registration Statement under the Securities Act of 1933"
. Retrieved
3 February
2022
.
CBS acquired King World Productions, Inc., the distributor of a number of shows, including "The Oprah Winfrey Show", on November 15, 1999.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
"The Free Library"
CBS Television Merges King World Productions, Eyemark Entertainment and CBS Broadcast International to Create New Worldwide Distribution Organization.
thefreelibrary.com, Retrieved on January 31, 2013
- ^
Pursell, Chris; Schneider, Michael (2000-01-20).
"King World, Eyemark meld"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
2021-11-29
.
- ^
Peers, Martin; Littleton, Cynthia (1999-03-29).
"King's ransom: $3 bil in CBS stock"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
2021-11-29
.
- ^
"CBS And Viacom Complete Merger"
.
CBS News
. 2000-04-26
. Retrieved
2023-07-14
.
- ^
Wilkerson, David B. (October 18, 2005).
"Viacom moves up split date"
.
MarketWatch
. Archived from
the original
on August 10, 2022
. Retrieved
2023-07-14
.
- ^
Littleton, Cynthia (2016-07-06).
"Paul Franklin to Head CBS Television Distribution, Armando Nunez Returns Focus to International"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
2019-01-04
.
- ^
Zorrilla, Monica Marie (2021-01-11).
"CBS Television Distribution Rebrands as CBS Media Ventures"
.
Variety
. Archived from
the original
on 2021-01-11
. Retrieved
2023-07-14
.
External links
[
edit
]