UPN Kids
former children's programming block
UPN Kids was an American children's programming block that aired on UPN from September 10, 1995 to September 5, 1999. Airing on Sunday mornings, the block aired for one hour (10:00 to 11:00 am), then two hours the following year (9:00 to 11:00 a.m., regardless of time zone).
History
UPN Kids launched on September 10, 1995 with a one-hour block of cartoons consisting of Space Strikers and Teknoman. It was a joint partnership between UPN and Saban Entertainment. Unlike NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and The WB (the latter of which debuted its own children's program block, Kids' WB, the day before UPN Kids made its debut), UPN ran its weekend morning children's programs on Sundays instead of Saturdays. This was likely due to several UPN affiliates in large markets also dually carrying the Fox Kids block for newer Fox stations (especially those of New World Communications; the former Fox affiliates in those markets mainly also retained the Fox Kids schedule) on Saturday mornings, who is not carrying Fox Kids to instead expand Saturday morning newscasts or retain other local programming. This eventually proved to be a conflict for UPN, as the more well-known Fox Kids block was given primacy in advertising and promotions by those affiliates (including the continuation of the local children's Fox Kids fan clubs run by those stations) over UPN's unproven children's programming.
On September 8, 1996, UPN Kids expanded the block to 2 hours with four new programs, which consist of Jumanji, The Mouse and the Monster, The Incredible Hulk and Bureau of Alien Detectors. In 1997, UPN incorporated live-action series aimed at teenagers, along with the animated shows targeted at a younger audience, with the addition of reruns of the syndicated dramedy series Sweet Valley High (based on the young adult novels by Francine Pascal) and a new comedy series, Breaker High (focused on a group of students attending a fictionalized Semester at Sea program, which featured a then-unknown Ryan Gosling among its main cast).
In January 1998, UPN began discussions with The Walt Disney Company (owner of rival network ABC) to have the company program a daily two-hour children's block for the network; however, attempts to reach a time-lease agreement deal with Disney were called off one week later due to a dispute between Disney and UPN over how the block would be branded and the amount of programming compliant with the Federal Communications Commission's educational programming regulations that Disney would provide for the block.
The public source identifies “UPN Kids” as former children's programming block. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kids, former and children's.
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This entry incorporates text from “UPN Kids” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.