Metromedia

The Metromedia era of Fox refers to their soft launch period starting late in the 1985 season, and lasting throughout most of the 1986 season.
==History==
In October of 1985, 20th Century Fox announced intentions to create a new fourth network to compete with ABC, CBS, and NBC. News Corporation, which had owned half the rights to the studio, had purchased six television stations from the Metromedia corporation earlier that yearWNEW 5 in New York City, WTTG 5 in Washington D.C., KTTV 11 in Los Angeles, KRIV 26 in Houston, WFLD 32 in Chicago, and KRLD 33 in Dallas, with the sale going through that December and the new stations subsequently being incorporated as the Fox Television Stations in April 1986.
The Fox Broadcasting Company (originally shortened as FBC) officially soft-launched on October 9, 1986 with the premiere of The Late Show with Joan Rivers. Despite promise early on, ratings had already nosedived by the time of the prime-time launch, and Rivers would leave the show that May.
===Programming===
Show Title 	Season	First airing 	Final airing 	Notes
The Late Show with Joan Rivers	1 	October 9, 1986	April 3, 1987	Late-night show, aired on weeknights.
Metromedia-era Fox only aired one program, the late-night talk show The Late Show with Joan Rivers.
==Branding==
Virtually all of Metromedia-era Fox's branding was made for the owned-and-operated stations. Independent stations that carried The Late Show used branding specific to that particular station.
Identifications involved a Fox logo different than the one used during the primetime launch - while still being a tower reminiscent of the 20th Century Fox logo, the logo was done in a way in that the O and a searchlight was made out of negative space. From April to ~September 1986, a glassy gray variant of this logo was used, with the 'plate' extending to read station identification. Beginning from ~September 1986 until March 1987, a new ID involved a golden, cloudy CGI version of the tower, which turned around (with a flash transition) to reveal station identification.
The Late Show used a custom FBC logo at the start of the program.
Most Metromedia-era IDs were discontinued in the weeks leading up to the primetime launch of Fox in April 1987, although WFLD in Chicago still used it in their sign-off as late as 1989.
==Transition==
By January 1987, Fox's eventual transition to primetime was officially announced: the network would debut a Sunday lineup in early April, with a Saturday lineup debuting in the summer. With promotions beginning in mid-March, the Fox Weekend era would officially debut with the first primetime schedule on April 5.
Category:Eras