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5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
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Meatwad: Won't you ask that TV if he minds showing me some Futurama? I like me some Futurama. Master Shake: Well now we're too damn cheap to receive it, so go the hell over to Carl Central and watch it to your heart's content! Meatwad: Carl gets Futurama? Master Shake: He didn't even want it until we started watching it!
Television shows are usually not directly owned by a particular channel, although once they have a contract to air the show they often have some creative control of it. The only exception is first-run syndicated shows that are owned entirely by the production company and distributed to individual stations, regardless of their network affiliation. At other times a show might be owned and produced by a specific network but the rights to air it were bought out by another network. It's a complicated business where all that matters sometimes is the bottom line.
Just like sports teams, there are many reasons for a show to switch from one place to another.
- Contract Buy-Outs: The show is exceptionally popular and when a contract expires two or more channels bid for new seasons.
- Vindicated by History: The ratings weren't high enough on one station so they didn't renew it for a new season, so another station grabbed the show up and it moved over.
- And just like the trope, it may be poorly performing on one channel while on another channel it skyrockets in popularity.
- Behind-the-Scenes Politics: One network made a great offer and the current network isn't dedicated enough to hold on to the show.
- New Umbrella Channel: A major production company gets the needed things in order so they can have a network station that only airs their programming. Or that production company buys out the network channel. ABC was bought by Disney in 1996, UPN was owned by Paramount, The WB was owned by Warner Bros., and there are even more when it comes to cable channels.
Note that this only counts new episodes; else, the sheer number of places they've shown Looney Tunes reruns would make the page overflow. Channels calling episodes "premieres" when they know full well that they originally aired somewhere else are telling you Blatant Lies.
Examples:
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From ABC to...
- The Danny Thomas Show (aka Make Room for Daddy) jumped from ABC to CBS in 1957.
- TJ Hooker was cancelled after four seasons by ABC, CBS picked up season five and aired the new episodes in its 11:30PM Crimetime After Primetime slot.
- Sister Sister from ABC to The WB.
- Family Matters from ABC to CBS.
- Step by Step made the ABC to CBS move at the exact same time as Family Matters. Neither lasted more than one season on the new channel.
- The Critic from ABC to FOX (Lampshaded: "I used to have a big show on ABC - for about a week!") to Comedy Central to "webisodes" on the Internet (also made fun of on the first "webisode").
- Kath And Kim (the Australian one) from The ABC (the Australian one) to the Seven Network.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle started on ABC in 1959 as Rocky and His Friends, then moved to NBC in 1961 where it was retitled The Bullwinkle Show. It ran in prime time for two years and Saturday morning for one more. It then moved back to ABC in 1964 for eight years in reruns until it was syndicated and given the title it is now best known by. It was also syndicated in 30-minute components as Rocky and His Friends and in 15-minute components as The Rocky Show.
- Whose Line Is It Anyway? (American) from ABC to ABC Family. Although all of its content was taped before the move, there were unaired episodes still in the can, as well as enough raw footage that the producers could create "new" shows several years after taping ended.
- ReBoot from ABC to Cartoon Network, with 6 years or so between them. Apparently ReBoot was canceled solely because ABC was bought out by Disney, who wanted purely Disney owned programming, which Reboot did not fit. The third season was produced in syndication through Canadian channels and the US didn't get that season until Cartoon Network picked it up two years later. Being Vindicated by Reruns, that paved the way for a fourth season.
- The Hughleys moved from ABC to UPN in 2000.
- When Taxi was cancelled by ABC, NBC picked it up; it ran for one more season. They kept it at Thursday Nights at 9:00, and ran ads with Danny Devito saying "Same time, better station!"
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch moved from ABC to TheWB
- Aaron Sorkin briefly mulled moving Sports Night to HBO.
- Teamo Supremo started on ABC and moved to Toon Disney after One Saturday Morning went defunct.
- Webster moved from ABC to first-run syndication.
- It's a Living to syndication.
From NBC to...
- JAG from NBC to CBS.
- Baywatch from NBC to syndication.
- Concentration from NBC to syndication.
- Diff'rent Strokes from NBC to ABC for its final season.
- In the Heat of the Night from NBC to CBS.
- The Hogan Family, from NBC to CBS in its final season.
- Scrubs moved from NBC to ABC in 2008. Apparently some people were confused because ABC owned the show anyway, so it was a strange instance of being owned by one network and aired by another.
- Medium from NBC to CBS in September 2009, cozied between Ghost Whisperer and NUMB3RS; before it moved, it was the last CBS-produced show that wasn't on CBS or The CW (which CBS owns half of).
- Passions and Friday Night Lights both went from NBC to The 101 on Direc TV (a US satellite provider, for those non-US tropers here).
- Get Smart moved from NBC to CBS for its fifth and final season.
- Southland from NBC to TNT.
- Late Night With David Letterman went from NBC to CBS in 1994, but because NBC owned the rights to the "Late Night" name, the show was renamed Late Show With David Letterman. Late Show is virtually identical to Late Night.
- I'll Fly Away was briefly revived on PBS after cancellation by NBC.
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent's seventh season was its first after moving to USA.
- Silver Spoons and Punky Brewster both jumped from NBC to syndication (both shows, along with ABC to CBS jumper Family Matters, were produced by David Duclon).
- Conan O'Brien from NBC to TBS after some serious Executive Meddling.
- The Father Dowling Mysteries from NBC to ABC.
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir from NBC to ABC.
- The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd from NBC to Lifetime.
- The Price Is Right (original version) and Missing Links to ABC.
- The Match Game landed on CBS four years after NBC canceled it, had a syndicated daily edition in 1979 (a nighttime edition ran concurrently and started in 1975), then it reappeared on NBC in 1983 as The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, then on ABC in 1990 as simply Match Game, and then another syndicated edition appeared in 1998.
- You Don't Say! was rebooted for ABC six years after NBC dropped it.
- Mama's Family went to first-run syndication after one year on NBC.
From CBS to...
- Charles in Charge from CBS to syndication.
- The Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough from CBS to syndication.
- Search For Tomorrow from CBS to NBC.
- Edge of Night from CBS to ABC.
- Password started on CBS, then was canceled and revived on ABC. It was canceled and revived again on NBC as Password Plus, then later Super Password. It came full circle back to CBS, revived as Million Dollar Password nearly 20 years after Super Password was canceled and over 40 years since Password first debuted on CBS.
- Ghost Whisperer was supposed to jump to ABC for the 2010-11 season but Jennifer Love Hewitt turned down an offer to return for another season so the show was canceled instead.
- Flashpoint will move from CBS to ION effective October 18, 2011.
- Airwolf from CBS to USA for its final season.
- The $10,000 Pyramid to ABC. It was later retitled The $20,000 Pyramid and returned to CBS as The $25,000 Pyramid.
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures to Fox. The new DIC-produced episodes were received so poorly that Fox replayed the far better Hanna-Barbera episodes aired the season before on CBS.
- Scooby-Doo to ABC, then to the WB, and later Cartoon Network. Reruns have also been shown on TNT, TBS, USA Network, Boomerang, and in syndication.
From The WB to...
From FOX to...
From PBS to...
From a Cable Channel to...
- Doug from Nickelodeon to Disney's ABC.
- This happens with a lot of sister/parent networks, as they often show the same shows at the same time. Kappa Mikey was produced solely for Nicktoons Network, but because it was controlled by their larger parent network Nickelodeon, new episodes sometimes premiered there first. When episodes stopped airing on Nick but continued on Nicktoons, some took this to mean it was canceled. It never had a consistent airing schedule either, and time will tell if it gets syndicated somewhere else.
- WWE Raw from USA to TNN which renamed itself Spike TV, and then back to USA.
- WWE SmackDown itself network hopped, from UPN to The CW, then to My Network TV, and will hop again to Syfy.
- Sunday Night HEAT went from USA to MTV, then it joined Raw on Spike tv for a few years befor becoming an international and internet show only for the last years of its life.
- The 90's version of The Outer Limits also moved from Showtime to the Sci-Fi channel for it's seventh and final season. (The producers of SG-1 were already known for the 90s Outer Limits when the show started)
- Project Runway moved from Bravo to Lifetime after the fifth season.
- 6teen, in America, had a brief stint on Nickelodeon, before being booted over to Cartoon Network.
- Naruto, From Naruto on Cartoon Network to Naruto Shippuden on Disney XD
- The Gundam franchise moved from Cartoon Network to SyFy starting with Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
- This also happened in its native country of Japan. In 2002, the franchise moved their series from TV Asahi to Tokyo Broadcasting System starting with Mobile Suit Gundam Seed.
- Phineas And Ferb is a rather odd example. From the second season onward, new episodes moved from Disney Channel to Disney XD, however it still airs regularly on the former which still treats it as its own series and airs brand new episodes anywhere from a week to a month after its sister network.
- Damages from FX to The 101 on Direc TV.
- Madeline from HBO to The Family Channel (now ABC Family) to ABC to Disney Channel.
- American broadcasts of Doctor Who moved from SyFy to BBC America (who had repeat rights previously) after New Series 4.
- American broadcasts of Torchwood moved from SyFy to Starz with the Starz co-produced Miracle Day. Starz saw a big subscriber jump as a result of the move.
- Stargate SG-1 moved from Showtime to the Sci-Fi Channel after its fifth season.
From ITV to...
- Auf Wiedersehen, Pet went from ITV (in the 1980s) to the BBC (the 2000s revival).
- Not a true Channel Hop, but Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). an 1960s ITV show, was remade in 2000 as Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) by the BBC.
- Similarly University Challenge is an ITV show that was revived on the BBC (both versions produced by the ITV company Granada).
- Men Behaving Badly first appeared on ITV, but was dropped by them after two series due to disappointing ratings and Harry Enfield having left after the first series. It wasn't until the BBC got it and transmitted it in a later slot that it became a massive hit.
- Ronnie Barker's Hark at Barker on ITV had a more-or-less direct sequel, His Lordship Entertains, on the BBC, featuring the same cast. Unfortunately His Lordship Entertains was wiped (though the scripts have appeared in a book by Barker).
- Hill Street Blues and Scarecrow And Mrs. King were let go by ITV, but picked up by Channel 4 (the former can still be seen on Channel 4 today).
- Upstairs Downstairs was originally an ITV show that is now receiving a modern BBC remake.
From The BBC to...
- In the UK, Neighbours moved from the BBC1 (who broke the series and where it had been a fixed staple of the daytime schedules for over 20 years), to Five in 2008.
- Up until its seventh and final season Robot Wars had aired on BBC2, for its 7th season it moved to Channel 5.
- BBC Two's Red Dwarf was put on hold during Development Hell of The Movie but eventually after a surprise ratings success of reruns on the channel Dave - in 2009 the channel aired a three-part Easter Special Back to Earth with further episodes commissioned.
- The Goodies was dropped by the BBC in 1981 and was picked up by LWT (now ITV London).
- In Britain Monk moved terrestrially from BBC 2 to ITV 1.
- Unlike Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel did not get shown on BBC 2 but rather on Channel Four. But only the first season. At 6 in the evening. (David Fury's response to this scheduling - "Shock and disbelief are mine!" - was echoed by many fans.) The second season got bought by Channel Five and shown post-midnight; the remaining three seasons have never been shown terrestrially.
- Even The Simpsons fell victim; when it arrived on British (terrestrial) television in 1997 it was first shown on BBC1 - and was beaten in the ratings by Sabrina the Teenage Witch on ITV (one of the few long-running American shows that ITV has screened every episode of). The show was eventually moved to BBC2, and ultimately Channel Four took it.
- The Office (US version) went from BBC2 to ITV3, and is now on Comedy Central.
- How I Met Your Mother was originally shown in the UK on BBC2, but they dropped it after one season; E4, perhaps its natural home in Britain, took it up thereafter.
- Law & Order didn't last long on BBC1, but eventually found a happy home on Channel Five.
- Formula One had always been on the BBC until it was sold to ITV, until it went back onto the BBC and was in turn sold to Sky Sports.
From Syndication to...
- WWF Superstars was on in syndication for about a decade before it hoped over to Sunday morning on the USA Network to replace Action Zone. It would hope one again five years later when WWF moved all their programs to Viacom channels and it landed on TNN for about a year before it was canceled. The show later had a revival on yet another network WGN America where it stayed for 2 years but its contract was not renewed, it is currently being aired only in overseas markets and is streamed online.
- Babylon 5 did four seasons in syndication before TNT ponied up the caysh for a fifth season plus ALL those TV movies (including the Re Cut Pilot Movie. It later made it to Sci Fi, which is the channel responsible for the first widescreen presentation (which eventually made it the format used on the DVD's.
- Oddly, Beakman's World from syndication to CBS.
- Trollz and the animated Sabrina both went from syndication to CBS (though this had to do with CBS'S block renter DiC needing educational programming for said block).
- Tiny Toon Adventures moved from syndication to Fox Kids in Fall 1992, after which they added "The Fox network executives" as a new pair of villains.
- The Pokémon anime franchise spent its first half-season in Fall 1998 in syndication, then was picked up by Kids' WB! in early 1999, where it remained until 4Kids' rights to the show ended in 2006. Then, the new episodes of the show were handed over to Cartoon Network by Pokemon USA, who had been previously running reruns of the show for years. The original series is now in reruns on Boomerang, while Cartoon Network continues to play new episodes of the current series.
- Around the same time, Cartoon Network in the UK and Ireland picked up new episodes of the show.
- Sailor Moon started out in syndication in 1995, but only the first 65 episodes were shown before the show went into re-runs and was ultimately pulled. It was then picked up for cable by Turner Broadcasting and spent a few months being re-shown on USA Network before it was moved to Cartoon Network's Toonami action block where it found new life, and premiered 94 new episodes, and 3 movies!
- The original Dragon Ball series was in syndication for only 13 episodes in 1995 before it was canceled. It was eventually picked up by Toonami in 2001 (with an all new English dub), due to the success of Dragon Ball Z, where it ended up finishing it's 153 episode run.
- Gargoyles from syndication to ABC; ReTooled as Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles. But the fans like to think ''The Goliath Chronicles'' never happened.
- Neither does the creator, who declared it non-canon.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 version): went from syndication to CBS in 1990.
- Possibly the first instance of this trope, Mr. Ed was originally a first run syndicated show before being picked up by CBS.
- Inspector Gadget had a brief run on CBS in 1992 after runs in syndication and Nickelodeon.
- 101 Dalmatians: The Series had an interesting example: it was syndicated and shown on ABC's One Saturday Morning at the same time!
Other...
Rare Film Examples
- George Romero's zombie films, due to his unwillingness to trim gore and violence from them. Latent Image, Laurel, Universal, etc.
- The Chronicles of Narnia started out being released by Walt Disney Pictures; Walden (the actual film company responsible for the films) has since jumped ship and the next installments will be under 20th Century Fox.
- Hellboy from Revolution Studios to Universal Pictures/Relativity Media.
- Chronic with The Terminator films. Every. single. movie. Actual distribution is even worse (first one: Orion theatrically, currently MGM; second: TriStar Pictures theatrically and some video releases - others involved with home distribution include Lionsgate, Artisan and Universal; third/fourth: Warner domestically, Sony overseas).
- To elaborate why: The first was made by Hemdale Film Corporation, who were bought by Orion Pictures, and the rights were eventually bought by Mario Kassar, who ran Carolco Pictures, which later went bankrupt (destroying chances of James Cameron's Terminator 3 and Spider-Man) and had their film library bought by Studio Canal, who sold the rights to C2 Pictures (also ran by Kassar and his partner Andrew G. Vajna) and Intermedia, and the possibility of any more Terminator sequels became the subject of a legal deadlock (thanks to a feud between Kassar and Vajna), eventually culminating in the rights going to The Halcyon Company. Who sold the rights after going bankrupt.
- And now there is a legal dispute over the animated movie rights between Pacificor (the current rights holders) and Hannover House (a company formed by a former Hemdale employee).
- Rambo from Carolco Pictures to Lionsgate/The Weinstein Company.
- Friday the 13th from Paramount to New Line after the first 8 films.
- The Halloween franchise went from Compass International for the first film to Universal Pictures for the second and third films, to Galaxy International for the fourth and fifth films, and finally to Dimension for the sixth, seventh, and eighth films (working with Mirimax for the eighth). The current DVD distributors are Anchor Bay for films 1, 4-5, Universal Home Video for films 2 and 3, and Dimension/Lionsgate for films 6-8.
- Walter Lantz, who made Woody Woodpecker jumped ship from Universal Pictures to United Artists in 1947. Lantz then briefly shut down his studio in 1949. The studio reopened in 1951 and went back to Universal as his distributor.
- Hellraiser from New World to Dimension.
- Death Wish from Paramount to Filmways to Cannon to Trimark. To go even further, MGM holds the remake rights and Columbia held foreign rights to the first two films.
- The first two Iron Man movies were distributed by Paramount, but Walt Disney Pictures will distribute the third.
- The first Child's Play movie was made by United Artists, who supposedly dropped it on "moral grounds." The other four movies have been produced by Universal or by Universal-owned companies (and indeed Universal is planning to remake the original).
- Amazingly enough, United Artists picked up the third House film, The Horror Show, from New World and released it not long after Child's Play. New Line ended up releasing the fourth one.
- This can happen to singular movies as well. When Miramax was sold by Disney, their unreleased movies ended up going to different distributors. Gnomeo and Juliet and The Tempest stayed with Disney and were released by Touchstone, Don't be Afraid of the Dark went to Film District (releasing through Tristar Pictures domestically), Last Night went to Tribeca (and returned to Miramax through Echo Bridge for DVD) and The Debt went to Universal Studios's Focus division.
- Fright Night was backed by Columbia Pictures and a production of Vista Films; for the sequel Vista did it all themselves and released it through New Century/Vista - and the remake came from DreamWorks.
- The second was actually a co-production between Vista and Tristar Pictures (who held the foreign rights). Tristar is a sister company to Columbia.
- Arlington Road was to have been originally released by Polygram Filmed Entertainment but after a delay (due to Columbine) and Polygram merging with October Films (to become USA Films and later Focus Features), the film was sold to Screen Gems.
- Mulholland Drive was originally shot for the ABC network and financed by Touchstone Pictures. After ABC passed on it, director David Lynch decided to rework it and got production company Studio Canal to buy the film and finance the shooting of new footage. Universal ended up releasing the film as part of their relationship with Studio Canal.
- The Emmanuelle films released theatrically went from Columbia to Paramount to Miramax to Cannon. Four films, four distributors.
Rare TV-To-Film Examples
- Firefly was produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television (oh, all right, and Mutant Enemy) but the big-screen film version, Serenity, was made by Universal.
- Orion - owners of Filmways, which made The Addams Family - sold the property to Paramount while the first film was being made (although this troper saw the film in the Caribbean with the Orion logo still attached at the beginning, the second film was Paramount through and through).
- Paramount held domestic rights and Orion (through Columbia) held foreign rights on the first film. Orion was having financial issues and elected to sell domestic rights in order to cover some debt. After they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Paramount picked up the sequel rights from Orion.
- The film of Lost in Space was made by New Line, though the series itself was from Fox.
- Although The Fugitive was a Quinn Martin Production in association with United Artists Television, and the series is owned today (like almost the entire QM back catalogue) by CBS/Paramount, the film came from Warner Bros.
- Star Trek: The Original Series was originally produced by Desilu Studios and aired on NBC. Desilu Studios was bought out by Paramount during the show's run, and with the CBS-Viacom split, Paramount's television division stayed on CBS's side. None of the spin-offs (other than Star Trek: The Animated Series) aired on NBC or an NBC-affiliated network. So after NBC canceled the series, it became a Cash Cow Franchise and not only has NBC not seen a dime of it, the money all goes to the people who own their rival. Call it Laser-Guided Karma if you want. (Ironically, CBS originally passed on Star Trek in favor of Lost in Space.)
Radio Examples
- In the late 1940s, CBS head William S. Paley conducted a famous "talent raid" of rival NBC, snatching away such popular shows as The Jack Benny Program, Amos 'n' Andy, The Burns and Allen Show, The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show, and The Red Skelton Show. The move led to CBS becoming the ratings leader in 1949, establishing a position of dominance that the network would enjoy into the television era and wouldn't relinquish until the mid '70s.
Online Examples
- Many of the contributors of That Guy With The Glasses, including That Guy himself, started out on YouTube. In That Guy's case, he was driven to create the site because YouTube started removing his videos due to copyright issues.
- Zero Punctuation started out (very briefly) as a series of YouTube reviews before getting picked up as a proper series by the online "magazine" The Escapist.
- Likewise Extra Credits, which then hopped again when The Escapist cut out the funding for the series, moving back to YouTube briefly before ending up on Penny Arcade's PATV.
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