USA Network

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The USA Network is a popular American cable TV network with about 89 million household subscribers as of 2005. The network shows a variety of original and second-run programming, from syndicated TV series to edited movies. USA also shows some sports coverage, such as select golf tournaments, the U.S. Tennis Open, and annual Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Since 2004, they have broadcast portions of the Olympic Games, along with many other NBC Universal basic cable channels. Previously, it had a weekly boxing show named USA Tuesday Night Fights, which ran for 17 years. USA was also the home of World Wrestling Entertainment (then called the World Wrestling Federation or WWF)'s flagship cable TV shows from the channel's launch until September 2000, and again since October 2005.

Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily been gaining popularity recently, thanks in part to breakout hits like the detective series Monk and the sci-fi mini-series turned regular series The 4400. Reruns of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent are also frequently shown and are popular on the network, as is another NBC Universal property, House.

Alan Kalter was the network's main promotional voice throughout the '80s and much of the '90s.

1 USA Network timeline
2 USA original programming
3 USA Network slogans
4 See also
5 External links

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USA Network timeline

1977: Originally organized as the Madison Square Garden Network (not to be confused with the New York City regional sports network of that name), the channel became one of the first national television channels when it chose to use satellite delivery as opposed to traditional television broadcasting.

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1980: The channel changed its name to USA Network after the ownership structure was reorganized under a joint operating agreement by the UA-Columbia Cablevision cable system (now known as Cablevision Systems Corporation ) and MCA Inc. (currently a part of NBC Universal).
1981: Time Inc. (now Time Warner) and Paramount Pictures Corp. (now a part of Viacom) took minority ownership stakes in USA.
1987: Ownership consolidates under Paramount and MCA, each with 50 percent ownership.
1992: USA launches a sister network, the Sci Fi Channel
1994: Viacom buys Paramount.

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1995: The Seagram Company buys MCA Inc.
1997: Seagram buys out Viacom's interest and gains complete ownership of USA and Sci Fi and sells both channels to Barry Diller's Home Shopping Network, which renames itself USA Networks, Inc.
1999: From bankrupt Polygram, USA buys October Films and Gramercy Pictures, renaming them USA Films, and PolyGram Video, renaming it USA Home Video.
2000: USA Networks buys Canada's North American Television, Inc. (a joint partnership between the CBC and Power Corporation), owner of cable TV channels Trio and Newsworld International. (The CBC continued to program NWI)
2001: USA Networks sells its non-shopping TV and film assets (including the USA Network, the Sci Fi Channel, the Trio channel, USA Films (which is rechristened as Focus Features) and Studios USA) to Vivendi Universal. USA and the other channels are folded into Vivendi's Univeral Television Group.

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2003: General Electric's NBC agrees to buy 80% of Vivendi Universal's North American-based filmed entertainment assets, including Universal Pictures and Universal Television Group in a multibillion dollar purchase, renaming the merged company NBC Universal.
2004: NBC Universal officially takes over as owner of USA and its sibling cable channels except for Newsworld International, which is bought by an investment group led by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt who rebrand the network with a new title, "Current TV", in fall 2005.

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USA original programming

Children/Teen Programming Image:Usanetworklogo.gif

Calliope, children's anthology program
Commander USA's Groovie Movies, [1985-1989]
Dance Party USA, teen-oriented dance program
Radio 1990, a music-video and magazine show hosted by Lisa Donovan and Kathryn Kinney
Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills, tween-oriented Power Rangers clone
USA Action Extreme Team, action-oriented successor to the USA Cartoon Express
USA Cartoon Express, animation block with USA Network Kids Club segments in-between them
USA High, teen-oriented sitcom from Peter Engel, producer of Saved by the Bell
USA Live, an afternoon program that mixed court shows with live lifestyle segments. This replaced the station's popular game show programming.

USA Late Night Series

Night Flight, (1981 - 1988) - late-night anthology with music videos, short films and miscellaneous programming
USA Up All Night, schlock-y feature films hosted by Gilbert Gottfried, Caroline Schlitt, and Rhonda Shear

USA Original Series

Alfred Hitchcock Presents (newer version bought when NBC cancelled it) black & white intros were colorized and storylines were remade.
Campus Cops, comedy series
Check It Out!, USA's first original co-production with Canada's Global Television, a supermarket-based sitcom starring Don Adams
Duckman, adult-oriented animated comedy series starring Jason Alexander
Kojak, a revamped version of the 1970s detective series that debuted in March 2005.
Monk, a comedic mystery series that has become USA's signature show
Nashville Star, a country music singing competition in the mold of American Idol
La Femme Nikita, a dramatic series based on the French film that inspired the US film Point of No Return
Pacific Blue, Baywatch-like drama
Silk Stalkings, a Canadian mystery series
The 4400 (In Association with Sky Television), a sci-fi miniseries that debuted in July 2004. It returned as a regular weekly series on June 5, 2005.
The Dead Zone, mystery/paranormal series
Weird Science, a fantasy-oriented comedy series based on the 1980s film of the same name

World Wrestling Entertainment Programming

All American Wrestling, WWF's Sunday-afternoon showcase series hosted by "Mean" Gene Okerland and co-hosted by the likes of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Hillbilly Jim.
Monday Night RAW, WWE's primetime wrestling program
- AM RAW, a program showing recaps from the previous week's RAW.
- Sunday Night Heat, once a major show, now a B-show for RAW, now airing on wwe.com
Prime Time Wrestling, WWF's weekly primetime airing of certain matches from the syndicated WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestling Spotlight series, hosted by Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan; precursor to Monday Night RAW
Tuesday Night Titans, WWF's weekly interview series hosted by Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes, a precurson to Primetime Wrestling.

Programming Staples

PGA Tour Golf on most Thursdays and Fridays
US Open tennis championship
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

Historical Programming Notes

For many years, USA had a popular afternoon game show block, with shows such as The $25,000 Pyramid and Press Your Luck (both can now be seen on GSN). It also had original games shows, such as Canada's Global Television Network's Bumper Stumpers, The New Chain Reaction, Jackpot, Quicksilver, and Free 4 All. Also it rerun episodes of the defunct soap opera The Edge of Night (from the episodes from 1981 until 1984) from 1985 until 1989.
At one point, USA shared channel time/space with two upstart cable nets, C-Span and Black Entertainment Television. Later, it simulcast Bloomberg TV in the early-morning hours.