Saturday morning preview specials

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Saturday morning preview specials were aired on television annually to present previews of each network's fall lineup of Saturday morning children's programming.

Every fall, each network would generally air (or, make available to its affiliates) two preview specials for the fall season -- one for their prime-time shows, and another for their Saturday morning schedule.

Contents

[edit] Typical air times

The Saturday morning previews were generally aired on the network in prime-time, usually the Friday night before the new schedule began. If more than one network started their new schedules on the same date, they would have their previews on different nights on the week of the new schedule.

[edit] Format

The preview specials are usually hosted by stars of one or more of the network's popular series and feature an array of special guests. The previews are for new and returning series, with each preview featuring the show's opening credits and a scene from that program. The previews are generally linked together by a storyline or theme. Some of these specials also unveil the network's new imaging for Saturday morning.

[edit] Decline

With the changes in direction for Saturday morning, in light of the E/I rules and networks selling their scheduling rights to other companies, the preview specials on the legacy "Big 3" networks all but disappeared by the start of the new millennium, with FOX being the only network to still feature annual specials (even though FOX's Saturday morning block is now programmed by 4Kids TV).

[edit] Year-by-year guide

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[edit] ABC

[edit] CBS

[edit] NBC

[edit] FOX

[edit] The CW (formerly The WB)