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Weekend Adventure (originally known as ABC Weekend Adventure and Litton's Weekend Adventure) is an American syndicated
programming block Block programming (also known as a strand in British broadcasting) is the arrangement of programs on radio or television so that those of a particular genre, theme, or target audience are united. Overview Block programming involves scheduling a ...
that is produced by
Hearst Media Production Group The Hearst Media Production Group, formerly Litton Syndications and Litton Entertainment, is an American media production and syndication based in New York City, New York and a subsidiary of the Hearst Television division of Hearst Communicati ...
, and airs weekend mornings on the
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
s and
affiliates In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or al ...
of
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
. The block features
live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...
documentary and lifestyle series aimed at a family audience that meet educational programming requirements defined by the
Children's Television Act The broadcast of educational Children's television series, children's programming by terrestrial television stations in the United States is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under regulations colloquially referred to as ...
. Announced on May 24, 2011, Litton's Weekend Adventure premiered on September 3, 2011, replacing the ABC Kids block. The block is syndicated to ABC stations directly rather than being part of the network's official schedule. This was the result of a compromise between the network and its stations after ABC management decided in 2010 that it no longer wanted to provide educational programming. Thus, Weekend Adventure does not contain any ABC branding or promotions, and likewise is not promoted directly by ABC on-air or mentioned on the network's website.


Background

The block came as a result of ABC's decision in March 2010 to no longer provide E/I programming as part of its Saturday morning network lineup to its affiliates; the network had not introduced any new E/I programs for its ABC Kids block since 2007, and those that had been airing on the network at the time of the decision consisted of reruns of
Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...
sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
s that had first aired on the block between September 2005 and May 2007, all of which were out of production by the time ABC Kids ended its run. In addition, before
Haim Saban Haim Saban (; ; born October 15, 1944) is an Israeli and American media proprietor, investor, musical composer and producer of records, film, and television. A businessman with interests in financial services, entertainment, and media, and an ...
and
Saban Brands Saban Brands was an American brand management and production company and a defunct subsidiary of Saban Capital Group based in Los Angeles, California. Founded by Israeli American media mogul Haim Saban as a successor to an earlier company he co-f ...
repurchased the rights to the ''
Power Rangers ''Power Rangers'' is an American media franchise created by Haim Saban, Shuki Levy and Shotaro Ishinomori built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise ''Super Sentai''. It is currently ow ...
'' franchise from
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
in 2010, several station groups that owned ABC affiliates (such as
Hearst Television Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications, made up of a group of television and radio stations, and the Hearst Media Production Group, a distributor ...
, which would later acquire a majority stake in Litton Entertainment in 2017 and
Allbritton Communications Allbritton Communications Company was an American media company based in Arlington, Virginia. It was the leading subsidiary of Perpetual Corporation, a private holding company owned by the family of company founder and former Riggs Bank presiden ...
) refused to carry any series from that franchise (or any other non-E/I-compliant shows within the block such as ''
Kim Possible ''Kim Possible'' is an American animated Action comedy TV series, action comedy television series created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle for Disney Channel. The Kim Possible (character), title character is a teenage girl tasked with saving ...
'') or chose to run them only in low-rated early morning timeslots, and had demanded any lineup be fully educational so the stations would not have to purchase E/I programming from syndication distributors. Most of the major commercial networks began restructuring their Saturday morning children's program blocks (with
Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...
dropping theirs outright) to comply to tightened educational content and advertising regulations in the Children's Television Act; cultural shifts and changes in viewing habits through the migration of younger viewers to cable channels, recordable and streaming media were also affecting viewership of children's lineups carried by broadcast television networks. As a compromise, the network's affiliate board agreed to instead look for a syndication package that would air exclusively on ABC owned-and-operated and
affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...
stations. Litton Entertainment was eventually selected by the ABC affiliate board to program the block, beating out two other competitors as a part of the winning presentation in which Litton suggested counterprogramming the then-usual Saturday morning fare by featuring unscripted and "pro-social programming" aimed at children and teenagers ages 7–17.


History

ABC and Litton Entertainment announced the block on May 24, 2011, for a fall 2011 launch, under the
working title A working title is a preliminary name for a product or project. The usage is especially common in film and TV, gaming, music and publishing. It is often styled in trade publications as (wt) and is synonymous with production title and tentative ...
"ABC Weekend Adventure." ABC initially signed deals with its owned-and-operated station group
ABC Owned Television Stations ABC Owned Television Stations is a sub-division of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company that oversees the owned-and-operated stations of the American Broadcastin ...
, as well as affiliates owned by
Cox Broadcasting CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company prim ...
, The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Newport Television Newport Television, LLC was a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. History In September 2007, Newport a ...
, and
Post-Newsweek Stations Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Detroit, co-locating with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, after spending 10 years in Chicago. ...
to carry the block; these were followed by May 2011 with distribution agreements involving ABC stations owned by Belo,
Bonten Media Group Bonten Media Group was a New York City-based owner of television broadcast stations in the United States. It was formed by Randall D. Bongarten and Diamond Castle Holdings in November 2006. Its first acquisition was 14 stations from Bluestone T ...
, Chambers Communications Corporation,
Fisher Communications Fisher Communications, Inc. was a media company in the United States. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company primarily owned a number of radio and television stations in the Western United States. It was the last company in the Seattle area ...
,
Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as severa ...
,
Hubbard Broadcasting Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard. The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri ...
, The E. W. Scripps Company,
LIN TV Corporation LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low-powered weather station in Ind ...
,
News-Press & Gazette Company The News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) is an American media company based in St. Joseph, Missouri, wholly owned and operated by the Bradley family. It is presided by Brian Bradley and David R. Bradley, with Hank Bradley (retired), Eric Bradley, ...
,
Young Broadcasting Young Broadcasting, LLC was an American media company that owned or operated 12 television stations in 10 markets with a total U.S. television household coverage of 5.9%. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the out ...
, and
Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown, Chicago, Greektown neighborhood. It cur ...
. The renamed ''Litton's Weekend Adventure'' launched on September 3, 2011, with six series: ''
Jack Hanna Jack Bushnell Hanna (born January 2, 1947) is an American retired zookeeper and director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Commonly nicknamed "Jungle Jack", he was director of the zoo from 1978 to 1992, and is viewed as largely respons ...
's Wild Countdown'', '' Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin'', ''
Born to Explore with Richard Wiese Richard Wiese (born July 13, 1959) is an American explorer, the serving President of The Explorers Club, and Executive Producer and Host of the multiple Emmy Award-winning ABC and PBS program, Born to Explore. Early life and education Wiese wa ...
'', '' Culture Click'', ''Everyday Health'', and ''Food for Thought with
Claire Thomas Claire Alexandria Thomas (born 18 June 1986 in Los Angeles, California) is an American food enthusiast and blogger who once hosted her own ABC series ''Food for Thought with Claire Thomas'', an E/I show which was a part of the weekend morning ...
'' (originally titled ''The Delicious Adventures of Claire Thomas'' prior to its debut). Two other series were also initially announced to be in development: the environment-focused ''Agents of Change'' (from producer Mark Koops) and ''Earth: Angry Planet''; however, neither show was picked up to series. When the block debuted, Litton's Weekend Adventure became the first Saturday morning block to present all of its programs in
high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...
. On May 2, 2012, ABC and Litton reached an agreement to broadcast Weekend Adventure worldwide on the
American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...
, beginning that June. On September 24, 2012, Litton announced that a television version of Everyday Health's
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
series '' Recipe Rehab'' (one of several web series directly funded by the video sharing website as a part of a premium content initiative) would premiere on the block beginning on October 6, 2012 replacing the ''Everyday Health'' series. On September 28, 2013, Litton launched a competing Saturday morning block for
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
, the
CBS Dream Team CBS WKND (previously known as CBS Dream Team) is an American programming block programmed by Hearst Media Production Group (formerly Litton Entertainment) which airs Saturday mornings on CBS under a time-lease agreement. The block features th ...
(which replaced the ''
Cookie Jar TV Cookie Jar TV was an American children's programming block that aired on CBS, originally premiering on September 16, 2006, as the KOL Secret Slumber Party; the block was later rebranded as KEWLopolis ( ) on September 15, 2007, and finally as ...
'' block). The following week on October 5, 2013, the Weekend Adventure block's "Health and Wellness Hour" (consisting of health and culinary programs that filled the third hour of the block) was retired as part of a refocusing towards exclusively wildlife-focused programs, with the move, ''Recipe Rehab'' migrated to CBS's ''Dream Team'' block. Subsequently, on October 4, 2014, ''Expedition Wild'' moved from Weekend Adventure to another Saturday morning block produced by Litton that launched on that date, ''
One Magnificent Morning One Magnificent Morning (OMM) is an American programming block that is programmed by Hearst Media Production Group (formerly Litton Entertainment) and distributed by CBS Media Ventures, and debuted on October 4, 2014, as a replacement for the an ...
'' on
The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
. In 2016, two stations disaffiliated from ABC due to varied issues;
WKPT-TV WKPT-TV (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Kingsport, Tennessee, United States, serving the Tri-Cities area as an affiliate of Cozi TV. It is owned by Glenwood Communications Corporation alongside low-power Class A MeTV affilia ...
in the Tri-Cities region of Tennessee and Virginia, and WSVI in the
U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located ...
, but as the Litton syndication contract for Weekend Adventure is separate from their expired ABC affiliation agreements, were able to continue to air Weekend Adventure for the time being. The new Tri-Cities ABC affiliate, WJHL-DT2, used programming from the Fox-associated
Xploration Station Xploration Station is an American syndicated programming block that is programmed by Steve Rotfeld Productions, distributed by Fox, and debuted on September 13, 2014. It airs weekends (typically on Saturday mornings), primarily on Fox-affili ...
block (which was turned down by
WEMT WEMT (channel 39) is a television station licensed to Greeneville, Tennessee, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Tri-Cities area. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with ...
) and other syndicated programming for their E/I contributions instead. In April 2017, Weekend Adventure moved to WJHL-DT2 after WKPT voided all of their syndication contracts to become a full-time carrier of
Cozi TV Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1950s to the 2000s. The network originat ...
.


Programming

Programs featured on ''Litton's Weekend Adventure'' are designed to meet federally mandated educational programming guidelines, allowing ABC stations to comply with the three-hour weekly minimum for E/I content defined by the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
. However, some ABC stations may carry syndicated educational programs to provide additional E/I content supplementary to the block. Programs aired within the block may be deferred to Sunday daytime slots, or (in the case of affiliates in the Western United States) Saturday afternoons due to
breaking news Breaking news, also called late-breaking news, a special report, special coverage, or a news flash, is a current issue that warrants the interruption of a scheduled broadcast in order to report its details. News broadcasters also use the term ...
or severe weather coverage or, more commonly, regional or select national sports broadcasts (especially in the case of
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
tournaments) scheduled in earlier Saturday timeslots as makegoods to comply with the E/I regulations. Some stations may air the entirety of the ''Weekend Adventure'' block on tape delay to accommodate local news or other programs of local interest (such as public affairs shows, real estate or lifestyle programs).


Current programming


Former programming


Awards and nominations

In 2014, ''Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin'' won two Creative Arts Daytime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Travel Program".


References

{{Children's programming on the American Broadcasting Company in the 2010s Brokered programming American Broadcasting Company original programming Litton Entertainment Television programming blocks in the United States