Primetime Live
From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.
Primetime Live, which has also been titled Primetime, Prime Time, Primetime Thursday and Primetime...Live!, is ABC's longest running show, having first aired in 1985. Over the years, Primetime Live has had numerous stars and various formats (much like ER), the most successful and long-lived of which was the Newsmagazine format.
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Prime Time (1985-1989)
Originally, the show was titled Prime Time and focused on the football and baseball career of rising Florida State star athlete Deion "Prime Time" Sanders. Starting with Sanders' decision to attend Florida State, Prime Time followed him around, documenting his success both on the baseball diamond and the football pitch. While Prime Time had moderate success, ABC was forced to change the show's format once Sanders was drafted into the NFL. Due to contract restrictions between the NFL players union and team owners, ABC could no longer use game footage of Sanders, and for a brief moment it looked like Prime Time would soon be cancelled.
Primetime Live (1989-1997)
ABC wasted no time changing the format of Prime Time, changing the title to Primetime Live and hiring two bright young actors, Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer, to appear on the show. The show's format was changed to a newsmagazine show, in order to keep the unionized employees that had worked on Prime Time from going on strike.
Primetime Live became a leader in investigatory journalism, covering everything from Roseanne to peace talks in The Middle East. Most viewers ignored the hard-hitting stories, however, and focused on the rising romantic tension between the two hosts. As a result, ABC added a studio audience to the show in 1991.
Hiatus (1997-2000)
After the purchase of ABC by The Walt Disney Company in 1996, problems soon arose between the parent company and the producers of Primetime Live. The show's journalistic integrity began to clash with Disney's internal policies. Adding to the tensions was a lawsuit against the show by AMC, who didn't like the investigative report about the Pacer. Eventually, AMC won the lawsuit and was awarded $2.00 by the Supreme Court. This gave Disney the excuse they needed to put Primetime Live on hiatus, where it played shuffleboard with Doctor Who every afternoon for the next 3 years.
Primetime...Live! (2000-2002)
In 2000 it became apparent that, despite the tremendous talents of Regis Philbin, ABC could not air seven nights a week of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Faced with running endless According to Jim reruns on the days Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was not airing, Disney decided to revive the Primetime franchise. Thugs working under Disney's then-CEO Michael Eisner kidnapped Good Morning America host Charles Gibson, chained him to a desk and forced him to report on Paula Abdul and other Hollywood "celebrities" three nights a week. This allowed ABC to air Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on the other four nights, a format that was kept until the cancellation of Millionaire in 2002.
Primetime (2002-?)
Eventually, Gibson was able to free himself and escape into the unknown wilds of ABC World News Tonight. After an unsuccessful search, producers changed the Primetime format yet again, this time renaming the show Primetime and bringing in a bunch of unknowns to sit around and talk for an hour. By cutting back Primetime's airings from "3 times a week" to "Randomly", ABC has managed to keep the show on the air through the 2006-2007 season. While Primetime is not on the official 2007-2008 schedule, ABC has stated that the show will probably be a midseason replacement in 2008.
Primetime Thursday (?-?)
I dunno, ABC's Thursday lineup looks OK to me with Ugly Betty and Gray's Anatomy on the schedule, but you never really know about these things.
