Ion Television

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    Of the four major US commercial terrestrial TV networks, ION Television is solidly in seventh place. It tends to turn up on outlying UHF stations, mostly owned-and-operated by the network.

    In 1998, Lowell "Bud" Paxson (most famous for unleashing the Home Shopping Network on America's credit cards) established PAX as the seventh commercial broadcast television network in the United States. Paxson was a born-again Christian who felt that the major networks were too raunchy and violent, and wanted PAX to be The Moral Substitute. Despite airing a few notable original dramas (such as Doc, which starred Billy Ray Cyrus, and Sue Thomas FB Eye), it didn't take.

    A problem that dogged PAX from day one was that its initial station roster was descended from PAX's spiritual predecessor, a network named "inTV", also owned by Paxson, whose entire schedule consisted of infomercials [1]. In addition, PAX was made up mostly of second-string independent stations purchased by Paxson which either carried religious programming or hadn't stepped up their game with the rise of FOX, UPN, and The WB in the previous 15 years and had lagged behind everybody else. Most of these stations were high on the UHF dial and licensed to outlying communities in their respective markets[2]. In addition to the infomercials and rare original series, most of the schedule consisted of (often Bowdlerised) reruns of older programs like Remington Steele, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and Bonanza; public-domain movies; and several Game Shows (including the third incarnations of Supermarket Sweep and Shop Til You Drop).

    The network changed its name to "i" (for "independent") in 2005, and then to "ION" in 2007. Its schedule now consists mainly of infomercials (with an industry Running Gag was that the "i" name stood for "infomercial"), movies, and reruns of various shows, which change frequently. As of 2011, they seem to fixate on NCIS, Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds, and added new episodes of Flashpoint in a unique deal with CBS to air it outside the Summer months. The editing stopped in 2005 (except for certain movies which have to meet FCC regulations) when Paxson left the network; it might shock viewers who remember the old PAX to see Scarface on a network that was formerly home to Promised Land and Hope Island. They managed to sign a deal with the Arena Football League to air games starting March 2012.

    ION (and the informercials' own network's predecessors, PAX and i) rely heavily on a collection of owned-and-operated stations assembled in outlying communities under the former "UHF discount"[3]. Most include PX in the callsigns, a reference to the former PAX branding. In addition to the main ION content, the network programmed two additional digital subchannels (Ion Life, with health programs, and Qubo, with children's entertainment). (Qubo programming has also aired on some NBC and Telemundo stations, as it was created in conjunction with NBCUniversal.)

    Ion Life has since been displaced by ION Plus. A remnant subchannel of the Paxson era, The Worship Network [4], left the Ion airwaves in January 2010 but remains on some satellite systems. DirecTV and some Comcast systems air an infomercial-free version of the main Ion feed, a reaction to threats of the network being dropped by the both of them.

    The over-the-air subchannel lineup on ION-owned stations looks something like WPXN-TV (31.1 ION-HD, 31.2 qubo, 31.3 ION Plus, 31.4 Shop, 31.5 QVC, 31.6 HSN) with little variation between markets and much space devoted to shopping, infomercials or other brokered programming.

    Not to be confused with the manga I.O.N, the play by Euripides, the Saturn car model, the chemical entity, or any other ION.

    Works created by Ion Television include:

    Fiction


    Game/Reality Shows

    • America's Most Talented Kids (2004-05, moved from NBC; repeats of both aired into 2006)
    • Animal Tails (2003-04)
    • Balderdash (2004-05)
    • Beat the Clock (2002-03)
    • Candid Camera (2001-04, moved from CBS)
    • Dirty Rotten Cheater (January-April 2003)
    • Ed McMahon's Next Big Star (2001-02; remake of Star Search)
    • The Emeril Lagasse Show (April-July 2010)
    • Hollywood Showdown (January-November 2000, moved to being a GSN exclusive)
    • It's A Miracle (1998-2004, with repeats into 2006)
    • Lie Detector (March-June 2005)
    • Miracle Pets (2000-05)
    • On The Cover (2004-05)
    • The Reel-To-Reel Picture Show (August-September 1998, with repeats into October)
    • Shop Til You Drop (2000-02/2003-05, with repeats in 2002-03 and 2005-06)
    • Supermarket Sweep (2000-03, with repeats into 2004)
    • Totally Pets (2003-04)
    1. ↑ (mostly the infamous Alumaloy infomercial, produced for approximately $6.47 and a couple bus tokens)
    2. ↑ For example, the Washington DC market needed two PAX stations to make it in: one in West Virginia, the other in Virginia. Meanwhile, Paxson's station in Batavia NY attempts to cover both Rochester and Buffalo.
    3. ↑ The US FCC has long imposed limits on the number of commercial stations owned by one single entity: originally 5 VHF stations maximum, but relaxed over the years to be a specified maximum percentage of population served. UHF was traditionally subjected to less stringent limits; PAX used this loophole to avoid reliance on "affiliate stations" owned by others to reach viewers outside the largest cities.
    4. ↑ (which carried a Fun for Some format of nature scenery and light music combined with Bible verses projected on the screen)
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