Now that Pat Robertson’s dead do you think his company will finally accept a buyout of their contractually obligated timeslot on Freeform (née ABC Family) or are they still absolutely committed to it
For anyone who doesn’t know the history (or isn’t American and doesn’t know what this means)
In the 70s Christian Broadcasting Network founded a family TV channel they later sold. When they sold it they included a clause saying the new owners have to give them a timeslot for The 700 Club, and let them take over the network a couple times a year for a full day of fundraising.
During this time their family channel passed through the ownership of Fox and ABC, and during its time as ABC Family it gravitated towards teen dramas. Its brand now is actually not just teen dramas, but often queer, diverse teen dramas. Meanwhile they’ve been forced to platform a show where the host calls 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina God’s punishment for homosexuality (there’s also rumors that they forced the network to keep “Family” in the name long after it became a teen network)
By all accounts they’ve been offered copious amounts of Disney Money and have turned it down every time. The contract is so ironclad Disney lawyers can’t find a way to get out of it. Their contract also mandates they can’t bury it late at night either, so The 700 Club airs at 10/9 in the morning and 11/10 at night (the latter prevents Freeform from launching any kind of late night block), with disclaimers in front of it. Incredibly snarky disclaimers
Meanwhile their post-700 Club disclaimer looks like this
Pat Robertson’s show is holding a network hostage due to a contract from three decades and two owners ago, and the network openly despises them. Literally nothing else like it
Like as an example of the type of Extremely Un-700 Clubian programming Freeform put on around it, at one point Pat Robertson’s lead-in was The Fosters, a show about a interracial lesbian couple raising five children, with trans and gay recurring characters, and yes, apparently they did do it deliberately so anyone tuning in early to watch The 700 Club would catch a few minutes of the inclusive lesbian mom show
