King World Productions: Difference between revisions

'''King World Productions, Inc.''' was a television company established in 1964 by Charles '''King''' when they gained the distribution rights to the ''Our Gang'' (later re-titled ''The Little Rascals'') shorts. Years later, the company was ran by his children; Roger, Michael, Robert, Diana, Richard, and Karen King after King's death. In 1982, King World joined forces with [[Merv Griffin Enterprises]] to handle all of Griffin's nightly syndicated programming. Including a syndicated version of ''Wheel of Fortune'' that premiered on September 19, 1983, acquiring the syndication rights to ''The Merv Griffin Show'' from [[Metromedia Producers Corporation]], and producing two syndicated pilots of ''Jeopardy!'' until the series officially launched on September 10, 1984. King World later formed an ad-sales barter division "[[Camelot Entertainment Sales]]", which would become "King World Media Sales" (and later "CBS Television Distribution Media Sales") in 1997. In 1987, King World and Camelot entered into an ad-sales barter partnership with [[Buena Vista Television]]. In 2000, King World was acquired by CBS and was made part of "[[CBS Enterprises]]" under Viacom, Inc. (now "Paramount Global"). On September 26, 2006, King World merged with [[CBS Paramount Television|CBS Paramount Domestic Television]], [[CBS Paramount International Television]] (later "[[CBS Studios International]]" and "[[ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group]]", now "[[Paramount Global Content Distribution]]"), and [[CBS Home Entertainment]] to form [[CBS Television Distribution]]. Today, King World remains as an in-name-only unit of CBS Television Distribution (now "[[CBS Media Ventures]]") known as "KWP Studios" on ''Rachael Ray'', a unit of CBS Corporation (later "ViacomCBS", now "[[Paramount Global]]"). The name "King World Productions, Inc." is still used on properties such as ''The Little Rascals'' with a co-ownership by CBS Media Ventures. ''Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa'' is now owned by [[WildBrain]], via [[Greengrass Productions]] and [[DIC Entertainment|DiC]].