KJZZ joins My Network

For the first time since 2001, KJZZ-Ch. 14 is about to become a network affiliate.

It's with a network you've never heard of because it doesn't exist yet. And, quite frankly, it's really not that big a deal.

Even KJZZ isn't making a big deal out of it based on scheduling alone. Locally, programming on My Network TV won't be available until most of you have already gone to bed.

MyNetworkTV, a Fox-owned enterprise formed when CBS decided to shut down UPN, will debut nationally and on KJZZ on Tuesday, Sept. 5. But while its two hours of nightly programming is designed to air in prime time, Ch. 14 will telecast it from 11 p.m.-1 a.m.

Maybe that's not such a bad time, given that MyNetworkTV will launch with two hourlong, Monday-Saturday, English-language telenovellas. "Desire" is about "two brothers on the run from the mafia find themselves in a heated battle of passion, betrayal, deceit and murder over the woman they both love."

And "Secrets" is set behind the scenes of the "brutally ruthless fashion industry, in which greed, lust and blind ambition surround a violent corporate takeover of the business' hottest company." Bo Derek, who was famous for about 15 minutes a quarter of a century ago, stars in this one.

Be still, my heart.

And it sort of sounds like late-night programming, doesn't it?

The two series are scheduled to run six nights a week for 13 weeks . . . and then My Network TV will come up with something else.

THAT KJZZ AND MY NETWORK would come together is somewhat ironic, given the history. Ch. 14 was one of the original UPN affiliates in 1995, a relationship that broke up in 2001 after an acrimonious dispute over programming, compensation and even unfounded charges of racism by the network's then-chief financial officer.

(None of the people running UPN back then survived for long.)

Meanwhile, Fox outbid Viacom/CBS and bought most of the big-city UPN affiliates in 2000 — stations UPN had to have to survive. They worked out a deal, but sort of on Fox's terms.

So when CBS and Time Warner decided to more-or-less merge UPN and the WB (the new CW network launches in September), Fox was cut out, leaving it with all those stations and no network. My Network TV is Fox's attempt to launch a second network of its own.