http://www.ksat.com/entertainment/abc-family-is-changing-its-name-to-freeform_

ABC Family is getting a makeover.

The Disney-owned cable channel announced Tuesday that it plans to change its name to "Freeform" in January, aiming to attract television viewers who are 14 to 34 years old.

The channel said it has dubbed that audience segment "becomers," because they are in the life stage of high school, college or the decade afterward and "are navigating the wonderful, fun, exciting, and scary time in life when you experience the most firsts."

"Freeform evokes the spirit and adventure of our audience," said ABC Family President Tom Ascheim in a statement. "Freeform will deliver new, exciting original content as well as all the favorite shows our viewers already love on ABC Family."

ABC Family has previously previous success with the "becomer" demographic. Variety reported in January that the channel had won the calendar year in its target young-female demo, averaging 250,000 women 18-34 during an average primetime minute.

A phone call to ABC Family was not immediately returned.

Meehhh, honestly I hardly ever cared about the channel with the exception of the family movies that would air during the holidays or special events. I wasn't into all the teen-com's geared towards late teen/young adult girls on there. I heard that it was called FOX Family before then, but I don't really remember that channel either. I grew up knowing ABC Family, but sad to here that there's a name change coming soon.

Meehhh, honestly I hardly ever cared about the channel with the exception of the family movies that would air during the holidays or special events. I wasn't into all the teen-com's geared towards late teen/young adult girls on there. I heard that it was called FOX Family before then, but I don't really remember that channel either. I grew up knowing ABC Family, but sad to here that there's a name change coming soon.


I feel the same. I have no history/connection with ABC. While its sad, it happened to Kids WB. After how so much changed, I'm ready for anything as far as channel name changing.

Let's hope Freeform is aimed at young men instead of girls. Guys like more than just idiotic comedies and sports!

The channel was much better back when it was the Family channel.  Usually when there is a channel name change, the result is simply more dreck and suckdom.  Examples:


The Nashville Network became The National Network (very short lived)
CourTV became "TruTV"

Let's hope Freeform is aimed at young men instead of girls. Guys like more than just idiotic comedies and sports!

YES, preach brother preach!! :D

Well, it's not like ABC Family was that special for all of us. All they do is just make mediocre TV shows and movies since their existence started, and nobody gave a sheesh about them. So I don't see how ABC Family is dead, when it's already a walking corpse to me.

ABC Family in any form can bite me.


I will never forgive them for cancelling Bunheads after one season. And then I tried to give them a second chance with Chasing Life which they just cancelled after its second season.


I hate them.

I used to like the channel in the 2000s when they were showing good movies and reruns of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Nowadays I seldom watch it anymore.

Meehhh, honestly I hardly ever cared about the channel with the exception of the family movies that would air during the holidays or special events. I wasn't into all the teen-com's geared towards late teen/young adult girls on there. I heard that it was called FOX Family before then, but I don't really remember that channel either. I grew up knowing ABC Family, but sad to here that there's a name change coming soon.


Fox Family Channel was awesome. I've been watching long enough to remember back when it was still just "The Family Channel", and the switch over to Fox Family (which occurred in August 1998) was a massive deal at the time, mostly because of the drastic lineup change. The Family Channel primarily just showed reruns of older shows like Bonanza and Gunsmoke, whereas Fox Family had cartoons, game shows, drama series, and an array of movies from the 20th Century Fox library. The lineup for Fox Family was so quirky in those early days in the late '90s, I can remember all kinds of totally random stuff like "Pee Wee's Playhouse" reruns, former NBA player John Salley having his own talk show, and old "Mr. Bill" skits from SNL being pieced together with "Mr. Bean" shorts to create a 30 minute comedy series.

Sadly, there aren't many videos online with Fox Family content, but these are two of the few that I could find showcasing the type of random programming you could find back in the early days of 1998-99:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlIPkb72bCE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dycuo488K1Q

The channel was still decent after it became ABC Family in 2001, but the lineup eventually took a pretty big hit, because they removed alot of the quirky, unique game shows and cartoons that made Fox Family stand out, and replaced them largely with reruns of WB teen shows like 7th Heaven and Gilmore Girls. As a big fan of Fox Family, I was really upset at the time that the channel lost it's unique identity after it was replaced by ABC Family. For that reason, I much like ABC Family and haven't watched it much over the years. But, I did also enjoy the Christmas movies that ABC Family showed annually during the holiday season, so I suppose I will miss those if this new "Freeform" network does away with them.

^ I remember when it was FOX Family as well. But I didn't have opportunities to watch it during that era. Mostly because we didn't have cable tv in our household until 2001.

As long as this doesn't mess with the 25 Days of Christmas programming block during December, I don't mind what they do really. I have to have my Rankin Bass Christmas specials!

That reminds me, they did show several "original" (made-for-tv) movies during the 2000s, some of which were enjoyable. One such film, Picking Up And Dropping Off, was first shown in late 2003, during the 25 Days Of Christmas programming block that year.

And in 2005, a prequel to the 1997 film Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion, entitled Romy & Michelle: In The Beginning, was shown. That film, with Katharine Heigl and Alex Breckenridge in the title roles, was decent; it did have its moments, but it wasn't as great as the original. (Personally I kinda liked some of the early scenes better than some of the later scenes.)

Well, it's not like ABC Family was that special for all of us. All they do is just make mediocre TV shows and movies since their existence started, and nobody gave a sheesh about them. So I don't see how ABC Family is dead, when it's already a walking corpse to me.

I like watching The Middle and Last Man Standing reruns on it though! And I miss State of Grace way back when, one of their originals.

I actually watch ABC Family pretty often, typically wacthing Boy Meets World and The Middle reruns

It hasn't been quit as good as when it was Fox Family.  8-P

I like watching The Middle and Last Man Standing reruns on it though! And I miss State of Grace way back when, one of their originals.


Now that's a true blast from the past! I had completely forgotten that "State of Grace" ever existed until now, but I also liked to watch that show back in the day. I think I've got some old VHS tapes around here somewhere with episodes of that show on them that I recorded back in 2002 or so.

As long as this doesn't mess with the 25 Days of Christmas programming block during December, I don't mind what they do really. I have to have my Rankin Bass Christmas specials!


Remember the one where Mrs. Claus lives at the south pole? Too bad, they had such a nice relationship...