[citation needed] According to James B. Stewart's book DisneyWar, Fox Kids' history is intertwined with that of the syndicated children's program block The Disney Afternoon.

This may have been due to the fact that the Walt Disney Company's chief operating officer at the time, Michael Eisner, and his then-Fox counterpart, Barry Diller, had worked together at ABC and at Paramount Pictures.

[8] In 1988, Disney purchased independent television station KHJ-TV in Los Angeles, changing its call letters to KCAL-TV the next year.

The station's new owners wanted DuckTales to be shown on KCAL, effectively taking the local television rights to the animated series away from Fox-owned KTTV.

[2] Originally headed by division president Margaret Loesch, its programming aired for 30 minutes per day on Monday through Fridays, and for 3 hours on Saturday mornings.

In September 1991, the block was rebranded as the Fox Kids Network, with its programming expanding to 90 minutes on weekdays and 4 hours on Saturday mornings.

[12] Throughout most of its history, Fox Kids aired several promos for its programs during commercial breaks, with no exact time slots announced for the shows.

[15] Many of the stations owned by New World (which later merged with Fox's then-parent company News Corporation in July 1996[16]) declined to carry the block in order to air syndicated programs aimed at older audiences or local newscasts.

In August 1995, religious independent station KNLC assumed the rights to Fox Kids from KDNL-TV (which became an ABC affiliate) after KPLR-TV turned down;[17][18] however, due to the station's decision to air public service messages from its owner's ministry about controversial topics in lieu of local advertisements, Fox pulled the block from KNLC in mid-1996.

[2] The Fox Kids weekday block was reduced to two hours, and in an effort to help its affiliates comply with the recently implemented educational programming mandates defined by the Children's Television Act, reruns of former PBS series The Magic School Bus were added to the lineup.

Some affiliates (such as WLUK-TV) would tape delay the block to air between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM, one of the lowest-rated time periods on U.S. television (and when virtually all children 5 years of age and older are at school).

The added factor of Nickelodeon's aggressive schedule that outrated all of the broadcast networks among children on Saturday mornings[26] left Fox Kids behind, and programmers could not find a solution to catch up.

[citation needed] The success of Digimon helped Fox Kids temporarily return to competitiveness with Nickelodeon and The WB in February 2001; by this point the rumors of a major restructure had already begun.

[28] Fox put its children's programming block up for bidding, and 4Kids Entertainment, then-producers of the English dub of Pokémon, purchased the remaining four-hour Saturday time period.

While Fox Kids ended its existence on broadcast television in the United States, Disney instituted a two-hour morning lineup on its newly acquired ABC Family cable channel (known as the "ABC Family Action Block") that was programmed similarly to Fox Kids and featured content originated on the block.

[33][34] A few shows that have once aired on Fox Kids, such as Goosebumps, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Batman: The Animated Series, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Animaniacs, were reran on The Hub.

This two-hour broadcast was hosted by Chris Leary of ZDTV and TechTV fame and consisted of contests and gags, with sound effects incorporated throughout the program.