ABC Saturday Movie of the Week
| ABC Saturday Movie of the Week | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Film presentation |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 12 |
| No. of episodes | 178 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 120-300 minutes (with commercials) |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Picture format | 720p (HDTV) |
| Audio format | varied by film |
| Original release | February 21, 2004 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Wonderful World of Disney |
ABC Saturday Movie of the Week is a weekly American film series that airs on ABC. The series began as the replacement for ABC's Big Picture Show and as a revival of ABC's Movie of the Week theme (the network used this theme from 1969 until 1976). Since its inception, it has been ABC's main platform for airing theatrical movies, although other movies air as part of the movie of the week format during the holiday season and as special presentations. As such, ABC airs a movie on every night of the week at some point during the television season styled as [Insert Day] Movie of the Week.
Overview
Beginning in 2009, with the December 2008 cancellation of Wonderful World of Disney, ABC Saturday Movie of the Week has become ABC's main platform for all movies. Currently the title is used solely for internal scheduling purposes; either a short promotional piece listing the film coming up or a direct cut to a disclaimer that the film has been formatted to broadcast television presentation precedes the aired film, along with noting time stretching done with extra commercial breaks and "bonus content" to fill out the three-hour timeslot. The use of the second audio program also varies wildly, with some weeks featuring the film's Spanish language dub, and others with a Descriptive Video Service track.
Among the films which ABC has broadcast rights to are a package of DreamWorks films. The lone permanent annual airing of any film in the series is that of The Ten Commandments, which has aired on ABC since 1973 and airs in an extended time slot each year in the vicinity of Easter; the film is also generally the most watched film of the series each year.
Generally since the premiere of Saturday Night Football in 2006 and the major decline of new programming on all broadcast networks on Saturday nights, along with other factors such as networks ending their purchase of all but the most high-profile of films and the rise of streaming options, ABC's Saturday movie schedule is mainly only used to fill weeks where ABC has no sports or news programming to fill the timeslot. Saturday Night Football generally airs from September to mid-December and holiday specials in December, with NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC airing from mid-January until May into the NBA playoffs, and encore episodes of other ABC series and re-compilation episodes of 20/20 filling other Saturday nights.