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Yes, Pat Robertson’s Christian talk showThe 700 Clubwill continue to air even when ABC Family becomes known as Freeform.“The 700 Club will continue to air on Freeform,” the network said in a statement. “It was part of a longstanding agreement that was made when Disney first acquired the network.” As a result, TV Insider went into the history of the deal: The network originally began as the Christian Broadcasting Network in 1977, which aired Robertson’s show. There was a series of name-changes and deals throughout the years, with Disney/ABC buying the network in 2001, but throughout it all, the main stipulation was thatThe 700 Clubwould remain on air with a good time slot.
According to an unnamed source, the network tried to buy out Robertson, but the price quoted was “astronomical.”The 700 Clubis valuable property for Robertson: CBN’s most recent tax audit shows its airtime is worth $42.4 million annually.“We thought we could negotiate it and give him a lot of money. But that was never [Robertson’s] intention,” an unnamed source told TV Insider. “The language is ironclad. I don’t know what it would take at this point to get rid of it.”
The network andThe 700 Clubseem to be content with ignoring one another. Freeform/ABC Family continues its forays intoedgier programming, which includes the much-beloved showThe Fosters, about an interracial lesbian couple that adopts at-risk youths, andPretty Little Liars, a show about beautiful but meddlesome sleuths. The ABC Family website doesn’t evenlink toThe 700 Club on its schedule.ButThe 700 Clubwill remain as long as the Robertsons want. Chris Roslan, a spokesperson for CBN, said, “The 700 Club will continue to air now and in perpetuity on the network, no matter what the name.”
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