On October 9th, 1986, the Fox Broadcasting Company officially went on the air, marking the first successful attempt to launch a fourth major television network in the United States since the collapse of DuMont Television Network in 1955. Founded by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller, the network did not debut with a full prime-time schedule, and instead soft-launched with "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers" only. Premiering at 11:00 PM, the first broadcast on Fox featured stars such as Elton John, Cher, Pee-wee Herman, and David Lee Roth. Murdoch's News Corp famously spent over $2 billion in 1985 and 1986 to acquire the 20th Century Fox film studio and the Metromedia television stations that formed Fox's backbone. Fox lost nearly $100 million in its first year of operation, but its aggressive targeting of the 18-49 demographic allowed it to become profitable by the early 1990s.
