Launch
Decades primarily relied on programming from the extensive content library owned by CBS Television Distribution,[6] which includes the pre-2006 Paramount Television library, which CBS had acquired as a result of absorbing Paramount's syndication unit in 2006 through its split from Viacom into a separate company (CBS and Viacom re-merged to form ViacomCBS in 2019), along with series from Desilu Productions, Bing Crosby Productions, Don Fedderson Productions, QM Productions, Spelling Television and Republic Pictures Television. Decades also carried series and movies from NBCUniversal, Warner Bros., Disney (20th Century Studios), Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, Sonar Entertainment, the Peter Rodgers Organization, Shout! Factory, The Carsey-Werner Company and the public domain.
In an early effort to stand out from other "retro TV" multicast services (such as MeTV and Antenna TV), the Monday through Friday schedule initially featured a block of programming based on a daily theme, with interstitial programs to highlight the theme. Each six-hour block of programming was repeated four times a day and typically included a feature film, episodes of theme related television programs, and biographical programs featuring celebrities, actors and actresses, musicians, athletes, and public figures of interest. The theme blocks were bookended with Through the Decades, an hour-long program hosted and narrated by Bill Kurtis (who formerly served as a presenter for Chicago CBS O&O WBBM-TV and CBS News) that explores the events and news from a particular day or period in history, using archival footage that CBS owns through services such as CBS News and CBS Television Distribution's syndicated newsmagazine program Entertainment Tonight.[4][6][11]
As Decades, the network's Saturday and Sunday schedules featured marathons of classic television series. Beginning on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. (ET), forty-two consecutive hours are devoted to a particular series, which is usually sourced from either the CBS Television Distribution library of shows or a show Weigel Broadcasting has a contract to carry (such as one of the shows it broadcasts on MeTV).[12]
Airings of The Dick Cavett Show were added to the schedule February 1, 2016, within the daily themed block, as appropriate. Episodes from Cavett's late-night ABC talk show from 1969 to 1974, as well as his later interview series on PBS, USA, and CNBC were all made available for airing.[13]
On November 1, 2016, a major change was made to the programming lineup, with the daily programming block reduced to two airings daily (one from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, the other in overnight) as the 2:00 p.m. to midnight (ET) time period was converted to a "daily binge" with a different show airing each day. During the month of November, a different "cop show" was aired each weekday.[14]
A further shift in direction from the original channel concept came on December 5, 2016, when the network added two daily airings of the NBC series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the first breaking the daily binge in half at 6:00 p.m. (ET) and a different episode at the conclusion of the binge time block.[15]
Through the Decades
Through the Decades, hosted by Bill Kurtis,[16] is a retrospective-type show that aired on Decades. Each day's edition of the show featured events that happened on that date in history.
The show debuted in September 2016.[17] After the network rebranded to Catchy Comedy on March 27, 2023, the program was cancelled; notably, however, Weigel would continue to use the show as an E/I compliant program on some of their independent affiliates, most notably flagship station WCIU-TV in Chicago, rerunning the episodes on the same days as original airings, before removing it the following year.
2017–2023
In 2017, the theme and binge programming on weekdays was discontinued altogether and the network became mostly sitcom-focused, featuring the "Television Across the Decades" block, where comedies from the 1950s through the 1980s air weekdays from mid-morning into early evening, and late evenings through the overnight hours featuring the "Smart Comedy" block, highlighted by classic sitcoms such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Cheers, Taxi, The Honeymooners, and The Abbott and Costello Show.
While the bulk of the lineup was primarily sitcoms, there were deviations (most notably in prime time) which featured the classic variety program The Ed Sullivan Show, Through the Decades and The Dick Cavett Show. Also, the weekend binge marathons continued, with a single series (regardless of genre) airing for 42 hours straight on Saturdays and Sundays.
The final program to air under the Decades name was The Mod Squad, which was the featured show of the March 25–26, 2023, weekend binge.
