This Was Television On July 31
1987: E! Entertainment Television debuts
Called Movietime until 1990, the network brought the world of entertainment into the 24-hour news cycle. It specialized in news from Tinseltown, awards show coverage, and coming attractions programs such as Coming Attractions. The popularity of shows like the cult daytime digest Talk Soup and the docu-taboid E! True Hollywood Story helped put the network on the map.
In the 2000s and 2010s, as much of its entertainment new and promotions niche lost ground to the immediacy of the Internet, E! gradually alloted more of its schedule to reality shows. Today, Kardashian-related programming account for approximately 65% of the channels airtime and 93% of its revenue. -A.D.
Today’s Birthdays: Dean Cain, Kryptonian (46); Ted Cassidy, you rang? (d. 1979); Curt Gowdy, jack-of-all-sportscasts (d. 2006); B.J. Novak, long-tenured temp (33); Rico Rodriguez, modern Manny (13).
This Was Television 
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