KingWorld was a television distribution company founded in 1964. It is best known for distributing Merv Griffin's nightly syndicated programming, including the nighttime Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!; other TV series it handled included Inside Edition, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the revival of Hollywood Squares. It was made part of Viacom's CBS Enterprises in 2000. Then in 2007, KingWorld, along with CBS Paramount Domestic Television, was absorbed into the newly created CBS Television Distribution (renamed CBS Media Ventures in 2021).
Logo History[]
The logo went through some major changes in its run.
- Originally, as KingWorld did not have a proper on-screen graphic logo, the text "KING WORLD PRODUCTIONS, INC." would be seen superimposed over the set or the Wheel. Then-announcer Jack Clark would also give a spiel on the distributor following that of Merv Griffin Productions.
- In 1984, the text variants were dropped in favor of the company's newly-introduced actual logo being superimposed over the Wheel spinning. Later on, however, it would only show on the set. The logo was also moved from the center of the screen to the bottom and the words "Distributed By" were seen on the top. The spiel (as read on-air by Jack and then his successors M. G. Kelly and Charlie O'Donnell) was altered accordingly to the familiar "Distributed by KingWorld" from that point forward.
- In October 1990, the show stopped superimposing the logo onto the set, and instead used KingWorld's newly introduced on-screen logo, with the doorway background and the silver bars resembling spotlights. The logo appears in its short variant, with the "DISTRIBUTED BY" text at the top.
- Starting in 1996 and going on until 1998, a "page-turning" effect was added to the logo, similar to what was used for the Merv Griffin Enterprises logo before. From this point onward, Charlie no longer does his spiel over this logo.
- In 1998, the logo was replaced with a new logo, nicknamed the "Star Shooter," designed by Pittard Sullivan. The KingWorld wordmark is in a different font this time and is now dark blue, the bars below it are replaced by a paint streak (though the previous star shape remains), and the background is changed to a golden cloudy sunset backdrop. As with the previous logo, the "Distributed By" variant was used for this one. Wheel did not adopt this new logo straight away, but continued using the previous logo through Season 16.
- The last KingWorld logo debuted on Christmas Day 2006 and was used until October 2007. It is similar to the previous logo, but with more advanced CGI. The cloud background is now blue, the logo text is redone in 3-D, and the "DISTRIBUTED BY" text is smaller and italicized.
Gallery[]
The 1984 logo in white over the Wheel.
