Television During the '50s

Television during the 1950s, considered the Golden Age for the medium, began actually in the 1940s, when the three networks at the time, NBC, CBS and the Dumont Television Network, began broadcasting programs. Since television was a nascent entertainment medium and not many Americans owned sets at this point, the broadcast networks aired programs in major markets such as New York City and Los Angeles, while local and affiliate television stations began airing their own programming. Some of the networks' early television programming included Howdy Doody and Meet the Press on NBC and the Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. The Dumont Television Network and NBC broadcast the World Series on television for the first time during this period as well.

It wasn't until the 1950s however when television began to dominate in American living rooms as a primary source of entertainment. Between 1942-1949, approximately 3,602,872 television sets were sold annually in the United States. But by 1951, cumulatively 15,639,872 sets were sold. Those numbers would rise by the end of the decade to 67,145,000 [Source: www./tvhistory.tv/facts-stats.htm]. As more Americans turned to television for entertainment, the early broadcast networks churned out programs during its primetime and daytime hours, capturing major demographics for their advertising sponsors.

During this period, sponsorship became the networks' primary means of programming support. Advertisers such as General Mills, Proctor & Gamble, Texaco, Colgate, and Kraft sponsored entire programs, with their brand names often appearing in the titles of said programs. Though this practice would end by the late fifties after the quiz show scandals revealed the implied collusion between sponsors and game show producers to rig their games in order to gain viewership, advertising sponsorship then, as it is today, determined which shows went to air. Without sponsorship, most shows simply could not survive.