On what channel did One Life to Live first air?

Since the agreement made between ABC and Prospect Park was not limited to internet television and did allowed "One Life to Live" to be broadcast on traditional television, there was an announcement on August 3, 2011 about a possibility of "One Life to Live" airing on a cable channel. On October 5, 2011, the project to bring "One Life to Live" to cable was reiterated in a "New York Times" article, where it was revealed that Prospect Park planned to first air episodes on The Online Network, then make them available on television on demand and, then weeks later, on cable television.

One Life to Live

One Life to Live (often abbreviated as OLTL) is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes via The Online Network from April 29 to August 19, 2013. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature ethnically and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social issues. "One Life to Live" was expanded from 30 minutes to 45 minutes on July 26, 1976, and then to an hour on January 16, 1978.

"One Life to Live" heavily focuses on the members and relationships of the Lord family. Actress Erika Slezak began portraying the series' central protagonist Victoria "Viki" Lord in March 1971 and played the character continuously for the rest of the show's run on ABC Daytime, winning a record six Daytime Emmy Awards for the role. In 2002, the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. "One Life to Live" was the last American daytime soap opera taped in New York City.

After nearly 43 years on the air, ABC canceled "One Life to Live" on April 14, 2011. On July 7, 2011, production company Prospect Park announced that it would continue the show as a web series after its run on ABC, but later suspended the project. The show taped its final scenes for ABC on November 18, 2011, and its final episode on the network aired on January 13, 2012 with a cliffhanger.

On January 7, 2013, Prospect Park resumed its plan to continue "One Life to Live" as a daily 30-minute web series on Hulu and iTunes via The Online Network. The relaunched series premiered on April 29, 2013. The new series was plagued with several behind-the-scenes problems, most notably a litigation between Prospect Park and ABC regarding the misuse of "One Life to Live" characters on "General Hospital". On September 3, 2013, Prospect Park suspended production of the series until the lawsuit with ABC was resolved.

Impressed with the ratings success of NBC's "Another World", ABC sought out "Another World" writer Nixon to create a serial for them. Though Nixon's concept for the new series was "built along the classic soap formula of a rich family and a poor family," she was "tired of the restraints imposed by the WASPy, noncontroversial nature of daytime drama." "One Life to Live" would emphasize "the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity" of the characters in its fictional setting. Nixon would go on to create "All My Children" in 1970 and "Loving" in 1983.

The initial main titles of the series featured the image of a roaring fireplace, a visual representation of the originally proposed title — "Between Heaven and Hell" — ultimately changed to "One Life to Live" to avoid controversy. "One Life to Live"'s first sponsor was the Colgate-Palmolive company, who also sponsored "The Doctors". ABC bought the show from Nixon in December 1974 when they purchased all stock to her Creative Horizons, Inc. The show was originally a half-hour serial until it was expanded to 45 minutes on July 23, 1976, and to one hour on January 16, 1978.

"One Life to Live" is set in the fictional city of Llanview, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show continually centers on the wealthy, WASP Lord family, with the working-class Polish American Woleks, the less wealthy Irish Catholic Rileys, and the African-American Grays present at the series inception. "One Life to Live" has been called "the most peculiarly American of soap operas: the first serial to present a vast array of ethnic types, broad comic situations, a constant emphasis on social issues, and strong male characters."

From the debut episode, "One Life to Live" centered on fictional character Victoria "Viki" Lord (originated by Gillian Spencer), portrayed by six-time Emmy winner Erika Slezak for longer than any other "One Life to Live" series actor, from March 1971 through the series finale January 13, 2012. Long-suffering heroine Viki weathered love and loss, widowhood, rape, divorce, stroke, and breast cancer, and was plagued by dissociative identity disorder (or DID, once known as multiple personality disorder) on and off for decades. Viki also had heart problems and received a transplant from her dying husband Ben Davidson (Mark Derwin). Featured male protagonist Dr. Larry Wolek also appeared at the debut episode and for 36 years, played from 1969 until the character's last appearance in 2004 by Emmy-nominated actor Michael Storm.

The apparent murder of Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony) by Victoria Lord and the ensuing prostitution storyline of Larry Wolek's wife, Karen Wolek (Judith Light), in 1979 garnered widespread critical acclaim and several Daytime Emmy Awards. The 1980s brought great ratings success and rose to prominence Viki's sister, Tina (originally and last played by Andrea Evans), and the Buchanan family. In the 1990s, the show introduced one of the first married interracial couples in soap operas with attorneys Hank and Nora Gannon (Nathan Purdee and Hillary B. Smith respectively), and the story of the involvement of Viki's estranged brother, Todd (Roger Howarth), with the rape of Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell), called "one of the show's most remembered and impactful."

"One Life to Live" celebrated its 40th anniversary in July 2008 with the return of several former cast members and by revisiting notable plot lines from its past. "Deceased" characters and even creator Agnes Nixon appeared in a storyline in which Slezak's Viki dies and visits Heaven, an homage to Viki's 1987 heavenly trip. Daytime Emmy-nominee Andrea Evans and others returned for a tribute to Tina Lord's famous 1987 plunge over the Iguazu Falls and the 1990 royal wedding in fictional Mendorra. And like the 1988 Old West storyline in which the character Clint Buchanan steps back 100 years in the past, on July 21, 2008, Robert S. Woods began an extended storyline in which his character Bo Buchanan finds himself transplanted back into his own past—specifically 1968, the year of the series' inception—witnessing his family's back-story unfold. "Soap Opera Digest" subsequently named "One Life to Live" their "Best Show" of 2008, calling it "the year's most compelling" series and citing a myriad of story lines the magazine found "heartbreaking," "stunning," and "gripping," as well as complimenting its risk-taking and "diverse and talented" cast.

On August 4, 2009, it was announced that "One Life to Live", which taped in New York City, would move from ABC Studio 17 at 56 West 66th Street to Studio 23 at 320 West 66th Street, Manhattan in early 2010. This studio was made available by the move of sister serial "All My Children" to a production facility in Los Angeles, where that series began taping on January 4, 2010. The new studio was 30% larger than "One Life to Live" previous one, and both "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" were to be taped and broadcast in high-definition (HD) after their moves.

On October 8, 2009, ABC announced that it had postponed the transition to HD for "One Live to Live", citing the economic climate at the time, though an ABC spokesperson stated that they "...will re-examine it next year." On December 6, 2010, "One Life to Live" became the fifth daytime serial to broadcast in the widescreen picture format but still not in true HD, after "Days of Our Lives", "The Young and the Restless", and fellow ABC soap operas "All My Children" and "General Hospital", though those series are produced in high-definition. ABC's picture disclaimers at the start of the program list it as being aired in "digital widescreen" rather than HD. The September 17, 2010, series ending of "As the World Turns" left "One Life to Live" as the last remaining American daytime serial being produced in the New York City area as well as the only one produced outside the Greater Los Angeles area.

Rumors about a potential cancellation of "One Life to Live" arose from "TV Guide Canada" in late 2009, after ABC announced that it was moving "All My Children" from New York City to Los Angeles. "One Life to Live"'s lone presence in New York among the ABC soap operas, along its non-transition to HD and its struggling ratings, made it a program at risk of cancellation. The article from "TV Guide Canada" also pointed that once "One Life to Live" is cancelled, some of the actors could be offered to join the cast of "All My Children" in Los Angeles. In May 2010, rumors of possible cancellation of not only "One Life to Live", but this time of also "All My Children" and "General Hospital", resurfaced when Disney–ABC Television Group officially announced that it was shutting down SOAPnet, effective in 2012. After a failed attempt to give Aisha Tyler a talk show in 2009, ABC restarted auditioning a few pilot shows as candidates for its daytime lineup. At this point, "All My Children" had the lowest ratings so rumors began heating up in March 2011 about the show's demise, with hints that "One Life to Live" was safe for a while longer. However, early in April 2011, rumors suggested that both "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" were in danger of cancellation.

After months of cancellation rumors, ABC announced on April 14, 2011 that "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" would end their runs. ABC cited "extensive research into what today’s daytime viewers want and the changing viewing patterns of the audience." The network stated it was replacing "One Life to Live" with a new production entitled "The Revolution", which would focus on health and lifestyles. While the cancellations of both soap operas were announced on the same day, "One Life to Live" was to remain on the air four months longer because its replacement would not be ready until later. In response to the cancellations, vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hoover withdrew its advertising from all ABC programs out of protest.

The final episode aired on January 13, 2012, with villainess Allison Perkins (Barbara Garrick) narrating her views about the people of Llanview. During the last minutes of the episode, Todd Manning (Howarth) is put under arrest for the murder of twin brother Victor Lord, Jr. (Trevor St. John). The show ends with the discovery that Victor Lord, Jr. is still alive and has been kidnapped by Perkins. Perkins closes the 43-year-old soap opera by throwing the script of "One Life to Live" at Victor saying to him: "But why spoil what happens next. You of all people should know things are rarely what they appear". The decision to conclude "One Life to Live" with an open-ended story is because the serial was supposed to continue on another network at the time the last scenes were taped (see section below).

On the day of the final episode, "The View" hosted a tribute to "One Life to Live" where several actors were invited including Erika Slezak, Robert S. Woods, Robin Strasser, Hillary B. Smith, Kassie DePaiva, James DePaiva, Andrea Evans, Judith Light and the show's creator Agnes Nixon.

The departure of "One Life to Live" ended a 62-year history of daytime television soap operas taped in New York which started in 1950 with the CBS's daytime drama "The First Hundred Years".

The show originally concentrated on the wealthy, WASP Lord family, the less wealthy Siegels (among the first attempts to showcase either an interfaith marriage or Jewish character on daytime television), the middle-class Rileys and Woleks, and the African American Grays. Heiress Victoria Lord and her extended family remained a prime focus until the series ended. Over the years many other families were introduced, most notably the Buchanan and the Cramer families, who intermarried with the Lords and also remained a fixture on "One Life to Live" until its end.

Several actors performed on "One Life to Live" for 20 years or more, including Erika Slezak, Michael Storm, Robert S. Woods, Philip Carey, and Robin Strasser. Actors from the series who went on to greater fame with their prime-time television, feature film or theatre work include Tommy Lee Jones, Al Freeman Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Judith Light, Phylicia Rashad, Blair Underwood, Marcia Cross, Roma Downey, Mario Van Peebles, Jessica Tuck, Ryan Phillippe, Hayden Panettiere, Nathan Fillion, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Tika Sumpter.

In 2002, the popularity of antihero Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) prompted ABC to market a rag doll of the character, complete with his signature scar. First offered for sale on April 29, 2002, the doll was pulled on May 7, 2002, after a backlash begun when "The Jack Myers Report" "harshly criticized the network's judgment" on creating and releasing a doll based on Manning, a character who had notably been convicted of rape in 1993. "The New York Times" later quoted then-ABC President Angela Shapiro stating, "I was insensitive and take total responsibility for it. I should have been sensitive to the history of the character and I wasn't."

Shortly after receiving a March 2005 GLAAD Media Award for its coverage of LGBT issues, "One Life to Live" was met with criticism when married district attorney Daniel Colson (Mark Dobies) was revealed to have murdered two people to cover up the fact that he was secretly gay. GLAAD itself criticized the storyline "for reinforcing the idea that being gay is something to be ashamed of," while "TV Guide" noted "It's hard to disagree with those who say that's a lousy representation of gay folks." Executive Producer Frank Valentini defended the story, saying, "This is a story about the harsher side of intolerance and about one man not being true to himself. There are going to be meaningful, frank discussions that come out of this." Then-head writer Dena Higley explained, "The number one rule of soap opera is never cut drama. Daniel being gay and keeping that a secret is a dramatic story."

In June 2009, actress Patricia Mauceri (a performer on the series since 1995) was replaced in her role as Latin matriarch Carlotta Vega, reportedly after voicing personal religious objections to a planned storyline in which Carlotta would be supportive of a gay relationship.On July 7, 2011, ABC announced that it had licensed the rights to "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" to television, film and music production company Prospect Park, allowing both series to continue producing new first-run episodes beyond the conclusion of their television runs on ABC, with the series moving to a new Hulu-style online channel currently in development by Prospect Park; as a result of the company's acquisition of the two soap operas, "One Life to Live" and "All My Children", would become the first soap operas to transition their first-run broadcasts from traditional television to internet television.

On September 16, 2011, executive producer Frank Valentini was retained by Prospect Park for that serial as well as "All My Children" when both shows would move to The Online Network. On September 28, 2011, Prospect Park confirmed that "One Life to Live" would start on its The Online Network internet channel in January 2012, but without specifying the exact date. On September 30, 2011, it was announced that head writer Ron Carlivati would be also heading to the internet version of the show.

Since the agreement made between ABC and Prospect Park was not limited to internet television and did allowed "One Life to Live" to be broadcast on traditional television, there was an announcement on August 3, 2011 about a possibility of "One Life to Live" airing on a cable channel. On October 5, 2011, the project to bring "One Life to Live" to cable was reiterated in a "New York Times" article, where it was revealed that Prospect Park planned to first air episodes on The Online Network, then make them available on television on demand and, then weeks later, on cable television.

On November 23, 2011, Prospect Park officially suspended its plans to continue the show after its run on ABC.
Reasons given by Prospect Park included funding problems and poor negotiations with the unions representing the cast of "One Life to Live". WGA and AFTRA, which respectively represent the writer and the actors, have expressed disappointment over Prospect Park's decision. Though not one of the reasons given by Prospect Park, "Deadline Hollywood" suggested that the company's lack of success in finding a cable network to carry the show may have been instrumental in the company's decision to not pursue the project.

Despite its fruitless attempt to save the series, Prospect Park had succeeded in retaining 13 actors to sign for the online venture, compared to only two actors for "All My Children". Matriarch actress Erika Slezak (Victoria Lord) was among the 13. The 12 other actors were Melissa Archer (Nathalie Buchanan), Kassie DePaiva (Blair Cramer), Michael Easton (John McBain), Shenell Edmonds (Destiny Evans), Josh Kelly (Cutter Wentworth), Ted King (Tomás Delgado), Florencia Lozano (Tea Delgado), Kelley Missal (Danielle Manning), Sean Ringgold (Shaun Evans), Andrew Trischitta (Jack Manning), Jerry Ver Dorn (Clint Buchanan) and Tuc Watkins (David Vickers).

On January 7, 2013, Prospect Park made an official statement about its plans to restart production of "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" as web series. The two soap operas will serve as anchor shows for The Online Network (Prospect Park's new online channel that was supposed to be launched during the original attempt in 2011). Prospect Park inked deals with SAG-AFTRA and DGA. Prospect
Park confirmed that former coordinating producer, Jennifer Pepperman has signed on as the new executive producer for the web reboot of "One Life to Live". Creator Agnes Nixon will work as consultant for the new web series. On January 13, 2013 it was confirmed that soap opera writers Thom Racina and Susan Bedsow Horgan were named as the new Head Writers of "One Life to Live". On April 9, 2013 it was reported that Horgan citing "personal reasons" has stepped down as co-HW, leaving Racina as OLTL's sole HW.

On January 22, 2013, Prospect Park released a full cast of the reboot of "One Life to Live" who signed on, which include Melissa Archer (Natalie Buchanan), Kassie DePaiva (Blair Cramer), Josh Kelly (Cutter Wentworth), Florencia Lozano (Tea Delgado), Kelley Missal (Danielle Manning), Erika Slezak (Victoria Lord), Hillary B. Smith (Nora Buchanan), Robin Strasser (Dorian Lord), Andrew Trischitta (Jack Manning), Jerry verDorn (Clint Buchanan), Tuc Watkins (David Vickers) and Robert S. Woods (Bo Buchanan). Recurring actors who have signed on are Sean Ringgold (Shaun Evans), Shenaz Treasury (Rama Patel), and Nick Choksi (Vimal Patel)

Production of "One Life to Live" began on February 25, 2013 with taping of new episodes beginning on March 18, 2013. The series premiered on April 29, 2013 at 12PM Eastern The revived "One Life to Live" is a 30-minute program taped in Stamford Connecticut. It is available on Hulu and Hulu Plus as well as various iTunes applications including iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

On May 17, 2013 The Online Network announced that "All My Children" and "One Life To Live" will no longer air five days a week together, due to viewer ratings that have been seen as certain patterns that resemble more closely the typical patterns of online viewing rather than how one would watch traditional television. Starting May 20, 2013 All My Children and One Life To Life will be presented in a new schedule, with AMC airing on Mondays and Wednesdays and OLTL airing Tuesdays and Thursdays. The recap shows "MORE All My Children" and "MORE One Life To Life" will also combine together as one show airing on Fridays. The following day on May 18, 2013, both shows were noticeably missing from the FX Canada website and schedule, and subsequently were available on iTunes Canada, it was later revealed that FX Canada dropped "All My Children" and "One Life To Live" due the reduction of episodes, the carriage agreement called for four episodes a week of both shows. With the reduction, FX Canada has said "the agreement is no longer valid." On May 20, 2013, the first episodes of the new "All My Children" and "One Life To Live" were available worldwide on The Online Network's YouTube page, "TOLNSoaps".

On May 24, 2013 in a press release Prospect Park announced through Agnes Nixon that Racina will be out as head writer of "One Life to Live" and replaced by current script writers Jessica Klein and Marin Gazzaniga.

On June 5, 2013, due to a labor dispute with the I.A.T.S.E. "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" were forced into an early hiatus with the writers, directors and editors still working; there were talks of production being moved out of state, but those plans were later shelved. On June 20, 2013 a deal was reached between Prospect Park and the Union and taping will resume on August 12, 2013. On June 25, 2013, TOLN stated that there will be a scheduling switch for "One Life to Live" and "All My Children". Starting on July 1 (Monday) all episodes of the week for both shows, will be released on Mondays.

Beginning July 15, 2013, "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" aired for a 10-week limited engagement on the Oprah Winfrey Network Monday through Thursday at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM.

"One Life to Live" first-season finale aired on August 19, 2013.

On September 3, 2013, a report from the "Los Angeles Times" stated that "One Life to Live's" second season will be put on hold while Prospect Park deals with its lawsuit against ABC over loaned to "General Hospital's" treatment of "One Life to Live" characters, when they crossed over in 2012. In December 2016 the lawsuit was dismissed, with the rights to the series reverting to ABC.

On December 1, 2011, two weeks after "One Life to Live" finished taping its final scenes, ABC confirmed that former executive producer Frank Valentini and head writer Ron Carlivati would assume the same roles on "General Hospital" effective January 9, 2012.

Several former "One Life to Live" actors - Kassie DePaiva, Roger Howarth, Michael Easton, and Kristen Alderson - moved with Valentini and Carlivati and reprised their characters on "General Hospital". With the exception of DePaiva, all of these actors were eventually put on contract and stayed permanently with the show. On May 9, 2012, Florencia Lozano joined the cast, reprising her "One Life to Live" role of Téa Delgado in a recurring capacity.

On April 18, 2013, after Prospect Park had announced they would be reviving the series, Prospect Park filed a lawsuit against ABC, alleging ABC failed to honor its part of their licensing agreement. Among the issues named in the lawsuits included ABC's alleged attempts to sabotage Prospect Park's revival of the soap by killing off "One Life to Live" characters loaned to "General Hospital" (Cole and Hope Thornhart), failure on ABC's part to consult Prospect Park on storylines involving "One Life to Live" characters (breaking up popular "One Life to Live" couple, John and Natalie to pair Michael Easton's John McBain with former "Port Charles" love interest, Kelly Monaco's Sam Morgan, the death of Tea Delgado's baby and the subsequent switching of her baby with Sam Morgan's live baby, orchestrated by Howarth's Todd Manning), as well as claiming one "One Life to Live" character, Tomas Delgado, was actually "General Hospital" character, Lorenzo Alcazar. Effective immediately, the three "One Life to Live" characters bound to contracts with ABC were to exit the show, and the three actors who played them, Kristen Alderson, Michael Easton and Roger Howarth were rewritten back onto the "General Hospital" canvas playing new characters, while Howarth also crossed his character of Todd back over to "One Life to Live" for its inaugural season.

On September 3, 2013, Prospect Park announced that production of "One Life to Live" would be on hold until their litigation with ABC is settled.

Throughout the show's history, the plot lines of "One Life to Live" have been established as existing in the same fictional universe as other ABC-owned daytime series, in particular Agnes Nixon's "All My Children", which premiered in 1970. As noted from time to time in both series, fictional Pine Valley—the setting of "All My Children"—is located in Pennsylvania near "One Life to Live" Llanview. Over the years, many characters have crossed over from one series to another in both short appearances and extended runs. As early as 1968, "General Hospital" Dr. Steve Hardy appeared in Llanview to consult on Meredith Lord Wolek's blood disease as a means to lead "General Hospital" viewers to the new series; similarly, "One Life to Live" Dr. Larry Wolek visited "All My Children" shortly after its premiere in 1970.

In 1979, when Viki Riley was on trial for the murder of Marco Dane, she was defended by Pine Valley attorney Paul Martin. Two characters that also appeared on "All My Children" are Sadie Gray (Lillian Hayman), when she sang for the wedding of Dr. Frank and Caroline Grant, and Delilah Buchanan (Shelly Burch), when she designed a special dress to be worn by Erica Kane (Susan Lucci).

In 1999, Daytime Emmy Award-winner Linda Dano returned to "One Life to Live" as Gretel Cummings, a character she had previously played on the series from 1978 to 1980. In a 2000 move of network synergy designed to "entice viewers to tune into soap operas that they might not have usually watched," then-President of ABC Daytime Angela Shapiro orchestrated Dano's concurrent appearance as
Gretel on the three other ABC daytime dramas at the time — "All My Children", "General Hospital", and "Port Charles" — in an extended crossover storyline which was the first time a daytime character had ever appeared on four series. Gretel's search for the child she had given up for adoption takes her to "All My Children", where she discovers in 2000 that her own birth mother is Pine Valley's Myrtle Fargate. Following clues to "Port Charles" and "General Hospital", Gretel finally finds her daughter back in Llanview on "One Life to Live": Skye Chandler, herself a former "All My Children" character who had relocated to "One Life to Live" in 1999. Skye's adopted "All My Children" father Adam Chandler appears on "One Life to Live" in 2001, and Gretel initially identifies Skye's biological father as Alan Quartermaine of "General Hospital". Both women subsequently appear on that series, with Skye moving to "General Hospital" full-time in 2001 and Gretel returning to "One Life to Live" until 2004, making some appearances on "General Hospital" later in 2002 and 2003.

A December 30, 2003, visit by "One Life to Live" Paul Cramer to his estranged secret wife Babe Carey on "All My Children" ultimately leads to an extensive 2004 "baby switch" storyline which features crossovers of over 20 characters between the two series. With his sister Kelly desperate for a child to save her marriage after miscarrying her own, Paul finds himself delivering the babies of both Babe and her friend Bianca Montgomery during a rainstorm and subsequent flood in nearby Pine Valley on March 24, 2004. Paul stages a crash with his MEDEVAC helicopter; he takes Babe's son for Kelly, gives Bianca's daughter to Babe, and tells Bianca that her baby had died in the accident. Unaware of the child's origins, Kelly brings Babe's infant back to Llanview, passing him off as her child with her husband Kevin Buchanan. Months later, Babe discovers that her daughter is really the grieving Bianca's, but remains silent and allows Paul to manipulate her. Meanwhile, a devastated Kelly discovers that Paul had stolen her son from his mother and, desperate for cash, he blackmails Kelly by threatening to reveal the secret to Kevin. Bianca's daughter is returned to her for Christmas 2004, and once Kevin learns the truth, he and Kelly return Babe's son as well in 2005.

While "One Life to Live" was off the air from February 2012 to March 2013, the characters of Todd Manning, Starr Manning and John McBain moved to the setting of "General Hospital", Port Charles, New York.

After the Prospect Park lawsuit was dismissed, the character of Nora Buchanan, made appearances on "General Hospital" in 2017.

"One Life to Live" and many of its actors and crew have been nominated for dozens of awards, winning on many occasions. Erika Slezak has received six Daytime Emmy Awards for her acting, a feat tied only by Anthony Geary and Justin Deas.

In 1993, the series won its first GLAAD Media Award for its groundbreaking storyline on homosexuality and intolerance featuring newcomer Ryan Phillippe as Billy Douglas, a teenager who amidst scandal confides his homosexuality in Andrew Carpenter, played by Wortham Krimmer. The story arc also included an on-air ceremony for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. In 2005, the series was awarded another GLAAD Media Award for its coverage of LGBT issues in the 2004 coming out storyline of gay character Mark Solomon (Matt Cavenaugh). "One Life to Live" won the same award again in 2010 for a well-publicized storyline in which police officer Oliver Fish comes out and reunites with his former college boyfriend and medical school student Kyle Lewis.
ABC cemented its reputation as a youth-oriented network in daytime with the addition of "One Life to Live" to its schedule, with much of the rest of its lineup consisting of soap operas like "Dark Shadows," sitcom reruns, and game shows packaged by Chuck Barris. "One Life to Live" replaced the short-lived "The Baby Game," in a three-way shuffle with "Dark Shadows" and "The Dating Game". The network placed the new serial at 3:30 PM EST, against CBS's established hit "The Edge of Night" and the popular NBC game "You Don't Say". Despite the tough competition, the intense tone of the plot and strong characters allowed the show to get a leg up on "You Don't Say," wearing that game down to the point of its cancellation in September 1969; NBC replaced the Tom Kennedy-hosted game in that time slot with three unsuccessful serials: "Bright Promise", "Return to Peyton Place", and "How to Survive a Marriage".

"One Life to Live" enjoyed fair-to-middling ratings in the 1960s, but rose rapidly as it entered the 1970s, along with the rest of ABC's daytime lineup. Matters greatly improved for "One Life to Live" in 1972, when CBS relocated "The Edge of Night" in response to packager Procter and Gamble's demands. The four-year-old show topped the ratings for the first time over CBS' declining "The Secret Storm," and later, the game "Hollywood's Talking," which ran for only 13 weeks.

By 1975, NBC became a serious player in that time slot for the first time in over five years when it expanded its strong soap opera "Another World" to an hour, with its second half occupying the 3:30 timeslot. "One Life to Live" lost a substantial audience share, but its lead-in, "General Hospital," experienced even worse losses. ABC then expanded both "One Life to Live" and "General Hospital" to 45 minutes, with each composing half of a 90-minute block between 2:30 PM and 4 PM. Beginning on July 26, 1976, "One Life to Live" assumed the first position, at 2:30. ABC bet its hopes on viewers staying tuned past the half hour, making them unlikely to switch channels to "Another World" and "All in the Family" reruns on CBS (or "The Match Game" in the case of "General Hospital" fans). This approach showed some promise, until November 7, 1977, when CBS expanded "Guiding Light" to an hour. As "One Life to Live" struggled, its neighbor "General Hospital" was in danger of cancellation after a 15-year run. ABC then expanded "One Life to Live" to an hour on January 16, 1978, in the 2:00 PM timeslot (with "General Hospital" following at 3:00 PM); "The $20,000 Pyramid" was moved to noon for the rest of its ABC run to make room. ABC contemplated an expansion of The Edge of Night to a full hour if either of these shows were cancelled.

"General Hospital" rose rapidly to the top spot in the Nielsen ratings by 1979. As for "One Life to Live," from its tenth birthday onward, its competitors declined in popularity. "Search for Tomorrow," for instance, spent its last several months on CBS against the last half of "One Life to Live". Its replacement, "Capitol", did little better, and after its cancellation, CBS aligned "As the World Turns" against "One Life to Live" and "Another World", a configuration that stayed in place until "Another World"'s cancellation in 1999. The 1980s saw "One Life to Live" reach the height of its popularity, with an estimate of 9 million viewers early in the decade. The show typically ranked between the second and the fourth position in the 1980s.

Since 1991, "One Life to Live" returned to the middle of the pack, but its numbers declined, in common with all other soap operas. By the decade's end, the show rested near the bottom of the ratings pack, and it continued to hover around the lower reaches of the weekly ratings throughout the 2000s in terms of total number of viewers; however, the show tended to rank in the mid-range for the target demographic of women aged 18–49, often higher than sister show "All My Children". During the 2000s (decade), "One Life to Live" ran about even with "As the World Turns", with NBC's "Another World" replacement "Passions" trailing significantly.

The 2009-2010 season was a particularly difficult year for "One Life to Live". During the week of June 28, 2010, the show ranked last among all soap operas with 2.1 million viewers, compared to 2.3 million for "As the World Turns". As "One Life to Live" entered the 2010-2011 season, ratings improved, but not enough to prevent ABC from cancelling the program on April 14, 2011. After the cancellation announcement, "One Life to Live" began to surpass "General Hospital" in total number of viewers, but "General Hospital" continued to dominate "One Life to Live" in several specific categories, most notably the key demographic of women between 18 and 49 years old, usually prioritized by daytime networks. By November 2011, "One Life to Live" had dethroned "General Hospital" in every category. Overall, "One Life to Live" was the third highest rated program among the five remaining soap operas in its last season, trailing "The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beautiful", but ahead of "General Hospital" and "Days of Our Lives". The show averaged 2.6 million viewers on a daily basis during its final weeks. Its final episode on January 13, 2012 drew more than 3.8 millions viewers, one of the highest ratings in the history of soap opera finales.

The "One Life to Live" continuation's ratings proved impressive. The first episode was the second most downloaded TV episode on iTunes and second most watched episode on Hulu, with the first place on both sites going to "All My Children" which premiered the same day.

The show aired on ABC Daytime for the entirety of its original television run.

The show aired on Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes during its revival.

Reruns of the show aired on OWN from July 15, 2013 to September 2013.

SOAPnet aired classic "One Life to Live" episodes at 6:00 am (5:00 am CT/PT), 7:00 am (6:00 am CT/PT), and 8:00 am (7:00 am CT/PT).

Starting July 15, 2013, OWN began a 10 week trial run of both "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" on its daytime lineup. Episodes of "One Life to Live" are broadcast at 1:30 P.M., following "All My Children" which airs at 1:00 P.M., Mondays through Thursdays.

Although it was the only ABC affiliate in the region when it signed on at the time, WTAE-TV also pre-empted and/or delayed a handful of ABC programs, most notably some of its daytime lineup from the 1960s to the late 1990s. WTAE-TV did not begin running "Good Morning America" until December 1978, and only aired an hour of the program until 1980. "One Life to Live" did not run on WTAE-TV from its 1968 debut up until 1978, when the soap opera expanded to an hour-long format. From 1969 to 1971, and again from 1974 to 1979, ABC shows that were not broadcast on channel 4 ended up airing instead on WPGH-TV. After 1980, some of these shows ran on WPTT (channel 22, now WPNT). WTAE-TV also preempted the Sunday morning ABC children's programming block the entire time ABC offered it, as well as a couple of hours of ABC's Saturday morning cartoons until 1979. WTAE-TV ran syndicated cartoons in place of the network-supplied children's programs, while the pre-empted Saturday morning network programs (including "American Bandstand") aired on WPGH during that time.

WTAE-TV

WTAE-TV, virtual channel 4 (UHF digital channel 27), is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It has been owned by the Hearst Television subsidiary of Hearst Communications since the station's inception, making this one of two stations that have been built and signed on by Hearst (the other being WBAL-TV in Baltimore). WTAE's studios are located on Ardmore Boulevard (PA 8) in the suburb of Wilkinsburg (though with a Pittsburgh mailing address), and its transmitter is located in Buena Vista, Pennsylvania. On cable, WTAE is carried on Comcast Xfinity channel 8 (channel 6 in Bethel Park, channel 5 in Monroeville, channel 3 in Greensburg, and channel 4 in some outlying areas) and Verizon FiOS channel 4.

WTAE-TV began broadcasting on September 14, 1958; the station has been Pittsburgh's ABC affiliate since its sign-on. From the beginning, the Hearst Corporation has been involved in the station's ownership. How the station came to be was the result of a long and complicated drama surrounding the awarding of the station's construction permit and ultimate broadcast license.

Although it was the sixth-largest market in the country for most of the early television era, Pittsburgh had only one major commercial television station for close to a decade—DuMont-owned WDTV (channel 2, now KDKA-TV), which signed on in 1949 and carried programs from all four television networks (DuMont, ABC, NBC and CBS). Further development of stations in Pittsburgh was halted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s freeze on license awards, which ran from 1948 until 1952. Even after the freeze was lifted by the FCC's "Sixth Report and Order", the FCC held off on allocating new VHF stations to Pittsburgh in order to give the smaller cities in the Upper Ohio Valley a chance to get on the air. The cities in the Upper Ohio Valley are close enough together that they must share the VHF band.

Several months after the freeze was lifted two UHF stations in Pittsburgh, WENS-TV (channel 16, now WINP-TV) and WKJF-TV (channel 53, now WPGH-TV), went on the air. For reasons that were both technical and financial, both stations were short-lived. Meanwhile, revisions to the VHF allocation table had given the Pittsburgh area three additional channels—4, 11, and 13, the latter reserved for non-commercial educational purposes. The channel 4 frequency on which WTAE-TV began operations during the analog television era was originally allocated to suburban McKeesport, in Allegheny County; other official documents have listed the community of license as Irwin, in Westmoreland County.

Hearings on the channel 4 permit opened in 1955, and it was originally granted by the FCC to the owners of KQV radio in 1956. Hearst, which entered Pittsburgh broadcasting when it purchased WCAE radio (1250 AM, later WTAE [AM] and now WPGP) in 1931, and the other three applicants that lost later petitioned the FCC to re-open the permit hearings following the death of KQV co-owner Irwin D. Wolf. The subsequent reconsideration awarded channel 4 to Hearst. The agency's commissioners were divided on how to break the stalemate to the satisfaction of both winning parties, and suggested a merger between Hearst and the KQV group, who sold their radio station to ABC in order to appease FCC cross-ownership restrictions. Together, both firms became equal partners in Television City, Inc., under which ownership WTAE-TV went on the air. Hearst would purchase the remaining 50 percent of the station in 1962. As such, WTAE-TV is the only Pittsburgh television station affiliated with a major network to have not changed ownership.

Shortly before the station signed on, the FCC moved the channel 4 assignment to Pittsburgh proper following several years of petitioning by then-Pittsburgh mayor (and future Governor of Pennsylvania) David L. Lawrence. However, the FCC had recently changed its rules so that channel 4 could have based its main studio in Pittsburgh, even if it had been licensed in McKeesport or Irwin. The station's original ownership group's connections with powerful U.S. Senator from Florida, George Smathers led to televised U.S. House hearings with both Lawrence and Smathers testifying in 1958. Both were eventually exonerated with Governor Lawrence claiming that in fact it was the city's solicitors office (whose director he appointed) which may have been guilty of any improper influence, with Smathers and Lawrence merely fulfilling their duty to their respective constituents. WTAE-TV was thus short-spaced to other channel 4 stations in Columbus, Ohio; Oak Hill, West Virginia; Buffalo, New York; and Washington, D.C.; the transmitter was located southeast of the city as a result of the move. Shortly after signing on, WTAE-TV was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network, sharing the affiliation with KDKA-TV, WIIC-TV (now WPXI), and WQED.

In the early years, Channel 4 was best known in the market for its locally originated entertainment programming, including popular early program late night movie show "Shock Theatre", which was hosted by former Pittsburgh radio disc jockey Bob Drews, who portrayed Sir Rodger (often misspelled as Sir Roger). "Shock Theatre" featured monster movies such as "The Invisible Man" and "Frankenstein" in-between live-action comedic skits. By the 1970s, WTAE-TV was running a mix of cartoons and sitcoms from 6:30 to 9 a.m., a local talk show, some ABC shows, more cartoons and off-network sitcoms in the afternoon, news and some first run shows in the evening, and ABC prime time programming.

WTAE-TV first adopted the "Circle 4" logo in 1973, eventually adopting the current version in 1995. Due to the design and similar callsigns, the logo has received comparisons to fellow ABC affiliate WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, who has used the "Circle 6" logo since 2011. Aside from the ABC affiliation, the two stations are not related. In 2012, the "Circle 4" logo surpassed KDKA-TV's Group W-era logo that in various forms was used from 1965-2003 for the longest-used station logo on Pittsburgh television.

On April 24, 1980, WTAE-TV personality Nick Perry, who hosted "Bowling for Dollars" and also called the lottery drawings for the Pennsylvania Lottery, fixed the Lottery's daily numbers drawing so that the it would come up as "6-6-6". Perry served jail time, and the drawings were moved to WHP-TV in Harrisburg a year later. This resulted in lotteries now being audited and monitored with "witnesses" from the government and/or accounting firms, and also inspired the movie "Lucky Numbers". KDKA-TV aired the Lottery drawings in the Pittsburgh market after this incident until 2009, when they moved back to WTAE-TV.

In April 1985, WTAE-TV became the only station in the United States to transmit the World Wrestling Federation's "WrestleMania" event free over-the-air, after a technical glitch prematurely ended the event's closed-circuit broadcast from the Civic Arena.
In 1986, WTAE-TV partnered with the Salvation Army and started "Project Bundle Up", an operation to make sure that children and seniors receive warm clothing. WTAE-TV has run the "Project Bundle Up Auction" where local businesses donate products to be auctioned off, and the "Project Bundle Up Telethon", where viewers call in to donate money, businesses donate money and all of the proceeds from the auction and telethon benefit the Salvation Army. In 2007, WTAE-TV moved the auction to the Internet.

In early 2001, Hearst bought Clarksburg, West Virginia-based NBC affiliate WBOY-TV, which has a significant signal overlap with WTAE-TV (a year earlier, the FCC began to allow companies to own television stations with overlapping coverage areas). However, Hearst decided to sell WBOY-TV to West Virginia Media Holdings in September of that year after less than a year of ownership.

In June 2011, a WTAE-TV staff photographer was charged with a sexual crime when an alleged victim stated that the photographer had inappropriate physical contact with her. The photographer arrived in a WTAE-TV news vehicle with station equipment and claimed he was doing an interview, although WTAE-TV management claims that he was not on duty at the time—even though he was using station resources.

At various times, WTAE-TV has also served as the default ABC affiliate for the neighboring Johnstown–Altoona, Wheeling–Steubenville, and Clarksburg–Weston television markets (all of which could receive WTAE-TV as a grade B signal). With WTAE-TV having long been one of ABC's strongest affiliates, both parties reportedly resisted efforts by other television stations in those cities to obtain a full-time ABC affiliation. Since then, one station was eventually granted affiliation in Altoona (WATM-TV), while WBOY-TV in Clarksburg and WTRF-TV in Wheeling began carrying ABC programs through digital subchannel affiliations in August 2008 on WBOY-DT2 (Your ABC) and WTRF-DT3 (ABC Ohio Valley), respectively. WTAE-TV remains available on cable in all three markets. In addition to those areas, WTAE-TV can also be seen on several out-of-market cable systems throughout northwestern and central Pennsylvania, and several locations in eastern and northeast Ohio.

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
On August 3, 2009, WTAE-TV converted its traffic/weather subchannel into a This TV affiliate.

WTAE-TV is among a handful of ABC-affiliated stations and one of four Hearst-owned ABC affiliates (the other three are WCVB-TV in Boston, KMBC-TV in Kansas City and KETV in Omaha) that broadcast their HDTV signals in 1080i rather than the 720p format of most other ABC stations, which allows the station's weather graphics and local advertising (often filmed in 1080i or 1080p) to be carried in a native format without a step of downscaling.

On January 1, 2018, WTAE-TV replaced This on WTAE-DT2 with Cozi TV upon the end of Hearst's carriage agreement with parent Tribune Broadcasting for that network.

WTAE-TV signed on its high definition digital signal on February 1, 1999. WTAE-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 51. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 4.

WTAE-TV operates a 9250-watt digital broadcast translator on channel 22 to cover portions of the northern Pittsburgh area which were unable to receive channel 4's digital signal. WTAE-TV had to wait for WPMY, which had been operating in analog nightlight mode after terminating regular programming on analog UHF channel 22 on the original February 17 deadline, to leave the channel entirely on March 19 before operating it.

WTAE-TV was the first of two Pittsburgh television stations (the other WPXI) to have its newscasts available on the new NewsOn App due in part to its ownership group, Hearst Television, being a founding member of the NewsOn group. According to the NewsOn release: "NewsON is a new venture formed by some of the largest TV station owners in the country to accelerate the availability and discoverability of local newscasts on emerging mobile and connected TV platforms where so much consumer video consumption is shifting."

By the 1980s, WTAE-TV was running many of the top rated off-network syndicated sitcoms from 4 to 6 p.m. By 1990, WTAE-TV was beginning to focus more on news, and in 1992 dropped the entire ABC Saturday morning cartoon lineup for a 4½ hour newscast (which WPXI was also doing, beginning in 1990). WTAE-TV also expanded its midday newscast to an hour and dropped "The Home Show" during 1991. "Loving" was dropped from the daytime lineup in January 1991 and moved to overnights, then dropped from the schedule altogether in 1992. Later in the decade, WTAE-TV also did not carry "Mike and Maty" or "The City". WTAE-TV began carrying "Port Charles" in January 1998, but dropped the show entirely in September 2000, three years shy of its cancellation by ABC, and replaced it with "Judge Hatchett", which itself was replaced by "Access Hollywood" in 2004. Beginning in 1996, WTAE-TV began running two hours of the ABC Saturday cartoon lineup on Sunday mornings, a half-hour on Saturday mornings, and a half-hour at 12:30 p.m. In 1997, the station cut back its Saturday morning newscast to three hours at 7 to 10 a.m. and began running three hours of the ABC children's lineup from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Today, though it still offers a news-intensive schedule, WTAE-TV clears the entire ABC lineup.

WTAE-TV was one of many ABC stations that pre-empted the special showing of "Saving Private Ryan" in late 2004 due to concerns that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would impose a fine on them if they had aired the World War II-set movie due to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy earlier that year. The station, along with other Hearst-owned ABC affiliated stations, aired the 1992 film "Far and Away" instead. Youngstown, Ohio ABC affiliate WYTV still aired "Saving Private Ryan", giving viewers in the northern and western portions of WTAE-TV's viewing area the option of watching the film. It was later determined that the movie's broadcast was not a violation of FCC regulations.WTAE-TV airs the entire ABC lineup. Aside from this and news programming, WTAE-TV's other offerings include "Live with Kelly and Ryan", "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", "Inside Edition", "Entertainment Tonight", and "Steve", among others. Channel 4 has carried "Live!" (and its predecessors) since its national debut in 1988 and "Entertainment Tonight" since 1989. For an ABC affiliate that is owned by a company that does not own a network, WTAE-TV has the local rights to CBS Television Distribution's programs ("ET" and "Inside Edition"), instead of CBS-owned KDKA-TV, which is rare in several television markets where a network O&O would air shows produced by its sister company, since WTAE-TV's parent company had made long-term contract deals for these programs before CBS took over syndication rights.

Owing to parent company Hearst's minority stake in ESPN, Channel 4 has the right of first refusal for "Monday Night Football" games featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers; the station has aired all "MNF" games since the program's inception in 1970, even though the program moved from ABC to ESPN after the 2005 season. The station aired the last NFL game aired on ABC, the Steelers' Super Bowl XL victory in 2006.
The station also aired select Pittsburgh Pirates games via ABC's MLB broadcast contract from 1976 to 1989, including the team's 1979 World Series championship.

On June 1, 2015, WTAE-TV launched a new Lifestyle & Entertainment channel on its Digital Platforms. Known as '4 the 412', the team of video creators and social media commentators are devoted to covering all things fun across the Pittsburgh region including entertainment, food, music, sports, business, start-ups, community events, neighborhood/town cultural identity, and more. They are heavily focused on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and emerging mobile apps. Team members include entrepreneur and speaker Ryan O'Shea, Miss Pennsylvania USA 2016 Elena LaQuatra, and stand-up comedian Missy Moreno. The team has produced an interactive show called '4 the 412 Live' which incorporates celebrity guests, seasonal events, and a viewer engagement segment over social media.

WTAE-TV presently broadcasts 35½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays and Saturdays and 5½ hours on Sundays).

Like its NBC rival, WPXI, Channel 4 was not a major player in terms of news coverage in its early years, as the Pittsburgh market was dominated by KDKA-TV and anchor Bill Burns. That changed, however, in 1969, when longtime KDKA radio-and-TV newscaster Paul Long joined WTAE-TV, along with his KDKA meteorologist-sidekick Joe DeNardo. WTAE-TV was also known for the "legendary" news crew of Paul Long and Don Cannon from the late 1960s into the 1990s.

Sports has also been a major division at WTAE-TV. In 1972, WTAE-TV sportscaster Myron Cope, thanks to a phone call from a local female fan, introduced the phrase "The Immaculate Reception" to describe Franco Harris' miraculous, running shoestring catch that gave the Pittsburgh Steelers a 13–7 playoff victory over the Oakland Raiders (Cope chuckled at the woman's call, and responded, "I'm not sure I can say that!" Cope figured out an innocuous way to introduce the phrase on air, prefacing the remark by saying, "It comes from a good Christian lady.") WTAE-TV and its channel 4 logo was immortalized in the 1979 basketball comedy film "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh", whose fictional sportscaster Murray Sports (played by Harry Shearer) was also patterned after Cope. The last sports director was Andrew Stockey, who left the position in 2006 to become a news anchor. However, in 2011, he returned to head the sports department. Along with Stockey, the sports department consists of Guy Junker, Ryan Recker, and Bill Hillgrove ("Steeler Insider") as of 2013.

In June 1992, the station expanded its news production, adding a Saturday morning newscast from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (matching WPXI's Saturday morning newscast of the then-same length, which began in 1990) and a three-hour Sunday morning newscast. The station also extended its weekday early evening newscast to begin at 5 p.m., and began to air a weekday morning newscast from 5 to 7 a.m. In 1997, the station expanded its Sunday morning newscast by an hour and began to air its Saturday morning newscast from 6 to 10 a.m.

In 2002, Jean Connelly became the first woman from Western Pennsylvania to be inducted into the Pennsylvania Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In doing so, she joined ranks with Paul Long, David Crantz, and Fred Young. Connelly is famous for producing and hosting her own talk show, "The Jean Connelly Show". WTAE-TV unveiled a new set designed by FX Group during the 5 p.m. newscast on September 4, 2007. That year, WTAE-TV debuted a YouTube channel, which features stories featured on channel 4's newscasts. On September 15, 2008, WTAE-TV became the second station in the market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. Field reports continued to be broadcast in standard-definition until September 2011, when field reports began to be broadcast in 16:9 SD.

At the end of 2011, WTAE-TV on-air talent took to both Twitter and Facebook to voice their opinions about unfair treatment by management. The "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" reported that WTAE-TV's on-air staff claimed it was being denied severance benefits for employees fired without cause, a minimum salary scale, overtime pay for work hours totaling more than eight hours a day, retirement benefits equalling those of other employees at the station, and consideration for unscheduled call-outs, split shifts and work on the sixth consecutive day and thereafter. Former general manager Michael Hayes stated that bargaining had been taking place in good faith. An online petition was launched in support of the anchors, reporters, meteorologists, and sportscasters.

On April 28, 2016, WTAE became the third television station in the Pittsburgh DMA to launch a new studio set in Studio B of the WTAE Studios. The design focuses heavily on the use of video monitors, Pittsburgh culture, and HD lighting.

On January 6, 2016, WTAE announced that the station will add a 7 p.m. newscast on subchannel 4.2 beginning February 1. The newscast will be hosted by current weekend morning anchor Jackie Cain and chief meteorologist Mike Harvey. "We understand viewers are constantly looking for news, no matter what time of the day," said WTAE President & General Manager Charles W. Wolfertz III. "Our new 7:00 p.m. newscast will give viewers more options to get news and weather information when they want it. Whether it's on our traditional broadcast station, on-line, or on a mobile device, WTAE Channel 4 is always looking for more ways to make it convenient for our viewers to get the local news and weather that’s important to them."

In June 2013, WTAE-TV announced that longtime anchor Sally Wiggin would host "WTAE Chronicle", a series of hour-long news specials dedicated to in-depth reporting on relevant topics to Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. The format was lifted from Boston sister station WCVB-TV, where their "Chronicle" has been on the air since 1982, albeit in the form of a weeknight, half-hour news-magazine. Wiggin shifted from her role as anchor of WTAE-TV's noon newscast in order to focus on "WTAE Chronicle" and additional station projects. "Chronicle" debuted on WTAE-TV in March 2013, with a report from Vatican City on the election of Pope Francis.

The second edition focused on the importance of "The Point"—the iconic area of downtown Pittsburgh where the three rivers meet.

The third edition of "Chronicle" aired on December 3, 2013 ("Concussions & Our Kids") which focused on brain injuries in youth sports; and the fourth installment aired in March 25 called "Living Like Lou" a special on Pittsburghers with ALS. The original broadcast was accompanied simultaneously with a one-hour telethon to raise funds for ALS assistance; it resulted in over $130,000.00 raised.

A fifth edition debuted on September 15 right after the season premiere of "Dancing with the Stars" called, "Chronicle: The New Pittsburgh". It focused on the rebirth and growth of Pittsburgh in the past twenty years.

The sixth edition was centered on the highly debated topic around fracking or natural gas drilling in Western Pennsylvania. The edition titled "Drilling Down" was the first look at the topic from three perspectives: the drilling companies, the protesters, and the communities impacted by the wells.

The seventh edition called "Chronicle: Taste of the 'Burgh" was aired to massive ratings and focused on Pittsburgh's growing "Foodie" culture, its impact on the local economy, employment, and national attention. It is the highest viewed "Chronicle" to date.

The eighth edition of Chronicle called "Burning Questions" dealt with the ongoing issue in Western Pennsylvania local fire departments failing to meet the national standards for fire response times. It consisted of a four-month-long investigation, laying the foundation for a comprehensive, eye-opening look at the challenges for first responders. This installment of Chronicle examines how volunteers are struggling to make do with a 200-year-old system, putting our communities at risk. It was high-profile installment that opened up discussions with the state, regional, and local leaders to help solve the problem. The ratings for it won the night.

"Chronicle: After War", the ninth installment of the series, examined the life of Western Pennsylvania’s military men, women and their families after the battle has ended. Local combat veterans are now struggling to find jobs while adjusting to family life and their physical disabilities. America's longest war has ended, and a new generation of veterans is transitioning to life at home. The online live video stream was picked up veterans organizations around the country and the highest watched Chronicle to date.

"Chronicle: Dog Stories", the tenth installment of the series, dove into Pittsburgh’s love affair with dogs, from the ones that protect us at home and overseas to the shelter culture here in the 'Burgh. It also looked at the shelter culture in Pittsburgh and how humans and dogs have worked together to form an incredible bond.

All ten were ratings hits in the Pittsburgh television market. All editions are available online at: https://web.archive.org/web/20140408215218/http://www.wtae.com/chronicle

In March 2008, the station won a Freedom of Information Award and an IRE Medal from the Investigative Reporters and Editors for "pushing open the front door" of the state-run student loan agency. In April 2008, that same effort resulted in a Peabody Award for the station, in recognition of "station's relentless legal campaign to obtain public records of a state-run student loan program" which "netted evidence of financial misconduct and pushed the state to rewrite an antiquated right-to-know law."

In April 2012, WTAE-TV was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for "Video Continuing Coverage" of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal.

In February 2013, the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters awarded WTAE-TV the following Awards for Excellence in Broadcasting: Outstanding Television Feature Story/Report/Series, Outstanding Television Breaking News Report, and Outstanding Investigative Report.

In April 2013, WTAE-TV was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for "Reporting: Hard News" for the Downtown Pittsburgh office building hostage crisis.

In September 2013, WTAE-TV received 21 nominations for the 2013 Regional Emmy Awards, the second most nominations among all the television stations in the state. WTAE-TV took home numerous awards in six categories including special coverage of the Vatican elections with Mike Clark.

In March 2014, it was announced that WTAE-TV will be awarded three awards by the Pennsylvania Broadcasters Association: "Outstanding Television Documentary Program" for "Chronicle", "Outstanding Television Public Affairs Program/Series" for "Chronicle", and "Outstanding Television Website" for WTAE.com.

In April 2014, it was announced that WTAE-TV was awarded two Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards by the Radio Television Digital News Association: "Overall Excellence" and "Best Website". WTAE-TV competed against TV stations all across Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey; including two of the largest TV markets in the U.S.: New York City and Philadelphia.

In August 2014, it was announced that WTAE-TV was nominated for 25 Emmy Awards by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the Mid-Atlantic Region. On September 20 at the Emmy Awards Gala, it was confirmed that WTAE-TV won more Emmy awards than any other Western PA television station which included the following awards: Health News (Don't Ask, Don't Research), Health/Environment/Science Program (Chronicle: Living Like Lou), Human Interest (Love Front Porch), Sportscast (Sept 23, 2013 edition), news Anchor (Wendy Bell), Feature Reporter (Wendy Bell), and for Specialty Reporter (Wendy Bell).

On April 23, 2015 it was announced that WTAE-TV was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television along an award for Breaking News (for their national coverage of the Franklin Regional Stabbings) and an award Documentary (for Chronicle: Drilling Down edition). This is the second year in a row that WTAE-TV has been awarded the Overall Excellence award; no other Pittsburgh station has achieved that.

In May 2015, Anchor/Host Sally Wiggin was inducted into the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Wiggin joined an elite group of Commonwealth broadcasters, and four former WTAE inductees, whose distinguished service has made a positive impact on audiences and the industry.

On August 11, 2015 it was announced that WTAE-TV had been honored with 18 Emmy Award nominations by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the Mid-Atlantic Region. These nominations were for coverage such as the Franklin Regional HS Stabbings, Investigative Reports, and the various Chronicle editions. Winners will be announced at the Emmy Awards on September 19, 2015. WTAE-TV was awarded the most Emmy nominations among all the television stations in Pittsburgh region. At the Emmy Awards, the station in September received six awards, the most of any standard television in the state and twice as many as its local competitors: WPXI and KDKA.

In 2016, the station won numerous national awards:

On September 24, 2016 WTAE-TV received four Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, including the Overall Excellence award; the highest honor bestowed each year. Chief Meteorologist Mike Harvey received two Emmys including excellence in weather.

As of October 2013, WTAE-TV launched its new helicopter, carrying over the name "Sky 4". This new aircraft is the most technologically advanced news gathering helicopter in the region; capable of flying higher, faster, and longer than any other news helicopter in the market.

Prior to ABC's cancellations of the former two series in 2011, daily reruns of "All My Children", "One Life to Live" and "General Hospital" aired on the channel in that respective order as they had aired on ABC's daytime schedule. "All My Children" had the most airings on the channel airing four times each weekday, one in the morning and three at night. Rebroadcasts of each soap's episodes for the entire week aired each Saturday and Sunday during the late afternoon and nighttime hours; as of 2012, the network aired the past week's episodes of "Days of our Lives" in Sunday primetime.

Soapnet

Soapnet (stylized as SOAPnet) was an American pay television channel that was owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company.

The network's programming was oriented towards the soap opera genre; on launch, Soapnet carried primetime encores of ABC's current soaps, as well as reruns of classic daytime and primetime soap opera series. Soapnet also broadcast programming related to soap operas, including news and behind the scenes programs. In later years, Soapnet increased its focus on acquired reruns of drama series.

Due in part to a general decline in the soap opera genre as a whole, and the growing adoption of digital video recorders, cable/satellite video on demand, and streaming video options making its primetime soap encores increasingly unnecessary on a traditional linear network, Disney announced in 2010 that Soapnet would be replaced by the new preschool-oriented network Disney Junior, which launched in March 2012. While some providers removed Soapnet upon the launch of Disney Junior, the channel continued to operate, but its operations were wound down. Soapnet signed off on December 31, 2013.

When Soapnet launched on January 20, 2000, the channel aired only current ABC soap operas in the evening and early morning, so that people who were at work or school during the day could watch them at their convenience. Programming was inclusive, as the channel was owned by ABC. Soapnet eventually gained high cable carriage due to Disney's aggressive policy of pulling ABC-owned broadcast stations and the popular ESPN channels from cable providers if they did not agree to carry Soapnet as well. This was the main reason for ABC owned-and-operated station WABC-TV being pulled from Time Warner Cable's New York City system for two days in May 2000.

When Soapnet was announced, Sony Pictures Entertainment planned to launch a competing cable channel and website called SoapCity, which would air all CBS soap operas and the Sony-owned/produced NBC soap "Days of Our Lives". The plans for the SoapCity cable channel were abandoned early in 2000 after Sony failed to secure cable carriage, though the website component remained.

Soapnet's inaugural lineup aired current soaps such as "All My Children", "One Life to Live" and "General Hospital", along with canceled daytime and nighttime soaps such as "Port Charles", "Falcon Crest", "Knots Landing", "The Colbys", "Hotel", "Sisters", and "Ryan's Hope". As the years went on, Soapnet introduced original programming such as "Soap Center" and "Soap Talk;" the latter of which was nominated for several Daytime Emmy Awards, most recently in 2006 for Best Talk Show Host(s). "Soap Center", which debuted on Soapnet's launch day schedule, was initially hosted by former soap stars Brooke Alexander and David Forsyth. They were replaced the following year by Peggy Bunker discussing soaps taped on the East Coast and Tanika Ray discussing West Coast-based soaps. By 2003, Bunker was let go; soon after, the show ceased filming original material.

Other original series included "1 Day With", a half-hour program featuring interviews with soap actors, that was hosted by "General Hospital" actor Wally Kurth; "I Wanna Be a Soap Star", a recurring reality series in which twelve young actors compete for a contract role on a daytime soap; and "Soapography", a 30-minute show profiling the lives and current shows of two different soap opera actors.

In 2002, Soapnet began airing reruns of "Dynasty", and by 2003, the channel added highly requested programming such as reruns of "Another World" and "Dallas"; replacing "Falcon Crest", "The Colbys", "Hotel", and "Sisters". In 2004, Soapnet acquired the rights to broadcast "Days of Our Lives" episodes on a same-day basis. The channel also aired the 1975 to 1981 episodes of "Ryan's Hope", which had not been seen on television since its 1989 cancellation by ABC. At that time, many viewers who did not have Soapnet at its inception petitioned to have the channel broadcast the show from the very beginning. In 2003, the channel aired the first episodes starting on St. Patrick's Day.

In 2004, Soapnet acquired reruns of the short-lived 1980s soap "Paper Dolls". In January 2005, the channel began airing reruns of the Fox dramas "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Melrose Place"; this was followed that spring with the addition of repeats of short-lived nighttime soaps "The Monroes" and "Skin". In July 2005, it picked up the Fox primetime soap "Pasadena", including nine episodes that were not aired during the show's initial run. In February 2006, Soapnet added its first foreign-made soap, the Channel 4/E4 series "Hollyoaks". On March 16, 2006, Soapnet announced that it had acquired the rights to broadcast same-day episodes of "The Young and the Restless", which began airing on Soapnet on April 24, 2006 – making it the first CBS network soap to air on the channel.

Since the channel was a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, it also broadcast events from the annual ABC Super Soap Weekend, which was held every November at Walt Disney World, and each summer at Disney's California Adventure until the event was discontinued in 2010. "Soap Talk" hosts Lisa Rinna and Ty Treadway served as hosts for question and answer sessions at the events, allowing fans to ask questions to their favorite soap stars.

Some viewers complained about what they viewed as an overabundance of prime-time programming on the channel, some of which ("90210" and "Melrose Place") had ended their original broadcast runs only a few years prior and had been repeated in syndication on other networks. These fans also objected to the large amount of new episodes of the ABC lineup and "Days of our Lives", and repeatedly requested rebroadcasts of old daytime soaps such as "Loving", "The Edge of Night", "Santa Barbara", and "Search for Tomorrow".

On February 7, 2007, Soapnet acquired the rights to air reruns of "The O.C." and "One Tree Hill". The syndication deal also gave Soapnet an option to order a fifth season of "One Tree Hill" to air on the channel in the event that The CW chose not to renew the show (this option was never exercised as first-run episodes of "One Tree Hill" remained on The CW until the series ended in 2012).

In November 2007, Deborah Blackwell stepped down as general manager of the channel with then-ABC Daytime president Brian Frons assuming her duties. In August 2008, it was revealed that Soapnet had lost the broadcast rights for both "Dallas" and "Melrose Place"; both shows left the schedule that September.

In 2009, the channel started to further expand its acquired programming; and began airing "Greg Behrendt's Wake Up Call", a program that was originally set to air on ABC during the 2006–07 season. After airing the CBC Television series "MVP" (which was canceled by the CBC due to low ratings) in 2008, Soapnet also acquired the rights for the American broadcast of the Canadian dramedy "Being Erica" (which began in January of that year on the CBC) beginning in February 2009. According to Nielsen Media Research, Soapnet was available to 75,259,000 cable and satellite subscribers in December 2010, an increase of 4 million subscribers from May 2009.

Due to declining viewership in the genre, the Big Three networks had begun to cancel selected soaps and replace them with less-expensive talk show and game show programming, including ABC's "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" (an attempt to license the two soaps to Prospect Park to continue them as internet television series in 2013 was discontinued after a few months due to production and licensing conflicts), which were replaced with the cooking show "The Chew" and the failed lifestyle talk show "The Revolution". The decreasing number of active soaps, as well as the growing adoption of digital video recorders (which made it more convenient to record multiple soaps), negated the need for a linear channel devoted to the genre.

Disney–ABC Television Group head Anne Sweeney solicited pitches for a new concept to replace Soapnet; ABC Daytime pitched two proposals, one under the working title "Carrie" (in reference to Carrie Bradshaw of "Sex and the City"), which was intended to be a "hip and cool" channel targeted at women, and "Disney Moms", which would have featured "[programs] moms would want to watch and their families would watch with them". The staff of Disney Channel also pitched a replacement, the preschool-oriented Disney Junior—which won the approval of Sweeny, much to the dismay of the ABC Daytime staff.

On May 26, 2010, Disney Junior was officially announced as Disney's new preschool-oriented television brand. Replacing Playhouse Disney, Disney Junior would launch as a block on Disney Channel in February 2011, and was to launch a standalone channel to replace SoapNet in January 2012. However, due to issues in reaching carriage deals for the new network, the launch of the Disney Junior channel was delayed from January to an unspecified date in early 2012. Disney Junior's launch date was eventually set to March 23, 2012. However, Disney also stated that SoapNet would "continue to have wide distribution for some time with many distributors choosing to carry both networks until such date as SoapNet fully sunsets". The "Los Angeles Times" stated that some television providers had been hesitant to immediately drop Soapnet, as they "didn't want to risk legions of vocal soap opera fans getting into a lather, or worse, moving to a rival service."

On March 1, 2012, the network's operations were taken over by ABC Family following the dismantling of the ABC Daytime corporate structure under Brian Frons, who had resigned in December 2011. Soapnet was unofficially discontinued on some cable and satellite providers beginning on March 22, 2012, including some Comcast systems, with Disney Junior replacing it in its channel space. Soapnet continued to be carried on providers who had not yet made carriage agreements for Disney Junior (such as Dish Network), as well as for certain providers that retained Soapnet as part of their channel lineups, while also adding Disney Junior as an additional channel (such as Cablevision, DirecTV, Verizon FiOS, RCN. and Time Warner Cable). Same day rebroadcasts of "General Hospital", "Days of our Lives" and "The Young and the Restless" were retained, with repeats of ABC Family programming and reruns of "Veronica Mars" being added to the schedule. The rights to "Veronica Mars" were transferred to Pivot when that network launched in August 2013.

A 1-hour two-week Live Well Network block was broadcast on Soapnet weeknights from 11 PM to 12 AM (ET/PT) starting on July 30, 2012 through Friday, August 10, 2012.

On January 15, 2013, AT&T U-verse reached a new wide-ranging multi-year carriage agreement with Disney for its various broadcast and cable channels, which included the addition of Disney Junior. In April 2013, Soapnet lost the rights to same-day broadcasts of "The Young and the Restless" to TVGN (which CBS Corporation, owner of the show's originating broadcaster CBS, had acquired a 50% ownership stake in the previous month), effective July 1. TVGN eventually picked up "The Bold and the Beautiful" after Soapnet ended, a soap never carried by the network, and both are now carried in high definition on Pop's HD simulcast network, along with eventually, "Days of Our Lives".

In November 2013, Disney announced that Soapnet would end its 13-year run on December 31, 2013. The network's impending discontinuation had been previously reported by several cable providers, including AT&T U-verse, Comcast, Charter and Cox. After an episode of "General Hospital", the network simply faded to black at 11:59 p.m. on December 31, a minute before the new year of 2014.

Prior to the switch to an automated schedule, repeats of current soap operas made up the majority of Soapnet's daily schedule; the channel usually aired daily episodes of network soaps it had carried (the previous weekday's broadcasts airing weekday mornings from 6:00 to 11:00 a.m. ET, along with two same-day evening airings with one block from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. ET and a repeat of the earlier block from 12:00 to 5:00 a.m. ET). With the reduction to two first-run soaps on the schedule, from July 2013 up until Soapnet's cease in production, the timeslots in which same-day/day-behind repeats of the network soaps were reduced, with the two remaining first-run soaps airing on the channel – "Days of Our Lives" and "General Hospital" – airing in repeat blocks from 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. ET.

Due to it being owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns ABC, Soapnet cross-promoted "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" using the tagline "weekdays on ABC and weeknights on SOAPnet" when both shows aired on ABC. The same slogan continued to be used in promotions for "General Hospital" until the week of April 30, 2012 (inclusively). After a three-month hiatus, the "weekdays on ABC and weeknights on SOAPnet" slogan was revived in August 2012, but was used only for "General Hospital" promos airing on Soapnet and not those seen on ABC. References to "Days of our Lives's" first-run airings on NBC (and until it was dropped from Soapnet in July 2013, "The Young and the Restless's" first-run airings on CBS) were not included in the channel's promos, instead only advertising their telecasts on Soapnet.

The channel also aired primetime drama series such as "One Tree Hill", "Gilmore Girls" and "Beverly Hills, 90210" each weekday during the late morning and afternoon hours, and as part of the "Breakfast in Bed" block between 6:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET each weekend. Weekend morning marathons of ABC's cooking show "The Chew" (which had replaced "All My Children" on ABC) aired for a short time in December 2012 before being quickly dropped due to negative viewer reaction.

During the course of its lifetime, the channel occasionally aired past episodes in thematic format, such as "Daytime's Most Unforgettable Weddings", spotlighting the best episodes of popular couples on ABC's soaps. Other thematic episode blocks included the "Sonnylicious!" marathon, featuring select episodes highlighting Maurice Benard's best performances as his "General Hospital" character Sonny Corinthos, and the "Tad the Cad" marathon, with classic 1980s episodes of "All My Children" involving the Michael E. Knight character of Tad Martin's romantic trysts with Liza Colby and her mother, Marian. These kinds of marathons were usually limited to series to which Soapnet has the rebroadcast rights (ABC's soaps, "Days of our Lives" and previously, "The Young and the Restless"). However, in a lead-up to the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards, the channel showed episodes of soaps that showcased performances that garnered award-nominating attention – including those from "Guiding Light" and "As the World Turns" – a first for the channel. Also, during its 13-year existence, the channel aired marathons of its acquired programs; such as on September 3, 2007, when it aired a marathon of "The O.C." called "Summer Spice", showcasting the metamorphosis of Summer Roberts (played by Rachel Bilson) throughout the series.

The network only aired one dramatic series produced exclusively for the network, a prime-time spin-off of "General Hospital" entitled "", which aired for two seasons from July 2007 to October 2008.

This is a list of programs formerly broadcast by Soapnet prior to its cease in production.
NOTE: "Programs broadcast by Soapnet before shutdown."

In late 2008, the network entered into a distribution agreement with Sony Pictures Television to air a package of recent films from the studio's library and some archived content on weekend evenings, along with several 20th Century Fox films and some in ABC and ABC Family's telefilm archive aimed at the network's target audience. The network discontinued airing films on April 30, 2011 as the network's operations began to wind down, with much of its film library migrating to Lifetime Movie Network (which is owned in part by Disney through A&E Networks).