As a seasoned movie critic who has witnessed more holiday specials than I care to count, this latest development regarding the move of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman” from CBS to NBC feels like a classic case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” It’s amusing, in a way, that these timeless holiday classics have been swapping networks since their inception, almost as if they’re playing some unseen reindeer games.
For the upcoming holiday season this year, classic Christmas specials “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman,” which have been airing on CBS for over 50 years since Nixon’s first term as president, will now be broadcast on NBC. As a part of a new multiyear licensing agreement, NBC, owned by Comcast, has obtained the television rights to these cherished Rankin-Bass holiday specials. This announcement follows closely on the heels of Disney securing the rights to another long-standing CBS fixture, the Grammys.
For over five decades, “Frosty” has been a traditional annual broadcast on CBS, debuting in 1969, while “Rudolph” joined CBS’s holiday programming in 1972. However, contrary to its long-standing link with the Eye Network, “Rudolph” initially aired on NBC in 1964 as part of “The General Electric Fantasy Hour.
This year, “Frosty” will make its premiere outside of CBS on NBC a day prior to the debut of “Rudolph”. The broadcast will take place on Thursday, December 5th at 8:30 p.m., and there will be another airing on December 12th at 8 p.m. However, please note that as of now, NBC does not have streaming rights to these specials if you’ve cut the cord. It seems that music rights have kept the shows off subscription digital platforms, but they can still be downloaded digitally. Interestingly, NBCUniversal owns the distribution rights to both specials through DreamWorks Animation. It remains to be seen whether this move to NBC will solve the streaming problem. If you still have a cable login, both “Rudolph” and “Frosty” are part of Freeform’s “25 Days of Christmas” lineup, with multiple broadcasts starting from December 7th.
During the holiday season landscape, NBC’s Yuletide triumph represents an unusual disturbance, as traditions tend to remain consistent for many decades. The main shift occurred in the 1960s when the introduction of Rudolph on NBC prompted CBS to respond with a series of their own future holiday favorites. In 1965, CBS unveiled A Charlie Brown Christmas, followed by Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 1966 and Frosty in 1969. In 1972, CBS seized Rudolph from NBC, giving them a long-standing dominance over the most popular holiday classics. However, this dominance ended in 2001 when A Charlie Brown Christmas (alongside other Peanuts specials) moved to ABC, where they resided until 2020, when Apple TV+ claimed them. With Rudolph and Frosty now gone, the only significant 1960s holiday classic still in CBS’s library is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Another Rankin-Bass production, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, will air on ABC on Tuesday, December 3, but unfortunately, it will be in an adult-unfriendly time slot of 9 PM.
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2024-11-01 22:54