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Debra Duncan's popular Houston morning show is being developed jointly by ABC station KTRK-TV and BVTV for possible national syndication. |
 Rosie
O'Donnell's hit afternoon talk show has been renewed for four more
years by the ABC-owned stations. |
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| Dylan McDermott and Lara Flynn Boyle head the cast of The Practice, which garnered the Emmy for best Drama of 1997–98. | Oprah
remains one of the highest rated syndicated talk shows on the air. |
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Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford returned for the 11th season of their popular morning show. |
Monday Night Football's 29th season on ABC found the show among the top ten most watched shows on TV. |
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| Toon Disney,
Disney's all-animation channel, was launched in April. |
ESPN, the flagship network, reaches more than 75 million homes. With the NFL, coverage of the McGwire-Sosa home run chase and SportsCenter, ESPN ended the fiscal year with its best quarterly ratings in five years.
In 60 months, ESPN2 was introduced into 61 million homes, reflecting faster growth than that of any other cable network. ESPN Classic reaches 15 million households, and ESPNEWS grew to reach 10 million homes.
ESPN Regional Television is the leading syndicator of college sports programming. ESPN International, serving more than 150 million households outside the U.S. in 20 languages, signed major multi-year programming agreements with Spanish League Football, the NBA, NFL and NHL. The X Games brand was extended overseas with two qualifier events staged in Thailand and Brazil. ESPN Taiwan was launched with customized programming and Mandarin and Taiwanese commentary.
ESPN Radio expanded to 24 hours, with ABC Radio's recent purchase of WMVP (now ESPN Radio 1000) in Chicago as its flagship station.
ESPN.com was redesigned, providing enhanced navigation to ESPN affiliate services NFL.com, NBA.com, WNBA.com and NASCAR.com. It remains the most popular sports site on the Internet.
In addition to the company's wholly owned Disney Channel and Toon Disney, ABC has significant partnerships in other non-sports cable ventures. ABC owns 50 percent of Lifetime Television and holds significant minority positions in A&E Network, the History Channel and E! Entertainment Television.
| Rolie Polie Olie is one of the original programming highlights exclusive to the Disney Channel. |
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Designed for kids and families, the Disney Channel celebrated its 15th anniversary in April, serving nearly 43 million households (both pay and expanded basic) with its commercial-free offerings. The Disney Channel is now the second-highest-rated cable network on a total-day basis and one of the five highest-rated cable networks on a prime-time basis.
In 1998, the channel expanded its slate of original programming with the debut of kids' shows such as Bug Juice, Rolie Polie Olie and The Famous Jett Jackson, along with kids' and family prime-time fare Brink!, Disney's Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, The American Teacher Awards and 'N Sync in Concert. Movies were also featured, with The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Air Bud having premiered during the year.
