The 700 Club

The 700 Club
The 700 Club intertitle
Genre	Religious broadcasting
Starring	Pat Robertson (1966-1987, 1988-present) Kristi Watts (1989-present) Terry Meeuwsen (1993-present) Lee Webb (1993-present) Gordon P. Robertson (1996-present)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Production location	Virginia Beach, Virginia
Running time	60 minutes
Original release
Network	Syndicated (1966-present) CBN Cable/The Family Channel/Fox Family/ABC Family (1977-Present)
Release	April 1, 1966 – Present

The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom (one male and one female) will host on any given day. Lee Webb serves as the CBN News anchorman. The live broadcast and past episodes are available on the official website.

Previous co-hosts over the years included Ben Kinchlow (1975–88, 1992–96), Sheila Walsh (1988–92), Danuta Rylko Soderman (1983–87), and Lisa Ryan. Tim Robertson served as host for a year from 1987-88 along with Kinchlow and actress Susan Howard while his father ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States in the 1988 campaign.

The show presents news stories from Robertson's religious and political perspective, often biasedly relating stories to passages from the Bible which are generally followed by commentary from the hosts. Celebrities and other guests are interviewed about religious views. The news segments frequently emphasize an apocalyptic eschatology. The style of news reporting on the show has been criticized by many as unfairly biased in favor of religious ideology rather than presenting objective news.

Religious lifestyle issues are presented from distinct Pentecostal/charismatic ideological viewpoints. Robertson is a Southern Baptist and was an ordained minister with that denomination from 1961 until he surrendered his credentials in 1987 to prepare for his failed presidential bid in 1988.

In 2009, it became the first Christian television program to be televised in high definition.

History

1960s

In 1961, Robertson bought the license for WTOV, channel 27 in Portsmouth, Virginia. It had gone off the air five years earlier due to poor viewership. The station returned in October as WYAH, broadcasting twelve hours of Christian programming to the Hampton Roads market each day.

In 1962, the station suffered financially and almost closed. To keep the station on the air, WYAH decided to produce a special telethon edition of the show. For the telethon, Robertson set a goal of 700 members each contributing $10 a month, which was enough to support the station. Robertson referred to these members as the '700 Club' and the name stuck. The telethon was successful and is still held annually.

After the 1962 telethon, The 700 Club continued as a two hour a day local show. It consisted of a lot of music, preaching, group prayer, bible study, and some talk. The show started out as a Christian variety program. The music was hymns, instrumental pieces, southern gospel music, and urban gospel music. The show was run two or three times a day.

In addition, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker started on the channel in 1964 as hosts of a children's show, Come On Over. It consisted of prayer and bible stories aimed at children. The show also featured puppet shows and Davey and Goliath reruns. They also began hosting their own adult Christian talk show. Their Come On Over Show, much to their dismay, added Bugs Bunny and Casper cartoons and Little Rascals reruns into the mix, in 1967, but the show itself expanded to two hours. At that point WYAH went from being non commercial to commercial and added several hours of secular shows to its schedule. The Bakkers disagreed with the direction their show and the station overall was taking. By 1970, their shows were each cut to thirty minutes. The secular cartoons then aired as their own shows in a weekday afternoon block. Finally, the couple left WYAH in 1972 to join the Trinity Broadcasting Network where they developed the PTL Club. They soon left TBN as well to begin their own show taking the PTL Club name and inspirational channel. The PTL club began to be syndicated in 1975. In 1972, when the Bakkers left, some staffers at the station reportedly responded by destroying Bakkers' sets and puppets.

Robertson evolved his 700 Club by cutting back on music and preaching and heading toward the talk show format developed by Bakker (though without the puppets) and transformed the 700 Club from a nightly religious themed telethon to a religious talk show (still with some music). At this point some Contemporary Christian Music artists visited the show as well.

While the organization was named the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), The 700 Club only aired on WYAH, as well as its sister stations in Atlanta (WANX) and Dallas (KXTX). The stations, including WYAH had mostly content similar to a general entertainment station (cartoons, Sitcoms, westerns, old movies), but with four to six hours a day of religious shows, including The 700 Club which aired three times a day.

1970s

In 1974, The 700 Club entered national syndication, airing on stations such as WPIX in New York City, KTLA in Los Angeles, WPHL-TV in Philadelphia, and WDCA in Washington, D.C., among others. The roster of stations carrying the program grew to over 100 markets by 1976. In some markets, the show aired on multiple stations, choosing between either the full 90-minute version or the edited 60-minute version.

In 1977, The 700 Club got on the air nationally on the newly launched Christian Broadcasting Network Cable Channel. That station only ran Christian programming 24 hours a day 7 days a week and ran no general entertainment, unlike CBN's broadcast stations.

Between 1978 and 1980, talk about current political issues became a part of the program. News segments were added in the first 20 minutes of the show. The 700 Club clearly endorsed a politically conservative agenda as the "Religious Right" movement was now becoming part of the CBN agenda. This had influence in the 1980 presidential election as well as congressional elections. The 700 Club continues to discuss current events from a conservative viewpoint to this day.

1980s

In 1980, The CBN UHF stations began Sunday commercial operation from about 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. While these stations were predominantly secular programs on weekdays and Saturdays, Sundays were non commercial and only consisted of Christian programs prior to this time. The next year, CBN Cable added 15 hours a day of secular programming. While the CBN stations consisted of cartoons, sitcoms, and some recent off network fare, the CBN cable network consisted of health shows, pre 1965 sitcoms, westerns, old game shows, and family dramas. The 700 Club itself evolved to more of a magazine format rather than a talk/variety show. By 1983, The 700 Club had the same format it has today.

Later in the 1980s the UHF CBN stations were sold separately. During this period The 700 Club continued to air on CBN Cable as well as many commercial secular stations and Christian stations nationally. In 1987, the syndicated 700 Club was cut back to an hour, which it is today. Also, Trinity Broadcasting Network added The 700 Club to their schedule on weekdays at 3 p.m. that fall. The 700 Club still airs there at that time today.

1990s-present

CBN Cable became known as The Family Channel in 1988. That network added more cartoons and family sitcoms in the 1990s. The Family Channel was sold to News Corporation in 1998, becoming Fox Family. The 700 Club continued its three time a day airings. Fox Family was sold to Disney in 2001 and at that time became ABC Family.

The 700 Club now airs on ABC Family, part of a contractual obligation originally made as part of the Family Channel's sale to News Corp.

International versions of The 700 Club are Club 700 Hoy, broadcast in Latin America, and The 700 Club With Paul and Fiona, in Great Britain. Begun in October 2004, the latter is co-hosted by Paul Jones and Fiona Hendley Jones.

The Pat Robertson version also airs in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Revelation TV, Genesis TV, GOD TV, God Europe, Loveworld TV, Gospel Channel, OBE TV and KICC TV.

The 700 Club strongly supports Israel, especially in its disagreements with the Palestinians and the U.N. Among its frequent Jewish guests are Michael Medved and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who share its conservative Judeo-Christian beliefs.

The 700 Club Asia

The 700 Club
Genre	Religious broadcasting
Created by	CBN Asia
Directed by	Derrek Adapon
Starring	Peter Kairuz Coney Reyes Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan Kata Inocencio Felichi Pangilinan-Buizon Alex Tinsay
Country of origin	Philippines
Original languages	Filipino English
No. of episodes	(list of episodes)
Production
Camera setup	multi-camera set-up
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	GMA Network
Release	1995 – Present

An Asian edition of the show, The 700 Club Asia, originally premiered in the Philippines in the mid-1990s on GMA 7. It was originally produced and hosted by Pat Robertson's son, Gordon Robertson, and co-hosted by broadcaster Mari Kaimo, and Philippine TV personality Coney Reyes.

In 1998, Reyes took over as host and producer of the show, with Tricia Amper Jimenez as co-host. When Reyes left the show in 2000 for medical reasons, it was retooled as The Club, hosted by Jimenez, Peter Kairuz and Carla Martinez.

In 2001, the show reverted to its old format and moved to ABS-CBN (a network unrelated to Pat Robertson's CBN), where it aired on its sister station, Studio 23. Kairuz remained as host with veteran singer Maria Teresa "Dulce" Llamedo-Cruz and TV personality Chat Silayan-Bailon (1959–2006), who later died of colon cancer.

In 2006, the show moved to GMA's sister station, QTV 11. Kairuz still hosts the show, with Reyes returning to co-host. The show also features Kata Inocencio, Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan, Alex Tinsay and Felichi Pangilinan-Buizon.

The 700 Club in India

An Indian Hindi edition of The 700 Club, named Ek Nayee Zindagi, airs daily at 6:30 am and 1 am (repeat) on Star Plus.

Controversy

Main article: Pat Robertson controversies

The 700 Club has occasionally been the subject of controversy due to statements made on the show by Pat Robertson. Often, controversy centers on subjects of homosexuality. The LGBT community has expressed concern over the comments made on his show, fearing that it will provoke a violent reaction from potentially unstable individuals. Scott Roeder, who murdered the abortion doctor George Tiller on May 31, 2009, claimed that his murderous thoughts were influenced by discussions of religion and abortion on The 700 Club.

Immediately after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Pat Robertson said that it was "what happened when people make a deal with the Devil."

Following September 11, 2001, Pat Robertson claimed that the terrorist attacks were God's punishment for the America's loose morals.

He also said publicly that Hurricane Katrina was a result of God's anger about abortion.

The U.S. National Better Business Bureau says of the Christian Broadcasting Network and 700 Club: "...unable to verify the organization's compliance with 5 of the 20 Standards for Charity Accountability" ABC family also puts a banner before the show saying "The following program does not reflect to veiws of ABC family", likely because of the controversy.

External links

• The 700 Club Official Website
• The 700 Club Official Website for UK & Europe
• The 700 Club at Trinity Broadcasting Network
• The 700 Club at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com