No Viewers.

Premiering in April 1961 as a summer replacement series, ABC's Wide World of Sports later became the first year-round weekly sports series on network television. Choosing to show sporting events that were uncommon for television at the time — auto racing at Le Mans, soccer in Great Britain, track in the Soviet Union — ABC's Wide World of Sports was an immediate critical success that attracted little or no viewer support in its first season.

Arledge.

The man behind the show was executive producer Roone Arledge, who had joined ABC Sports as a field producer of NCAA Football in 1960. This assignment gave Arledge the idea of a "sports potpourri" to fill the network void when college football games were blacked out locally. ABC brass responded positively to the idea because, although initially the sporting events were to be taped and...