King World Productions, Inc was a production company and syndicator of television programming in the United States independently established in 1964 until acquired by CBS in 1999, with its eventual 2007 incorporation into CBS Television Distribution.
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In 1984 King World formed an ad-sales barter division called Camelot Entertainment Sales.
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Later that year president Robert King World left the company to form The Television Program Source; a television syndication company that was founded as a joint venture between King World, Alan Bennett, and Columbia Pictures Television.
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King World purchased television and film distributor Leo A Gutman, Inc whose titles included the theatricals Joan of Arc, Anna Karenina and the Sherlock Holmes and East Side Kids series; and two 1960s television westerns, Branded and The Guns of Will Sonnett.
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In 1986, King World signed Oprah Winfrey to a syndication deal and agreed to distribute her Chicago-based daytime talk program nationally, resulting in the premiere of The Oprah Winfrey Show in September of that year.
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King World ended up selling the station to LIN TV Corporation in 1994.
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King World had virtually no debt and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues after going public.
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Television stations that broadcast King World programming had first choice on any series King World offered to distribute.
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On November 25,1991, King World acquired the Hollywood Squares format rights from Orion Pictures after Orion closed down its television division.
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In 1996, King World began co-distributing Geraldo with Tribune Entertainment, and would continue co-distributing the show until its cancellation in 1998.
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On September 28,1998, King World acquired the worldwide leasing rights to the solo-developed game shows by Merrill Heatter Productions for a limited time.
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CBS Enterprises was bought by Viacom, Inc around the time of CBS's acquisition of King World, thus becoming owned by the post-split CBS Corporation as well as all of Viacom's former TV production and distribution operations.
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King World distributed newer CBS shows such as Everybody Loves Raymond while the older shows were syndicated by corporate affiliate CBS Paramount Television, the successor to the original distributor Viacom Enterprises.
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Additionally, from 2000 to 2006, King World distributed archive programs from Group W, such as The Mike Douglas Show.
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Roger King World was announced as CEO of the new entity and retained that position until suffering a stroke on December 7,2007, and dying the next day.
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King World was responsible for the highest rated shows in syndication for over two decades.
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King World turned part of its attention to producing in-house newsmagazines including American Journal and Inside Edition.
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